Margaret Henderson Margaret Henderson i(A4068 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Review of Lohrey by Julieanne Lamond Margaret Henderson , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 2 May vol. 38 no. 1 2023;

— Review of Lohrey Julieanne Lamond , 2022 selected work essay

'From her first novel, The Morality of Gentlemen (1984), Amanda Lohrey represented a unique, intriguing, and necessary voice in Australian literature. As Julieanne Lamond’s study Lohrey traces, she was both part of but distinct from the 1980s boom in Australian women’s writing and has gone on to produce a diverse oeuvre of novels, short stories, journalism, and nonfiction that captures late twentieth and early twenty-first century Australian life – texts that ‘chronicle the forces that shape intimate and social experience in the contemporary world’ (Lamond 1). Surprisingly, Lohrey’s work has received comparatively scant critical attention, with much of it focused on the controversial pulping of The Reading Group in 1989, making this first monograph on Lohrey a welcome and much needed addition to Australian literary studies and studies of contemporary women writers.' (Introduction)

1 Reviewing Kathy Acker : The Reception History of a Belated Woman Writer Margaret Henderson , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Hecate , vol. 47 no. 1/2 2021; (p. 32-50)
'The American punk experimental writer, Kathy Acker, is generally assumed to be an important, if controversial, late-twentieth-century woman writer associated with a feminist politics. An examination of her early reception history, however, tells a surprisingly different story of Acker’s literary location. By examining reviews of Acker’s work in the feminist and the mainstream press, and scholarly accounts in feminist and non-feminist publications up to around 1989, we observe Acker’s relatively marginal position in the rapidly developing sub-discipline of feminist literary studies, and a continuing interest in her work by the mainstream. Acker as a belated woman writer for feminism thereby offers a micro-history of the categories of “the woman writer” and “contemporary women’s writing.” (Publication abstract)
1 Of Witches and Monsters, the Filth and the Fury : Two Australian Women’s Post-Punk Autobiographies Margaret Henderson , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;

'By performing a feminist textual analysis of these two autobiographies, I examine the nature of the intersections between the putative liberations for women afforded by punk and post-punk music, and autobiography as a textual performance of the self. In addition, a reading of these autobiographies enables me to address questions of national context. I argue that, in an echo of Julian Temple’s ferocious documentary of the Sex Pistols, The Filth and the Fury, the characteristically punk thematics of filth and fury enable these autobiographies to narrate the narrators’ rejection of, and consequent sense of monstrosity in relation to, conventional Australian femininity and the rock industry. Filth, in terms of abject and excessive elements, personae, and processes characterising the punk self, and fury, as this subject’s central type of affect, are means to articulate the making and unmaking of the female musician’s self as monstrous. Analogous to their stage work, Amphlett’s and Horne’s textual selves recruit and exploit a typically masculine set of codes to perform a novel subject of music: the female post-punk singer. Both Amphlett and Horne thereby write in a fraught space—an industry just starting to admit women in less conventional terms—to write a liminal self: one partly created by myths—some self-created, others externally imposed.'

1 Manifesting Australian Literary Feminisms : Nexus and Faultlines Ann Vickery , Margaret Henderson , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 31 no. 1 2016; (p. 13)
'The article offers information on literary feminisms in Australia. Topics discussed include understanding of gender in the twenty-first century from early binaristic frameworks of feminine and masculine, roundtable discussion on the existing state and future of literary feminisms as discussed in a roundtable hosted by the "Publication of the Modern Languages Association (PMLA)," and issues related to rewriting of Australian literary history.' (Publication abstract)
1 Retrovisioning Chicko Roles : Puberty Blues as Postfeminist Television Adaptation and the Feminization of the 1970s Margaret Henderson , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum , vol. 30 no. 3 2016; (p. 326-335)

"A recurrent theme in the studies of postfeminist adaptations of popular second wave feminist texts is the diminution at best, or gutting, at worst, of feminist politics in the contemporary remakes. This essay explores whether a similar process occurs in the 2012–2013 television adaptation of the Australian proto-feminist classic, Puberty Blues or whether a more productive relationship between feminism and postfeminism can occur. The television adaptation of Puberty Blues is an ideal text with which to examine Australian postfeminist adaptation, given that its source text is one of the earliest examples of Australian popular feminism, and a rare example of a text associated with Australian second wave feminism being remade. In contrast to many postfeminist adaptations in which feminism is contained, I demonstrate that Puberty Blues expands its popular feminist gaze from surf culture to Australian culture more broadly. Its careful retrovisioning – in both senses of looking back and using retro style – of the Australian 1970s feminizes a crucial era of the nation, and hence criticises a number of semi- dormant Australian cultural mythologies. As a result, it offers a fictional history lesson on the necessity of the Australian women’s movement. And it thus, disturbs postfeminist times with its comforting assumption that women’s inequality has been (smoothly) resolved and women are therefore fully integrated into the nation."

