y separately published work icon Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 1983... 1983 Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White
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Notes

  • Dedication: To Pam

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 1993 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction to the 1993 Edition, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. xi-xviii)
Note:
  • Dated September 1992.
  • Includes endnotes.
Introduction to the 1983 Edition, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 1-15)
Note: Dated September 1981.
A Convict Dream : James Tucker's Ralph Rashleigh, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 16-30)
A Woman 'Lifer' : Caroline Leakey's The Broad Arrow, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 31-46)
'Poet of Our Desolation' : Marcus Clarke's His Natural Life, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism
Hergenhan argues that Clarke identified with the convicts because of the 'painful dislocations of his colonial experience'. Clarke's earlier articles on the destitute of Melbourne prepared him to write about convicts, but situating the tale in the wilderness enabled him to dramatise Darwin's theories of evolution in a social context. Hergenhan concludes that 'there is a genuine impulse in the novel to grant the need for love and communality, even if society can be inimical to them and if human nature makes them precarious'. This can be seen, Hergenhan argues, as Clarke's struggle 'to come to terms with the loss and trials of colonial dispossession'.
 (p. 47-61)
Price Warung and the Convicts : A View from (and of) the Nineties, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism
Hergenhan discusses Warung's 1890s treatment of Australia's convict past. Warung was the first writer to link the convict system with Australia's development beyond a colonial status. Hergenhan argues that Warung's fiction successfully connects this sense of the past with the political milieu of the 1890s, producing entertaining stories that make the past reverberate for later readers.
 (p. 62-74)
The Strange World of Sir William Heans (and the Mystery of William Hay), Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism biography (p. 75-90)
Brian Penton's Thirties Novels : The 'Roots of the New Psyche', Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 91-107)
The 'Precarious Present' and the Future : Eleanor Dark's The Timeless Land, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 108-121)
Convict Legends, Australian Legends : Price Warung and the Palmers Convict Legends, Australian Legends : Price Warung, the Palmers and Others, 1927-1970, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 122-129)
The 'Duties of Innocence' : Hal Porter's The Tilted Cross, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 130-138)
'The Present Rendered Fabulous' : Thomas Keneally's Bring Larks and Heroes, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 139-150)
The City or the Desert : Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 151-166)
Unnatural Lives : Conclusion, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 167-173)
VIEW ENTIRE CONTENTS ( works)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Works about this Work

