Jo Jones Jo Jones i(A116404 works by) (a.k.a. Joanne Jones)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Post-Mabo Dreaming and Yuramiru’s European Explorations : Rodney Hall’s The Lonely Traveller by Night Paul Genoni , Jo Jones , 2024 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , 4 November vol. 23 no. 2 2024;

'Rodney Hall’s seven book fictional account of European imperialism and Australia spans some 260 years, from 120 years before settlement/invasion, to some 140 years after. The writing of the heptalogy occupied Hall for approximately 15 years; it was commenced in the prelude to the 1988 Bicentenary, encompassed the years of Mabo and Wik, and concluded at the end of the century. Publication spanned 1988-2000.

'This paper focuses on The Lonely Traveller by Night—the second book in the heptalogy’s historical chronology. Hall wrote the Lonely Traveller by Night in 1994 in the wake of Mabo, and after three decades of intense personal activism in support of Indigenous rights. The book tells the story of Yuramiru, an indigenous man from Ikara/Wilpena Pound. Yuramiru is first encountered being sold as a curiosity in Venice in 1667, before becoming embroiled in the military and existential tussle between Venetian and Ottoman empires.

'This paper reads Hall’s representation of Yuramiru as a bold counter-narrative challenging fundamental moral and ethical principles that underpinned the clash of civilisations as European empires came to terms with the southern continent and its Indigenous inhabitants. Published at a time when ‘first contact’ novels were rife in Australian literature (Hall had already written his own as part of the heptalogy with The Second Bridegroom (1991)) The Lonely Traveller by Night presents an audacious inversion of ‘first contact’, which is powerfully effective as literature and—in the context of Mabo—groundbreaking as polemic.' (Publication abstract)

1 Australian Regional Literary History : Rethinking Limits and Boundaries Brigid Magner , Emily Potter , Jo Jones , Tony Hughes-d'Aeth , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , 10 August vol. 23 no. 1 2023;

'This paper emerges from a panel discussion at the ‘Texts and Their Limits’ conference (2021) between four scholars in the field of Australian regional literary history to consider its current concerns, practices and relationship to the frameworks of Australian literary studies. The panel flagged a renewal of regional literary scholarship in Australia through exploration of the panelists’ own projects and collaborations in regional and rural Victorian and Western Australian communities. Drawing on their reflections on the doing of regional literary history, the conversation canvassed the distinct qualities of contemporary regional Australian literary scholarship; the role of place, situated practice and community engagement in this field; and the implications for the regional literary studies of the always unsettled boundaries and status of the ‘region’ in Australian life.  Following the original panel event, this paper discusses questions such as: what is regional literary history, where is it going, and what are limits? ' (Publication abstract)

1 Event Horizon i "Curled in primal gums,", Jo Jones , 2021 single work poetry
— Appears in: Meniscus , vol. 9 no. 2 2021; (p. 148)
Author's note: Inspired by Monique Tippett’s 2021 works Pyre (Jarrah and Wandoo Sleepers, inks and gold leaf) and Karrakin Series (silky oak synthetic polymers, charcoal, ink lacquers and gold leaf on board).

This poem is in three numbered parts.

1 Creek Dreams Jo Jones , 2021 single work prose
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 66 no. 1 2021; (p. 183-187)
1 Coda Jo Jones , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Falling Backwards : Australian Historical Fiction and The History Wars 2018; (p. 251-257)

1. Refusing to be Silent 

While the early 1990's saw the Mabo and Wik land rights decisions and the mid-1990s the release of the groundbreaking Bringing them Home Report, the years that followed have brought little of what might be termed 'progress' in terms of racial equality. The twelve years of the Howard government (1996-2007) must be mentioned within this context as it is from this period that the most virulent expressions of racism and social conservatism emerged. This was partly to do with the conservative policies of the coalition and partly to do with an increasingly volatile global political climate. Considerable damage was done to the intellectual and cultural life of Australia during this time. After the wave of optimism following Rudd's election and the apology to Indigenous Australians, there has been a disappointing lack of practical action...' (Introduction)

1 Rodney Hall's Captivity Captive and Narrating the Gothic : Beneath Modernity Jo Jones , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Falling Backwards : Australian Historical Fiction and The History Wars 2018; (p. 195-226)
'According to a website containing collected photos of 'ghost orbs' - paranormal energy somehow captured through the act of photographing - the site of the Gatton Murders is a powerful centre of ghost activity, Unsolved murders, a tantalisingly close but ungraspable truth. Reality is in perception - how we see things. An orb. An eye.' (Introduction)
1 The Heart-Land : History, Possibility and the Romantic Poetic in Kim Scott's Benang Jo Jones , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Falling Backwards : Australian Historical Fiction and The History Wars 2018; (p. 160-194)
1 Kate Grenville's Colonial Novels : An Ethics of Expansion and Return Jo Jones , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Falling Backwards : Australian Historical Fiction and The History Wars 2018; (p. 80-133)
1 5 y separately published work icon Falling Backwards : Australian Historical Fiction and The History Wars Jo Jones , Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2018 14523219 2018 multi chapter work criticism

'Some stories are hard to tell. During a period known as the Australian History Wars, consideration of the national past was vexed, contested territory. There was marked vitriol – to an unprecedented extent – in public debate about the “reality” and interpretation of the events of colonisation. This study investigates the output of novelists who were brave enough to contribute to this vital cultural moment and the issues of politics and form they attempted to negotiate.