Source: Abstract

1 Review : Revolutionaries: Intertextuality and Subversion Margaret Henderson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 5 2014;

— Review of Poetic Revolutionaries : Intertextuality and Subversion Marion Campbell , 2014 multi chapter work criticism
1 Pornography in the Service of Lesbians : The Case of Wicked Women and Slit Magazines Margaret Henderson , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 2 no. 2 2013; (p. 159-182)
'This article analyses the Australian lesbian sex magazines, Wicked Women (1988-1996) and Slit (2002-) to examine the nature and shape of Australian lesbian pornography magazines, and hence to explore the ways in which these publications put pornography in the service of lesbians. I outline the conditions of these magazines' emergence, and then discuss the representational strategies of each, including imagery, layout, tropes and narratives. These magazines and their changing modes of making lesbian porn, show the development of a lesbian porn aesthetic. Further, they offer a unique sight of the discursive construction of lesbian identities and communities across more than three decades, and reveal another facet of the troubled relationship between feminism and lesbians.' (Author's abstract 159)
1 A Clelbratory Feminist Aesthetics in Postfeminist Times : Screening Australian Women's Liberation in Paper Giants – The Birth of Cleo Margaret Henderson , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Feminist Studies , vol. 28 no. 77 2013; (p. 250-262)
'In 2011, something surprising happened in terms of Australian feminist cultural memory: a celebratory feminism arrived in the shape of the hugely popular ABC television mini-series, Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. Eschewing dour social realism for a stylish and ludic narrative, Paper Giants uses the story of the women's magazine Cleo to tell the story of Australian women's liberation. This essay analyses the components of the mini-series' celebratory feminist aesthetics, examining the ways in which it mobilises feminist tropes to speak an intelligible feminist language in postfeminist times. Further, I detail how women's liberation becomes central to the national historical narrative underpinning the programme.' (Publication abstract)
1 Archiving the Feminist Self : Reflections on the Personal Papers of Merle Thornton Margaret Henderson , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Archives and Manuscripts , vol. 41 no. 2 2013; (p. 91-104)
'Over the last couple of decades, the modern Australian women’s movement has been the subject of history, which includes the creation of feminist archives in various locations This essay analyses one particular collection – the personal papers of the feminist activist, Merle Thornton – as an account of the making and meaning of a feminist archive. I wish to explore the ways in which the feminist subject impacts on the archive. Accordingly, I analyse the archival process, as well as the contents of Thornton’s personal papers. What emerge are the difficulties of negotiating the public–private divide for this feminist activist.' (Publication abstract)
1 Untitled Margaret Henderson , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Feminist Studies , September vol. 26 no. 69 2011; (p. 380-382)

— Review of Trouble : Evolution of a Radical : Selected Writings 1970-2010 Kate Jennings , 2010 selected work essay poetry prose
1 Memoirs of Our Nervous Illness : The Queensland Police Special Branch Files of Carole Ferrier as Political Auto/Biography Margaret Henderson , Alexandra Winter , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , December vol. 6 no. 3 2009; (p. 349-367)
'In this essay we make use of one example of the security police file - the Queensland Police Special Branch file of the Australian socialist-feminist activist and English literature academic, Carol Ferrier - to explore just how security agencies tried to understand and record the life of a socialist-feminist in the 1970s and 1980s. That is, what did they make of this radically new form of politics and political subjectivity? In this article we position the secret police dossier as a form of political biography, and hence expand the forms and subject matter typically included within the genre. We argue that not only can the Special Branch file be read as a form of biography of Carole Ferrier, but also as an unwitting autobiographical text of the Special Branch.'
1 Imagining Activist Times in the Historical Novel Margaret Henderson , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Marking Feminist Times : Remembering the Longest Revolution in Australia 2006; (p. 95-129)
1 The Road to Liberation : Autobiography Makes and Remakes the Activist Self Margaret Henderson , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Marking Feminist Times : Remembering the Longest Revolution in Australia 2006; (p. 59-93)
1 4 y separately published work icon Marking Feminist Times : Remembering the Longest Revolution in Australia Margaret Henderson , Berlin : Peter Lang , 2006 Z1335026 2006 multi chapter work criticism
1 Australian Feminism and Cultural Critique, circa 2002 Margaret Henderson , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , June - August no. 26 2002;

— Review of How Simone de Beauvoir Died in Australia Sylvia Lawson , 2002 selected work short story essay criticism
1 The Novel of Good Intentions Margaret Henderson , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 13 no. 2 2002;

— Review of Faith Singer Rosie Scott , 2001 single work novel
1 [Review] The Gauche Intruder : Freud, Lacan and the White Australian Fantasy Margaret Henderson , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 20 no. 3 2002; (p. 276-278)

— Review of The Gauche Intruder : Freud, Lacan and the White Australian Fantasy Jennifer Rutherford , 2000 single work criticism
1 The Tidiest Revolution : Regulative Feminist Autobiography and the De-Facement of the Australian Women's Movement Margaret Henderson , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 20 no. 3 2002; (p. 178-191)
Discusses the representation of feminist activism in some contemporary women's autobiographies, focussing on Susan Ryan's Catching the Waves (1999), Wendy McCarthy's Don't Fence Me In (2000), and Anne Summer's Ducks on the Pond (1999). The article concludes with a ficto-critical piece of experimental autobiography, a 'brief, episodic, fragmentary autograph of soundtracks and wordtracks'.
1 Untitled Margaret Henderson , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Aumla , May no. 95 2001; (p. 133-135)

— Review of Shameful Autobiographies : Shame in Contemporary Australian Autobiographies and Culture Rosamund Dalziell , 1999 single work criticism biography
1 [Review Essay] Real Relations : The Feminist Politics of Form in Australian Fiction Margaret Henderson , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , April vol. 32 no. 116 2001; (p. 162-163)

— Review of Real Relations : The Feminist Politics of Form in Australian Fiction Susan Lever , 2000 selected work criticism
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