Market Day single work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 1985... 1985 Market Day
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In "Market Day" a blind woman discovers accidentally that she is now grey and old, but this woman transcends her tragic past and self-interest to serve the cause of her niece's love. This little brown Aunt who has patiently endured physical and emotional suffering is almost deified because of her capacity to love a world she cannot see. She accommodates the loss of her own youth, and by the end of the story her hair is no longer the focus of her despair but, appropriately, has the appearance of a bronze crown. This narrative is also interesting in that Farmer recreates the particular textures and sounds of Elpida's environment as the reader shares the blind woman's dependence upon aural or mnemonic experience.

(Source: 'Against the Grain: Beverley Farmer's Writing')

Affiliation Notes

  • Writing Disability in Australia:

    Type of disability Blindness.
    Type of character Primary.
    Point of view

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Home Time Beverley Farmer , Fitzroy Ringwood : McPhee Gribble Penguin , 1985 Z371272 1985 selected work short story Following on from her debut collection, Milk, Beverley Farmer continues to explore the tension, violence, and estrangement that fracture inter-personal relationships in these short stories. Fitzroy Ringwood : McPhee Gribble Penguin , 1985 pg. 61-69
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Short Stories no. 9 1985 Z606087 1985 periodical issue 1985 pg. 26-32
    Note: With an illustration by Annie Irish
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Place of Birth Beverley Farmer , London : Faber , 1990 Z391652 1990 selected work short story London : Faber , 1990 pg. 54-61
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Collected Stories Beverley Farmer , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1996 Z566020 1996 selected work short story

    'Beverley Farmer's reputation as a deeply sensitive and lyrical writer was established with her short stories. Her two collections Milk and Home Time are included here with five uncollected stories and others which were part of A Body of Water. The stories in this richly rewarding collection unfold in the order in which they were written.' (Publication summary)

    St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1996
    pg. 287-294
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Making Connections : Six Australian Short Story Writers Brian Keyte (editor), Melbourne : Addison Wesley Longman Australia , 1997 Z221043 1997 anthology short story criticism

    The stories chosen chart the emotions and the experiences of human beings living at particular times and in particular places. Collected as the landmark of a new millennium approached, the stories represent an interest at that time in past and future.

    Melbourne : Addison Wesley Longman Australia , 1997
    pg. 73-80
Last amended 4 Sep 2020 11:35:13
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