Margaret Harris Margaret Harris i(A30773 works by)
Born: Established: 1942 ;
Gender: Female
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1 Literary Sources of Patrick White’s Voss : A House Is Built and Think of Stephen Margaret Harris , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 2 May vol. 38 no. 1 2023;

'Many literary sources have been suggested for Patrick White’s fifth novel, Voss, ranging from the surreal symbolism of Rimbaud’s poetry, to T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. White himself explicitly acknowledged the influence of two works by Australian women writers in his depiction of colonial society: Ruth Bedford’s family history, Think of Stephen: A Family Chronicle (1954), and M. Barnard Eldershaw’s prizewinning novel A House is Built (1929). Bedford, a granddaughter of Sir Alfred Stephen, Chief Justice of New South Wales from 1844 to 1873, drew on family papers to give a detailed account of the social life of the elite of Sydney from the 1840s to 1880s, commenting on the demands of household management on the women as well as describing picnics, balls, and dinners. Barnard Eldershaw absorbed references to historical events such as the gold rushes and Sydney landmarks like the convict-built Barracks and St Andrew’s Cathedral into their novel. They provide ample detail of architecture, furniture, and clothing in descriptions of the social and domestic life of the Hyde family and associates: sewing, paying formal calls, hosting dinners, concert- and theatregoing. There are resemblances with Voss’s Bonner family, including structural similarities in the contrast of the two principal female characters and their fates. This discussion traces the influence of these works of Bedford and Barnard Eldershaw in Voss.' (Publication abstract)   

1 Patrick White’s Studies for Voss Margaret Harris , Elizabeth Webby , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 30 September vol. 37 no. 2 2022;

'One of Patrick White’s working notebooks, acquired by the National Library of Australia in 2006, is almost exclusively devoted to material related to his breakthrough novel Voss (1957), which marks a new departure in his career. It is a historical novel set in Australia’s colonial period, though with thematic connections to White’s earlier works. Close attention to Notebook 5 shows how extensively White researched its historical background and how he absorbed that research, sometimes transposing details verbatim into Voss. While certain material deals with Ludwig Leichhardt and his expeditions into the interior (for example Daniel Bunce’s Travels with Dr Leichhardt in Australia [1859] and Alec H. Chisholm’s Strange New World [1941]), it is apparent that White is more interested in details of Leichhardt’s various journeys than in debates about the man himself. He read other explorers, notably Edward John Eyre, and settlers of whom John Dunmore Lang is prominent, his notes revealing a particular interest in Aboriginal people. A second strand of White’s research informs those sections of Voss set in Sydney in the 1840s, and a third involves theological and philosophical speculations about the nature of faith that are reflected in the musings of Laura Trevelyan and others. In addition, there are fragments of draft of both Voss and Riders in the Chariot (1961), indicating that White was already incubating the later novel as he was completing Voss. It appears too that he undertook major restructuring of Voss at a late stage.' (Introduction)

1 George Meredith, Governesses, Neckties, and Friends : New Meredith Letters Margaret Harris , Wes Rogers , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies , vol. 24 no. 1 2020; (p. 1-14)
'George Meredith (1828-1909), novelist and poet, is noted for his views on the entitlement of women to equality with men, yet his behaviour as father to Marie Eveleen (Mariette) shows him as extremely protective of her – a characteristic contradiction. For a period of about nine months, Madame Susan Ponsard (née Fetherstonhaugh, 1834-1917) was employed as Mariette’s governess. At first enthusiastic about Madame’s suitability for the job, Meredith found her too exuberant and dispensed with her services after she became ill, though their relationship continued to be cordial. Two of the three new letters published here are addressed to Madame, the other to one of her four sisters. They have an erotic metaphorical undercurrent, treating with the traditional association of love and death. Further, the letters give access to Meredith’s circle of friends, among whom all five of the Fetherstonhaugh sisters figured, most prominently Frances Jane (1839-1924, first married to Albert Sitwell, then to Sidney Colvin). The Fetherstonhaugh family migrated to Australia in the 1850s –father, mother, three sons and five daughters. All the daughters eventually made their way back to Europe, where various connections with Meredith were made. These relationships constitute one of his few associations with Australia.' (Publication abstract)
1 The Genealogy of Wanting Margaret Harris , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Richard Flanagan : Critical Essays 2018; (p. 135-153)
1 Major Authors : Christina Stead, Patrick White, David Malouf Margaret Harris , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Oxford History of the Novel in English : The Novel in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the South Pacific Since 1950 2017; (p. 253-268)

'Focus on the Australianness of the novelists discussed in this chapter has occluded other perspectives on their achievements, and I propose to enlist them under a modernist flag...'(Introduction)

1 Introduction Margaret Harris , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: The Salzburg Tales 2016;
1 Introduction Margaret Harris , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Beauties and Furies 2016;
1 Christina Stead’s Student Publications Christina Stead , Margaret Harris (editor), 2016 selected work poetry short story prose
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 8 December vol. 31 no. 6 2016;

'This selection of Christina Stead's student publications was edited by Margaret Harris to accompany her essay, 'Christina Stead's Earliest Publications.''

Source: Abstract.

