Belinda McKay Belinda McKay i(A59357 works by)
Gender: Female
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1 The Art of Living: Vance Palmer and Eleanor Dark on the Sunshine Coast Belinda McKay , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , December vol. 24 no. 2 2017; (p. 202-214)

Vance Palmer's The Passage (1930) and Eleanor Dark's Lantana Lane (1959) bracket the period during which the narrow coastal strip north of Brisbane from the Pumicestone Passage to the Noosa River was being transformed economically and culturally into what we know today as the Sunshine Coast. In the 1920s and 1950s respectively, Palmer and Dark participated in changing the region, and as established writers they reflected upon that metamorphosis in literary works that reached a national audience at a time when Brisbane's near north coast was off the beaten track for professional writers. But for millennia prior to colonisation, this area had sustained a vibrant economy and culture centred on bunyas from the mountains and seafood from the coast. By the late nineteenth century, this vast economic and cultural network had been radically disrupted by the incursions of timber-getters and pastoralists, and many of the traditional owners who had survived the frontier wars had been removed. While the inscription of a new identity on the region in the twentieth century was driven by the real estate speculators who coined the name ‘Sunshine Coast’, Palmer in The Passage and Dark in Lantana Lane share a more cooperative, sustainable, egalitarian and anti-imperialist vision for the region, with some indirect and ambiguous debts to its Aboriginal past.

1 Proleptic Modernism? A Reconsideration of the Literature of Colonial Queensland Belinda McKay , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , vol. 23 no. 2 2016; (p. 116-132)
'Susan Stanford Friedman argues that modernisms are multiple, polycentric and recurrent. This article takes up her invitation to focus on the circulation of people and ideas that connected modernisms from different parts of the planet by reconsidering two moments in the literature of colonial Queensland as instances of proleptic modernism. The publications of Policy and Passion by Rosa Praed in 1881 in London, and of the ‘The Red Snake’ by Francis Adams in 1888 in Brisbane encapsulate early manifestations of the cultural unease and destabilisation that drove the development of modernism/s as the expressive domain of modernity/ies. Striking thematic and stylistic parallels with the work of canonical modernists — HD in the case of Praed, and Conrad in the case of Adams — suggest not only that modernism began to manifest itself in Anglophone culture much earlier than is generally conceded, but also that the cognitive dissonance generated by the colonial experience was centrally implicated in its development.' (Publication abstract)
1 ‘What's in a Name?’ The Mystery of Ellerton Gay Belinda McKay , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , June vol. 21 no. 1 2014; (p. 49-61)

Serendipity has always played a role in research, and today the availability of digitised newspapers through Trove offers new opportunities for chance discoveries. A couple of years ago, Glenn R. Cooke — then Research Curator of Queensland Heritage at the Queensland Art Gallery — referred me to a snippet from The Queenslander of 15 October 1892, where the Melbourne correspondent writes:

My attention was recently drawn to ‘Drifting’, a novel by a Queensland lady who uses the nom de plume of ‘Ellerton Gay.’ She lived, I believe, for eighteen years in Toowoomba, and is the wife of Mr. J. Watts-Grimes, who is well known in squatting circles. She has lived in England six years, and there she has embalmed her memories of the Queensland which is so dear to her. ‘Drifting’ is much admired here.

‘What's in a name?’ asks the title of one of Ellerton Gay's short stories. The pseudonym, which was evidently an open secret in her lifetime, has subsequently obscured ‘Ellerton Gay’ and her creator, Emma Watts Grimes, from the view of literary historians: Patrick Buckridge and I, for example, overlooked her in our historical survey of literature in Queensland, By the book (2007). Until very recently, the AustLit Database listed her as male, with no further biographical details, and — despite its recent facsimile republication of her novel, Drifting under the Southern Cross (1890) — the British Library fails to make the link between Ellerton Gay and Emma Watts Grimes in its catalogue entry. The reissue of this novel, justifiably ‘much admired’ in its own time, suggests that its elusive author is worth a reappraisal. Since Ellerton Gay's oeuvre draws extensively on the lived experience of Emma Watts Grimes and her extended family, this article provides a biographical sketch before discussing the fictional works.' (Publication abstract)

1 Editorial Kay Ferres , Belinda McKay , 2014 single work essay
— Appears in: Queensland Review , June vol. 21 no. 1 2014; (p. 1-3)
1 Remaking an ‘Old Tradition's Magic’ : The Irish Strain in Early Queensland Writing Belinda McKay , Patrick Buckridge , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , June vol. 20 no. 1 2013; (p. 110-125)

