Stalin's Holidays single work   poetry   "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
Issue Details: First known date: 1977... 1977 Stalin's Holidays
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon On The Beach John Forbes , Sydney : Sea Cruise Books , 1977 Z221626 1977 selected work poetry Sydney : Sea Cruise Books , 1977 pg. 19
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The New Australian Poetry John Tranter (editor), St Lucia : Makar Press , 1979 Z143928 1979 anthology poetry biography St Lucia : Makar Press , 1979 pg. 268
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Stalin's Holidays : Poems John Forbes , Glebe : Transit Poetry Allbooks Distribution , 1980 Z220898 1980 selected work poetry Glebe : Transit Poetry Allbooks Distribution , 1980 pg. 35
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon New and Selected Poems John Forbes , Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1992 Z561968 1992 selected work poetry Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1992 pg. 49
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Landbridge : Contemporary Australian Poetry John Kinsella (editor), North Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 1999 Z310159 1999 anthology poetry North Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 1999 pg. 132
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Collected Poems : 1970-1998 John Forbes , Rose Bay : Brandl and Schlesinger , 2001 Z899702 2001 collected work poetry (taught in 1 units) Rose Bay : Brandl and Schlesinger , 2001 pg. 72
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Nicholas Jose (editor), Kerryn Goldsworthy (editor), Anita Heiss (editor), David McCooey (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Elizabeth Webby (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009 Z1590615 2009 anthology correspondence diary drama essay extract poetry prose short story (taught in 23 units)

    'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

    'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

    'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

    'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

    'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

    Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

    Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009
    pg. 1190-1191

Works about this Work

The Function of Knowledge and Contingent Difficulty in the Poetry of John Forbes Aidan Coleman , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;

'The poet John Forbes (1950-1998) was famous for his erudition, but it is a feature of his work that has long been overlooked. Outlining how knowledge functions in Forbes’ poetics and compositional process, I argue for foregrounding this knowledge content in readings of his work, before modelling sustained readings of the erudition of two of Forbes’ best-known poems, ‘Stalin’s Holidays’ and ‘Ars Poetica’. These readings focus on the experience of contingent difficulty – that category of difficulty, according to George Steiner, that finds its source in a reader’s lack of knowledge – and the role that research, or ‘homework’ (26), plays in the reading process. While acknowledging that Steiner’s contingent difficulties are intertwined with – and sometimes created by – other categories of difficulty, this article argues for the productiveness of such ‘homework’ early in the interpretative process. Steiner likens contingent difficulties to ‘burrs on the fabric of the text’ (27). I extend this metaphor to propose that contingent difficulties, in their tactile, grip-like quality, enable a reader to engage with a difficult poem, and to proceed with exegesis, when the difficulties the poem otherwise presents seem insurmountable.' (Publication abstract)

The Function of Knowledge and Contingent Difficulty in the Poetry of John Forbes Aidan Coleman , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;

'The poet John Forbes (1950-1998) was famous for his erudition, but it is a feature of his work that has long been overlooked. Outlining how knowledge functions in Forbes’ poetics and compositional process, I argue for foregrounding this knowledge content in readings of his work, before modelling sustained readings of the erudition of two of Forbes’ best-known poems, ‘Stalin’s Holidays’ and ‘Ars Poetica’. These readings focus on the experience of contingent difficulty – that category of difficulty, according to George Steiner, that finds its source in a reader’s lack of knowledge – and the role that research, or ‘homework’ (26), plays in the reading process. While acknowledging that Steiner’s contingent difficulties are intertwined with – and sometimes created by – other categories of difficulty, this article argues for the productiveness of such ‘homework’ early in the interpretative process. Steiner likens contingent difficulties to ‘burrs on the fabric of the text’ (27). I extend this metaphor to propose that contingent difficulties, in their tactile, grip-like quality, enable a reader to engage with a difficult poem, and to proceed with exegesis, when the difficulties the poem otherwise presents seem insurmountable.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 17 Sep 2009 10:26:32
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