1 Christina Stead’s Earliest Publications Margaret Harris , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 8 December vol. 31 no. 6 2016;

'Christina Stead composed her own story of how she came to be published, moving from recollections of childhood precocity to the much repeated anecdotes of her employer Wilhelm Blech (Bill Blake) recognising the power of a draft of Seven Poor Men of Sydney in 1928, and in 1931 the publisher Peter Davies (‘Peter Pan’) agreeing to publish her. Deductions about her earliest writings are frequently made from those of her fictional heroines Louisa Pollit in The Man Who Loved Children (1940) and Teresa Hawkins in For Love Alone (1944). Stead’s earliest known publications appeared in the magazines of her high school and the teacher training college she attended. Some of them are newly identified in my discussion, while those previously known have received only glancing attention. This article discusses these publications, in both poetry and prose, together with her editorial work during her student days in Sydney; and proposes a qualification to the view put by the biographer Hazel Rowley that Stead as a student was a withdrawn outsider. The supplementary collection, ‘Christina Stead’s Student Publications’, provides a document of record by reprinting a story, poems and occasional pieces from those formative student years.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Guide to the Classics : Christina Stead’s The Beauties and Furies Margaret Harris , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 26 September 2016;
'From the beginning Christina Stead’s fiction divided critical opinion, and reactions to The Beauties and Furies, her second novel, were no exception. Where some saw “garrulous pretentiousness”, Clifton Fadiman in the New Yorker found “such streaming imagination, such tireless wit, such intellectual virtuosity” that Stead must be recognised as “the most extraordinary woman novelist produced by the English-speaking race since Virginia Woolf”. ...'
1 The Evidence of the Archive Margaret Harris , Elizabeth Webby , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Patrick White beyond the Grave : New Critical Perspectives 2015; (p. 17-34)

'Harris and Webby give an overview of the newly discovered notebooks and manuscripts enhanced by their long experience researching White's writing, and their thorough examination of the 'new' collection's breadth and scope.' (Introduction 7)

1 Patrick White’s Children : Juvenile Portraits in Happy Valley and The Hanging Garden Elizabeth Webby , Margaret Harris , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Patrick White Centenary : The Legacy of a Prodigal Son 2014; (p. 269-279)
'Elizabeth Webby and Margaret Harris, at present collaborating in a major research project on the archive of White papers held at the National Library in Canberra, elucidate a delicate theme that has hardly drawn commentary from White critics before - White’s empathetic and sensitive portrayal of children in his novels. An additional interest derives from their drawing on their privileged access to unpublished material. Interesting links are traced between White’s first novel Happy Valley (1939) and his last (posthumously published) A Hanging Garden (2012).' (From Introduction, xix)
1 Patrick White and Film Elizabeth Webby , Margaret Harris , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 13 no. 2 2013;
'2011 saw the release of The Eye of the Storm, the first adaptation to the screen of one of Patrick White’s novels. There had been earlier attempts, in particular the long-running saga of Voss, seemingly as doomed to failure as the explorer’s own quest. White’s interest in the theatre was paralleled by his interest in film; he knew that adaptations could boost an author’s reputation and sales. Manuscripts in the National Library of Australia’s White papers reveal that he wrote adaptations of several of his short stories as early as 1963. He did not manage to sell any of these but collaboration with director Jim Sharman in the 1970s led to the production of White’s screenplay of his story ‘The Night, the Prowler’. Inspired by this, White wrote several original screenplays that were never filmed. ‘Monkey Puzzle’, intended as a full-length film, sends up the Australian literary scene as well as Australian films of the period. The shorter 'Kidults' also includes a parody of the film version of My Brilliant Career. (Author's abstract)
1 Ripe for Rediscovery Margaret Harris , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 335 2011; (p. 26-27)
Margaret Harris champions 'the recent reissuing of "writer's writer" Christina Stead's transnational novel The Man Who Loved Children'. In particular, Harris focuses on Jonathan Franzen's interest in the novel and his introduction to the 2011 Miegunyah Modern Library edition.
1 Patrick White's Papers Margaret Harris , Elizabeth Webby , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December 2010 - January 2011 no. 327 2010; (p. 62-64)
Margaret Harris and Elizabeth Webby explore some of the ways in which the Patrick White collection at the National Library of Australia may be used to 'provoke re-reading of White. At once they [White's papers] extend the canon of White's work, and variously illuminate current perceptions of, and perspectives on, his achievement.'
1 Professing Australian Literature : The Webby Way Margaret Harris , 2007 single work biography
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 67 no. 1-2 2007; (p. 8-13)
Margaret Harris reflects on Elizabeth Webby's career and her retirement from the Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney.
1 A Journal Abroad: November 18: Autumn in the Hills Christina Stead , Margaret Harris (editor), 2006 single work diary
— Appears in: Confessions and Memoirs : National Anthology of New Australian Writing 2006; (p. 227-233)
1 Leafing Through Our Times Margaret Harris , 2006 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 12 August 2006; (p. 21)

— Review of Paper Empires : A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005 2006 anthology criticism
1 Mr Crowfoot Christina Stead , 2005 single work autobiography travel
— Appears in: Travellers' Tales : Best Stories Under the Sun, Volume 2 2005; (p. 28-34)
1 8 y separately published work icon Dearest Munx : The Letters of Christina Stead and William J. Blake Christina Stead , William J. Blake , Margaret Harris (editor), Carlton : Miegunyah Press , 2005 Z1208611 2005 selected work correspondence
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