'The themes of cultural dislocation and the struggle to feel ‘at home’ in a new land figure prominently in Australian literature, and considerable critical attention has been devoted to the distinctive articulations of these preoccupations by well-known writers of Irish birth or descent, such as Victor Daley, Bernard O'Dowd and John O'Brien. Queensland's Irish writers, however, have been largely forgotten or overlooked — both individually and as a group.' (Publication summary)

1 Living in the End Time : Ecstasy and Apocalypse in the work of H.D. and Janette Turner Hospital Belinda McKay , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , vol. 17 no. 2 2010; (p. 75-87)
'This article exploresthe thematic and culural connections between the work of American-born modernist poet and novelist H.D. (1886-1961) and the Australian-born postmodern novelist Janett Turner Hospital (born 1972). It suggests that the transnational phenomenon of ecstatic Protestantism, which originated in northern Europe and was disseminated widely around the globe along the channels of commerce and colonisation, has been a key influence in shaping the literary imaginations of these writers. Indeed, Protestantism - far from being a spent or reactive force - continues to generate new forms of modernity as its emphasis on transformation is exported from somewhat inward-looking religious communities into broader cultural domains.' Belinda Mckay.
1 Narrating Colonial Queensland : Francis Adams, Frank Jardine and 'The Red Snake' Belinda McKay , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , vol. 15 no. 1 2008; (p. 97-109)
1 Introduction : By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland Patrick Buckridge , Belinda McKay , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007; (p. 1-10; notes 323)
1 'Where the Pelican Builds': Writing in the West Robin Trotter , Belinda McKay , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007; (p. 185-209; notes 345-349)
1 Natural Imaginings: The Literature of the Hinterland Belinda McKay , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007; (p. 92-110; ; notes 334-336)
1 12 y separately published work icon By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland Patrick Buckridge (editor), Belinda McKay (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2007 Z1392518 2007 anthology criticism

'Queensland is known in the Australian imagination as the frontier, a place of barren land and wild politics – and, conversely, as Australia's playground, with its sub-tropical weather, beaches and natural wonders. It's a place that has long had an image of difference to the rest of the country, both within and without its borders, an image based in the reality of a different sense of distance, a different apprehension of time, different architecture.'

'By the Book presents a wide-ranging history of the literature of Queensland from European settlement to the present day, a period of immense change for this state. The state is broken up into geographic regions, with each chapter building a rich sense of the regional specificity of its literary culture.'

'Thematic chapters are also included, covering travel writing, writing for children, and indigenous writing. By the Book also covers the role of institutions such as schools, public libraries, the press and publishers in shaping the writing and reading of books in Queensland.' (Source: ABC shop website)