'This book deals with the publically-waged debate over the suitability of novelists to render authoritative versions of significant events or periods as its starting point. From there, however, it delves deeper into the politics of form, analysing the connection between the realist modes of traditional, empiricist histories and the various explorations of the colonial past that have been figured through different historical novels. The forms of these novels range from classic realism to frontier Gothic, various Romanticisms, magical realism, and reflexive post-modernism.

'The relative formal freedoms offered through historical novels, when compared to conventional history writing offer the chance to confront the past in all of its contradiction and complexity. The terrain of the postmodern and historical sublime — of loss and uncertainly — is one in which historical fiction can perform an important political and ethical role. The immeasurably vast space which lies beyond history, that space of those who are often unrepresented, often victims, often silent, is an abyss into which fiction, particularly historical fiction, is able imaginatively and ethically to descend.'  (Publication summary)

1 From Benang to Taboo, Kim Scott Memorialises Events We Don’t Want to Remember Jo Jones , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 24 August 2018;

'Over the past three decades the Miles Franklin shortlists have contained a healthy serve of history, from the poised historical fiction of authors such as David Malouf and Roger McDonald, to the past-in-present fabulations of Alexis Wright and Richard Flanagan. Another is Kim Scott, twice winner of the award, and part of the current shortlist with his most recent novel Taboo.'  (Introduction)

1 2 y separately published work icon Required Reading : Literature in Australian Schools since 1945 Tim Dolin (editor), Jo Jones (editor), Patricia Dowsett (editor), Clayton : Monash University Publishing , 2017 11969366 2017 anthology criticism

'Required Reading examines for the first time what students have read and studied in the disciplines of English and literary studies at Australian schools and universities after 1945. On the basis of this primary evidence, the authors challenge enduring myths of curriculum history, the history of literary studies, critical theory, and cultural studies. They fill out the picture of how students were encouraged to read: when, where, and in which particular pedagogical and wider social and historical contexts. They relate dramatic changes to curriculum frameworks and syllabi, teaching and learning methods, social and cultural values and assumptions, and the academic discipline of literary studies itself. Required Reading shows, finally, how flawed assumptions about the nature and history of English and Literature have, since the 1980s, obstructed the advancement of knowledge within both fields of scholarly endeavour. Contributors include: Tim Dolin, Joanne Jones, Patricia Dowsett, John Yiannakis, Ian Reid, Jacqueline Manuel, Don Carter, Wayne Sawyer, Larissa McLean Davies, Brenton Doecke, Prue Gill, Terry Hayes, Jenny de Reuck, Susan K Martin, Tully Barnett, Kate Douglas, Alice Healy-Ingram, Georgina Arnott, and Claire Jones.' (Publication summary)

1 Feeling through Form : Kim Scott’s ‘Benang’ and the Romantic Poetic Jo Jones , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 61 no. 2 2016; (p. 96-108)
'Some stories are hard to tell. Kim Scott has dedicated much of the past two decades to enabling difficult acts of telling. This includes his two Miles Franklin winning novels Benang (1998) and That Deadman Dance (2010)....(Introduction)
1 Re-Viewing History : Bicentennial Fictions Jo Jones , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 447-483)
1 Literary Futures, Disciplinary Pasts and Pedagogical Frames : A Western Australian Perspective Jo Jones , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 333-351)
1 The Historiographer's Gift : Greenwood and Lessac's Ned Kelly and the Green Sash Jo Jones , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Interpretations , July vol. 43 no. 2010; (p. 56-57)

— Review of Ned Kelly and the Green Sash Mark Greenwood , 2010 single work picture book
1 Meet Philip Mead : Professor Philip Mead talks to Interpretations Jo Jones (interviewer), 2010 single work interview
— Appears in: Interpretations , July vol. 43 no. 2010; (p. 4-7)
1 History and the Novel : Refusing to Be Silent Jo Jones , 2010 single work essay
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 55 no. 2 2010; (p. 36-52)
Argues that Australian historical fiction is important in considering the progress of Aboriginal-white relations.
1 Ambivalence, Absence and Loss in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon Jo Jones , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 24 no. 2 2009; (p. 69-82) Interpretations , July vol. 43 no. 2010; (p. 43-52) Falling Backwards : Australian Historical Fiction and The History Wars 2018; (p. 134-159)
'In this essay I aim to acknowledge the efficacy of the liberal humanist discourse in Remembering Babylon, whilst interrogating some of its more problematic aspects. In particular, I want to examine the implications of the notion of "shared suffering" by discussing Malouf's representation of non-indigenous trauma' (70).
1 Travelling from Hong Kong Airport Jo Jones , 2009 single work short story
— Appears in: Indigo , Summer no. 3 2009; (p. 123-127)
1 'Dancing the Old Enlightenment' : Gould's Book of Fish, the Historical Novel and the Postmodern Sublime Jo Jones , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2008; (p. 114-129) Falling Backwards : Australian Historical Fiction and The History Wars 2018; (p. 50-79)
'The strategy that I wish to explore in this analysis of Gould's Book of Fish is the postmodern experimental narrativisation of the colonial past applied to a political critique of the national present. More specifically, through interpreting the novel through Lyotard's discussion of the postmodern sublime and a theory of bodily experience, it is possible to argue that Flanagan employs a postmodern aesthetic as a type of immanent critique in which the postmodern dialectic can be read as an extension of Enlightenment thinking. In the novel the past is shifting and, at least in a positivistic sense, ultimately irretrievable. This signals the notion of history as the postmodern sublime - a space of irretrievable loss and unfulfilled desire at the edges of the margins of history. While history and the colonial past shift and change in the novel, the representations of bodily experience anchor Flanagan's novel in the recognition that real lives, often individual and collective suffering, often motivate postmodern critiques.' (Author's abstract)
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