The Wide Brown Land : Literary Readings of Space and the Australian Continent Anthony J. Hassall , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia : Making Space Meaningful 2007; (p. 45-53) 'In his 1987 poem "Louvres" Les Murray speaks of journeys to 'the three quarters of our continent/set aside for mystic poetry" (2002, 239), a very different reading of Australia's inner space to A.D. Hope's 1939 vision of it as '[t]he Arabian desert of the human mind" (1966, 13) In this paper I review the opposed, contradictory ways in which the inner space of Australia has been perceived by Australian writers, and note changes in those literary perceptions, especially in the last fifty years. In that time what was routinely categerised, by Patrick White among others, as the "Dead heart" (1974, 94) - the disappointing desert encountered by nineteenth=century European explorers looking for another America -has been re-mythologised as the "Red Centre," the symbolic, living heart of the continent. What Barcroft Boake's 1897 poem hauntingly portrayed as out where the dead men lie" (140,-2) is now more commonly imagined as a site of spiritual exploration and psychic renewal, a place where Aboriginal identification with the land is respected and even shared. This change was powerfully symbolised in 1985 by the return to the traditional Anangu owners of the title deeds to the renamed Uluru, the great stone sited at the centre of the continent; but while this re-mythologising has been increasingly influential in literary readings, older, more negative constructions of that space as hostile and sterile have persisted, so that contradictory attitudes towards the inner space of Australia continue to be expressed. In reviewing a selection of those readings, I am conscious that they both distort and influence broader cultural perceptions. I am also aware that literary reconstructions of the past reflect both the attitudes of the time depicted and the current attitudes of the writer, and that separating the two is seldom simple. Finally, I am conscious of the connections between literary readings and those in art and film of the kind documented by Roslynn Hanes in her 1998 study Seeking the Centre: the Australian Desert in Literature, Art and Film, and those in television and advertising. I have however, with the exception of the Postscript, limited my paper to literary readings, with an emphasis on works published since Haynes's study.' (Author's abstract p. 45)
Untitled Patrick Evans , 1996 single work review
— Appears in: Aumla , May no. 85 1996; (p. 176-177)
— Review of Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism
For the Term of the Writer's Art Graeme Harper , 1993 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 151 1993; (p. 34)
— Review of Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism
Well-Written and Persuasive Study of David Malouf's Prose and Verse Ralph Elliott , 1993 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 May 1993; (p. C8)
— Review of David Malouf Ivor Indyk , 1993 single work criticism ; Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism ; Gerald Murnane Imre Salusinszky , 1993 single work criticism
One Wo/man's Literacy is Another Wo/man's Poisson Reba Gostand , 1993 single work review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , July vol. 12 no. 2 1993; (p. 62)
— Review of Micky Darlin' Victor Kelleher , 1992 single work novel ; The ALS Guide to Australian Writers 1992 single work bibliography ; Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism
A Call to Hounds! Brian Elliott , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The CRNLE Reviews Journal , May no. 1 1984; (p. 29-31)
— Review of Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism
Untitled J. C. Horner , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: Papers and Proceedings. Tasmanian Historical Research Association , vol. 31 no. 4 1984; (p. 31-33)
— Review of Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism
One Wo/man's Literacy is Another Wo/man's Poisson Reba Gostand , 1993 single work review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , July vol. 12 no. 2 1993; (p. 62)
— Review of Micky Darlin' Victor Kelleher , 1992 single work novel ; The ALS Guide to Australian Writers 1992 single work bibliography ; Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism
Well-Written and Persuasive Study of David Malouf's Prose and Verse Ralph Elliott , 1993 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 May 1993; (p. C8)
— Review of David Malouf Ivor Indyk , 1993 single work criticism ; Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism ; Gerald Murnane Imre Salusinszky , 1993 single work criticism
Pointers to a Whole Body of Neglected Literature Veronica Sen , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 February 1984; (p. 17)
— Review of Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White Laurie Hergenhan , 1983 single work criticism
The Wide Brown Land : Literary Readings of Space and the Australian Continent Anthony J. Hassall , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia : Making Space Meaningful 2007; (p. 45-53) 'In his 1987 poem "Louvres" Les Murray speaks of journeys to 'the three quarters of our continent/set aside for mystic poetry" (2002, 239), a very different reading of Australia's inner space to A.D. Hope's 1939 vision of it as '[t]he Arabian desert of the human mind" (1966, 13) In this paper I review the opposed, contradictory ways in which the inner space of Australia has been perceived by Australian writers, and note changes in those literary perceptions, especially in the last fifty years. In that time what was routinely categerised, by Patrick White among others, as the "Dead heart" (1974, 94) - the disappointing desert encountered by nineteenth=century European explorers looking for another America -has been re-mythologised as the "Red Centre," the symbolic, living heart of the continent. What Barcroft Boake's 1897 poem hauntingly portrayed as out where the dead men lie" (140,-2) is now more commonly imagined as a site of spiritual exploration and psychic renewal, a place where Aboriginal identification with the land is respected and even shared. This change was powerfully symbolised in 1985 by the return to the traditional Anangu owners of the title deeds to the renamed Uluru, the great stone sited at the centre of the continent; but while this re-mythologising has been increasingly influential in literary readings, older, more negative constructions of that space as hostile and sterile have persisted, so that contradictory attitudes towards the inner space of Australia continue to be expressed. In reviewing a selection of those readings, I am conscious that they both distort and influence broader cultural perceptions. I am also aware that literary reconstructions of the past reflect both the attitudes of the time depicted and the current attitudes of the writer, and that separating the two is seldom simple. Finally, I am conscious of the connections between literary readings and those in art and film of the kind documented by Roslynn Hanes in her 1998 study Seeking the Centre: the Australian Desert in Literature, Art and Film, and those in television and advertising. I have however, with the exception of the Postscript, limited my paper to literary readings, with an emphasis on works published since Haynes's study.' (Author's abstract p. 45)
The Convict Novel and Australian Literature Brian Elliott , 1985 single work criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , January-February vol. 29 no. 1-2 1985; (p. 116-118)
A Convict Story : Australian Stories Retold Brian Elliott , 1985 single work criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , May vol. 29 no. 5 1985; (p. 60-62)
The Literary Associations of Port Arthur J. C. Horner , 1985 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers and Proceedings. Tasmanian Historical Research Association , vol. 32 no. 2 1985; (p. 56-61)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (17)
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