1 Finding Voice : Emily Coungeau and 'Australia's National Hymn of Progress' Belinda McKay , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , vol. 13 no. 2 2006; (p. 13-33)
'Coungeau's life story is of interest on several different levels. Her remaking of herself in Queensland from lady's companion and parlour maid into successful businesswoman, poet and patron of the arts demonstrates the transformative possibilities for women of migration to the colonies. Her involvement in commerce and culture over many decades also sheds light on Brisbane life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Finally, Coungeau is of interest because her articulation of an urban, cosmopolitan, female aesthetic in her writing relies heavily on notions of race and culture that are discredited today' (author's abstract).
1 1 Imagining the Hinterland : Literary Representations of Southeast Queensland Beyond the Brisbane Line Belinda McKay , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , vol. 12 no. 1 2005; (p. 59-73)
'Southeast Queensland - the region encompassing Coolangatta and the McPherson Range to the south, Cooloola and the Blackall Range to the north, and the Great Dividing Range to the west - represents one of Queensland's most significant literary landscapes. For millennia, this area - defined by mountains and waterways - contained important gathering places for ceremonies and trade, and its inhabitants elaborated the meaning of the landscape in a rich complex of stories and other cultural practices such as the bunya festivals. Colonisation disrupted but did not obliterate these cultural associations, which remain alive in the oral traditions of local Aboriginal people and, in more recent times, have surfaced in the work of writers like Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Sam Watson.' (Introduction)
1 'A Lovely Land ... by Shadows Dark Untainted'? : Whiteness and Early Queensland Women's Writing Belinda McKay , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Whitening Race : Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism 2004; (p. 148-163)
'This chapter looks at the formative but largely forgotten years of white women's writing, from the establishment of the colony of Queensland in 1859 until 1937, the year in which the assimilation policy was adopted across Australia.' Whitening Race (2004) p. 148
1 Transformative Moments : An Interview with Janette Turner Hospital Belinda McKay (interviewer), 2004 single work interview (taught in 1 units)
— Appears in: Queensland Review , December vol. 11 no. 2 2004; (p. 1-10)
'Janette Turner Hospital is the author of eight novels, four collections of short stories, a novella published only in French, and a crime thriller under the pseudonym Alex Juniper. Her work has been published in 20 countries, and in 12 languages other than English. She is the recipient of a number of overseas literary awards, and both Griffith University (in 1996) and the University of Queensland (in 2003) have conferred honorary doctorates upon her. In 2003 she won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Fiction Book for her most recent novel, Due Preparations for the Plague, and the Patrick White Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement.' (Extract)
1 Writing from the Contact Zone : Fiction by Early Queensland Women Belinda McKay , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Hecate , vol. 30 no. 2 2004; (p. 53-70) Hibiscus and Ti-Tree : Women in Queensland 2009; (p. 30-45)
This paper examines 'some of the ways in which white women novelists also contributed powerfully to shaping the literary imaginative landscape through which Australian readers came to "know" Indigenous people, and the nature of inter-racial contact, in the period before the publication of writing by Indigenous women began to disrupt the textual terrain' (54). The focus is on the writing of women who grew up in rural Queensland and/or used Queensland as settings. The paper concludes that women writers, though presenting themselves as sympathetic and knowledgeable observers and spokespersons for Indigenous people, were 'active participants in the ongoing colonial projects of subjugating Indigenous people and managing perceptions of that process' (68).
1 1 Literary Imaginings of the Bunya Belinda McKay , Patrick Buckridge , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , November vol. 9 no. 2 2002; (p. 65-79)
'By the time that Europeans became acquainted with the bunya, the gum tree was already well established as the iconic Australian tree. The genus Eucalyptus, with all its locally specific variants, was both distinctive to the continent and widely dispersed throughout it. In contrast, the bunya tree (classified as Araucaria bidwillii in 1843) grew in a small area of what is now South-East Queensland and was seen by few Europeans before the 1840s, when Moreton Bay was opened to free settlement. The physical distinctiveness of the bunya tree, and stories of the large gatherings which accompanied the triennial harvesting ofits nut, aroused the curiosity of early European explorers and settlers, and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the bunya tree achieved a special status in local civic culture. Although heavy logging had largely destroyed the great bunya forests, the tree was planted extensively in school grounds, around war memorials and in long avenues in parks.' (Introduction) 
1 Writing from the Hinterland : Eleanor Dark's Queensland Years Belinda McKay , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , November vol. 8 no. 2 2001; (p. 21-28)

'Eleanor Dark's years in Montville represent an unusual moment in the history of Queensland literature: it was one oft he rare instances, until recent times, of an established professional writer moving to Queensland and pursuing her career in a small rural community. Since the 1980s, the Sunshine Coast and its hinterland have become something of a mecca for writers. None of the later anivals, however, has pursued Dark's project of viewing the wider world from the hinterland. In Lantana Lane she intertwines meticulous observation of local life, in which she participated as a farmer, with wider cultural and political concerns. She transforms the apparently inauspicious location of the hinterland into a vantage point from which to reflect on modes of production, from the agricultural to the literary.' (Introduction)

1 y separately published work icon Queensland Review vol. 8 no. 2 November Belinda McKay (editor), 2001 Z941734 2001 periodical issue 'This issue of Queensland Review coincides with the tenth anniversary of its host institution, the Queensland Studies Centre at Griffith University. In its first decade, the Centre has mounted a large number of seminars, conferences and exhibitions on a wide range of issues related to Queensland history, art, literature, politics and society for a constituency which includes individuals from Queensland universities, the teaching profession, libraries, museums and public service departments, as well as independent researchers. The Centre acts as an umbrella organisation which facilitates research into Queensland's history, politics, society and culture by maintaining a database of Queensland researchers, and involving researchers across the state in cross-disciplinary projects and partnerships. It also acts as a public education resource through answering requests for information and through the provision of public seminars on matters of contemporary interest. In addition to Queensland Review, the Centre also produces Occasional Publications.' (Editorial) 
1 'The One Jarring Note' : Race and Gender in Queensland Women's Writing to 1939 Belinda McKay , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , May vol. 8 no. 1 2001; (p. 31-54)

'The literary production of women in Queensland from Separation to World War II records and reflects on various aspects of colonial life and Australian nationhood in a period when white women's participation in public life and letters was steadily increasing. Unease with the colonial experience underpins many of the key themes of this body of work: the difficulty of finding a literary voice in a new land, a conflicted sense of place, the linking of masculinity with violence, and the promotion of racial purity. This chapter will explore how white women writers – for there were no published Indigenous women writers in this era – responded to the conditions of living and writing in Queensland prior to the social and cultural changes initiated by World War II.' (Extract)
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