Robert Phiddian Robert Phiddian i(A93707 works by) (a.k.a. Robert Andrew Phiddian)
Born: Established: 1963 Mooroopna, Shepparton, Shepparton area, Goulburn - Campaspe area, Northern Victoria, Victoria, ;
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 Petty’s Golden Thread Robert Phiddian , 2023 single work obituary (for Bruce Petty )
— Appears in: Inside Story , March 2023; Sydney Pen Magazine , May 2023; (p. 39-41)

'The brilliant cartoonist illuminated Australia as it is, and as it could be'

1 Yes, It Is Funny Robert Phiddian , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Inside Story , September 2023;

— Review of Would That Be Funny? : Growing up with John Clarke Lorin Clarke , 2023 single work autobiography

'How the comic genius of John Clarke found its anchor'

1 How Cartoonist Bruce Petty Documented the Vietnam War – and How His Great Satire Keeps Finding Its Moment Robert Phiddian , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 28 August 2023;

'After seven decades as a visual satirist provoking Australia as it is and might be, Bruce Petty passed away at 93 on April 6 this year.'

1 “For Gorsake, Stop Laughing : This Is Serious!”—Australia’s Fragile Cartooning Archive Robert Phiddian , Stephanie Brookes , Lindsay Foyle , Richard Scully , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 47 no. 1 2023; (p. 200-220)

'Stan Cross’s “For gorsake, stop laughing: this is serious!” (Smith’s Weekly, 1933) is the symbol and bellwether of the Australian cartooning tradition. It is often lionised as a national treasure, but its archival history has been perilous in a way that shows a lack of care amounting almost to national negligence. The original of this most famous cartoon of the Depression era was lost for 80 years before being rediscovered in 2014, and this article notes for the first time that Trove Newspapers lacks a record of its initial publication. We use this troubled material history of one significant cartoon to raise a range of issues about the quality and purpose of collecting and presenting Australian cartoons as a resource for Australian studies in fields ranging from media and humour studies to cultural and political history.' (Publication abstract)

1 Cartoon Detectives : How Australia’s Most Famous Cartoon Was Lost and Found – Twice Robert Phiddian , Richard Scully , Stephanie Brookes , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 February 2023;
1 The Figure in the Carpet : The Stories We Tell Ourselves Robert Phiddian , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 447 2022; (p. 34-35)

— Review of The Idea of Australia Julianne Schultz , 2022 multi chapter work criticism
'A new monarch succeeded the day I sat down to write this review about the idea of Australia. Prime Minister Albanese, in a blessedly unpoliticised speech about Elizabeth II’s death, was direct in announcing that he and the governor-general would be heading to London, ‘where we will meet the king’.' (Introduction)
1 The Scalpel and the Axe Robert Phiddian , 2021 single work column
— Appears in: Inside Story , November 2021;

'Bill Leak’s biographer offers a sympathetic but unflinching account of the controversial cartoonist’s life'

1 John Clarke, Tinker-Poet Robert Phiddian , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Comedy Studies , vol. 10 no. 1 2019; (p. 102-118)

'Clarke’s poetic output was never the main game, but he was persistent in developing the (entirely self-authored) Complete Book of Australian Verse (39 poems; Clarke, 1989) through two intermediate versions culminating in the 2012 edition of Even More Complete Book of Australian Verse (68 poems). This article addresses the central characteristics of Clarke’s art through the voice, timing and rhythm of these parodic poems. They illustrate the sort of parody discussed in ‘Are parody and deconstruction secretly the same thing?’ (Phiddian, 1997 and subsequent work). Clarke’s own favoured word for his writing practice, tinkering, suits such carefully wrought pieces well, and fits with more expansive notions of parody as critical and creative refunctioning of models rather than as narrow lampoons. Through intimate imitation and distortion, they display a guarded, sometimes hostile, affection and a jagged nostalgia both for their poetic vehicles and for the Australian subject matter. Clarke always inhabits the words of others in his Australian work, speaking via parodic deflection. This contrasts with the Daggy directness of his New Zealand work. Was he only ever a visitor in Oz? Was the parodic reserve a necessary carapace against the sort of fame that he fled in the 1970s? This article reads the poems as a window onto the distinctive rhythms of Clarke’s writing and his complexly ironic relationships with both his homeland and his adopted nation. His resistance of 'the voice direct' made him a wry and knowledgeable visitor and offers an abiding challenge to Australianness.'

Source: Abstract.

