Richard Freadman Richard Freadman i(A26314 works by)
Born: Established: 1951 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Richard Freadman has been Professor of English in the School of Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry (English Program) at La Trobe University and Director of the Unit for Studies in Biography and Autobiography. He is a graduate of Brandeis and Oxford Universities. During the 1980s, Freadman taught at the University of Western Australia. He also served a three-year secondment at Lingnan University, Hong Kong (2007-2009).

Freadman's areas of research include the English and American novel, ethics, literary theory, biography and autobiography and he has published widely in this field.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon This Crazy Thing a Life : Australian Jewish Autobiography Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2007 Z1428800 2007 selected work criticism

'Jews have been in Australia since the First Fleet. They have come from many lands; some in relative comfort, others in utter destitution. Their stories of survival, arrival, adaptation and participation constitute one of multicultural Australia's great ethnic narratives. Australian Jews have written about three hundred book-length autobiographies. Richard Freadman's remarkable This Crazy Thing a Life: Australian Jewish Autobiography is the first ever comprehensive study of this large, varied and fascinating body of work.

The autobiographies range from humble self-published monographs to acclaimed narratives by professional writers like Lily Brett, Jacob Rosenberg and Arnold Zable. Freadman offers superbly nuanced readings of major works. He also surveys the field as a whole, tracing demographic trends, recurrent themes, the impact of the Holocaust, and issues of gender, genre, testimony, truth-telling and literary value. There are accessible discussions of humanist and postmodern approaches to Holocaust memoir, migrant narrative and ethnic minority writing, together with background information about Judaism and the Australian Jewish diaspora. The final section of the book is an anthology of short excerpts featuring both renowned and lesser-known writers.

Written for a general audience, this rich and impassioned book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Australian Jewish lives, and of Australian lives more generally.' -- Cover blurb.

2009 shortlisted ASAL Awards Walter McRae Russell Award
2008 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Literary Scholarship
Last amended 10 Mar 2015 16:17:40
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