1 Introduction to Special Issue of Journal of Comedy Studies on John Clarke Trans-Tasman Satirist : John Clarke and His Art Robert Phiddian , Jessica Milner Davis , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Comedy Studies , vol. 10 no. 1 2019; (p. 2-7)
1 y separately published work icon Comedy Studies The Satire of John M. Clarke (1948-2017) vol. 10 no. 1 Jessica Milner Davis (editor), Robert Phiddian (editor), 2019 19547790 2019 periodical issue

A special issue of Comedy Studies devoted to the career of John Clarke.

1 How Good Was John Clarke? Some Reflections on His Poetics of Tinkering Robert Phiddian , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 7 August 2019;

'In April this year, the Ukraine elected comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy as its president, and the ABC reported on a sudden upsurge in Australian interest in something similar here. Many names came forward, but the only actually dead nominee with any significant support was John Clarke.' (Introduction)

1 Friday Essay : Why Is Australian Satire So Rarely Risky? Alex Cothren , Robert Phiddian , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Conversation , 15 March 2019;
1 3 y separately published work icon What Matters? Talking Value in Australian Culture Julian Meyrick , Robert Phiddian , Tully Barnett , Clayton : Monash University Publishing , 2018 15256943 2018 multi chapter work criticism

'Too often, cultural leaders and policy makers want to chase the perfect metric for activities whose real worth lies in our own personal experience. The major problem facing Australian culture today is demonstrating its value - to governments, the business sector, and the public in general.

'When did culture become a number? When did the books, paintings, poems, plays, songs, films, games, art installations, clothes, and the objects that fill our daily lives become a matter of statistical measurement? When did experience become data?

'This book intervenes in an important debate about the public value of culture that has become stranded between the hard heads (where the arts are just another industry) and the soft hearts (for whom they are too precious to bear dispassionate analysis).

'It argues that our concept of value has been distorted and dismembered by political forces and methodological confusions, and this has a dire effect on the way we assess culture.  Proceeding via concrete examples, it explores the major tensions in contemporary evaluation strategies, and puts forward practical solutions to the current metric madness. 

'The time is ripe to find a better way to value our culture - by finding a better way to talk about it.'  (Publication summary)

1 Permission to Laugh? Humour Without Risk of Danger and Offence Would Be an Emaciated Thing Robert Phiddian , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 30 November 2017;
1 Friday Essay: Political Cartooning – the End of an Era Robert Phiddian , Haydon Manning , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 11 August 2017;
1 Farewell John Clarke: in an Absurd World, We Have Never Needed You More Robert Phiddian , 2017 single work obituary (for John Clarke )
— Appears in: The Conversation , 10 April 2017;

'It cannot be the final arkle! Surely the inventor of Dave Sorenson, greatest and most persistently injured of farnarklers, will rebuild himself for the next match. Please tell me this is only the umlaut, and John Clarke will be back for the second half. In our more than usually absurd world, we have never needed him more.' (Introduction)

1 Vale Bill Leak: a Satirist Who Played Hard and Took No Prisoners Robert Phiddian , 2017 single work obituary (for Bill Leak )
— Appears in: The Conversation , 10 March 2017;
'If you ever found a Bill Leak cartoon mildly amusing, you should take a good, hard look at yourself. Bill’s gauge for emotional volume only needed to be calibrated between 9 and 11 (out of 10). Love the cartoons, or hate them: those are the sane options. No modern Australian cartoonist can claim to be so forceful, either in satirical purpose or in graphic line.' (Introduction)
1 “A Face Without Personality” : Coetzee’s Swiftian Narrators Gillian Dooley , Robert Phiddian , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Ariel , July vol. 47 no. 3 2016; (p. 1-22)
'Much has been written about the complicated intertextual relationships between J. M. Coetzee’s novels and previous works by writers such as Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Samuel Beckett, and, especially, Daniel Defoe. Relatively little has been written, in comparison, about any relationship between Coetzee and Defoe’s great contemporary, Jonathan Swift. We claim no extensive structural relationship between Coetzee’s novels and Swift’s works—nothing like the formal interlace between Robinson Crusoe and Foe, for example. We do claim, however, a strong and explicitly signalled likeness of narrative stance, marked especially by the ironic distance between author and protagonist in Gulliver’s Travels and Elizabeth Costello. We rehearse the extensive evidence of Coetzee’s attention to Swift (both in novels and criticism) and suggest that there is a Swiftian dimension to Coetzee’s oeuvre that is evident in several books, including Dusklands, Youth, Elizabeth Costello, and Diary of a Bad Year.' (Publication abstract)
1 Women Are Funnier Than Men, on These Pages at Least Robert Phiddian , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 22 December 2016;
1 Hopkins, Livingston York Yourtee ('Hop') (1846-1927) Robert Phiddian , 2014 single work companion entry
— Appears in: A Companion to the Australian Media : H 2014; (p. 209)
X