image of person or book cover 779782790605577366.gif
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon I for Isobel single work   novel  
  • Author:agent Amy Witting http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/witting-amy
Issue Details: First known date: 1989... 1989 I for Isobel
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This was life: no sooner had you built yourself your little raft and felt secure than it came to pieces under you and you were swimming again.

'Born into a world without welcome, Isobel observes it as warily as an alien trying to pass for a native. Her collection of imaginary friends includes the Virgin Mary and Sherlock Holmes. Later she meets Byron, W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot. Isobel is not so much at ease with the flesh-and-blood people she meets, and least of all with herself, until a lucky encounter and a little detective work reveal her identity and her true situation in life.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Prequel to Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1989 .
      Extent: 158p.
      Reprinted: 1998
      ISBN: 0140126244 (pbk.)
    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2002 .
      Extent: 158p.
      ISBN: 0411004134
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 317333566493859720.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 181p.
      Note/s:
      ISBN: 9781922147745
      Series: y separately published work icon Text Classics Text Publishing (publisher), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012- Z1851461 2012 series - publisher novel 'Great books by great Australian storytellers.' (Text website.)
Alternative title: Ego i Izobel
Language: Greek

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording, large print.

Works about this Work

Unsettling Archive : Suburbs in Australian Fiction Brigid Rooney , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
y separately published work icon I for Isobel, by Amy Witting Angie Barillaro , Essendon North : Radiant Heart Publishing , 2015 8919438 2015 single work criticism
Hard-Won Composure Under Fire Charlotte Wood , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 8-9 February 2014; (p. 20-21)

— Review of I for Isobel Amy Witting , 1989 single work novel
The Disempowerment of Women in the Domestic Sphere : The Fiction of Amy Witting (1918 – 2001) Coleen Smee , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Crossroads : An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics , vol. 6 no. 2 2013; (p. 94-103)

'This article examines ways in which the fiction of the acclaimed Australian writer Amy Witting, dubbed Australia’s Chekov and whom Helen Garner acknowledged as her ‘literary mother,’ interrogates the disempowerment of women in the domestic sphere, asserting that the home is a contested space and conflicted place for women. Witting subverts the notion that a ‘woman’s place is in the home’ by demonstrating that many

women are actually displaced and dispossessed in the inhibiting domestic spaces that are their ‘homes.’ In her fiction, women are isolated and excluded because of gender inequity

in regard to women’s rights and duties in the domestic sphere. Women are also marginalised in regard to inadequate financial rewards for domestic productivity and are affected by circumstances underpinned by discourses of poverty, class conflict and domestic violence. Witting asserts that the disempowerment of women in the home often leads to women appropriating masculinist attitudes and behaviours of oppression towards other women less powerful than themselves. In this article, these concepts are explored with close reference to five of Witting’s novels and interviews conducted with the author.' (Author's abstract)

Museum Mentality Who Killed Australian Literature? Geordie Williamson , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 8-9)
Isobel's Eyes Open John Lewis , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 11 August 2003; (p. 10)

— Review of I for Isobel Amy Witting , 1989 single work novel
Amy Witting: I for Isobel Zoe Carides , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: 24 Hours , December 2001; (p. 122)

— Review of I for Isobel Amy Witting , 1989 single work novel
Ethos Evocative of Kafka Ralph Elliott , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 18 November 1989; (p. B5)

— Review of The Mountain Graham Henderson , 1989 single work novel ; I for Isobel Amy Witting , 1989 single work novel
Rewriting Gender Scripts Elizabeth van Acker , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , April vol. 9 no. 1 1990; (p. 56-57)

— Review of Inner Cities : Australian Women's Memory of Place 1989 anthology poetry short story prose biography ; The Woman at the Window Marian Favel Clair Eldridge , 1989 selected work short story ; Moments of Desire : Sex and Sensuality by Australian Feminist Writers 1989 anthology poetry short story ; I for Isobel Amy Witting , 1989 single work novel ; Give Me Strength : Italian Australian Women Speak 1989 anthology essay biography autobiography ; Homecoming : Three Novellas John Clanchy , 1989 selected work short story
Davidson's Freefall Patricia Rolfe , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 29 August 1989; (p. 112)

— Review of Ancestors Robyn Davidson , 1989 single work novel ; I for Isobel Amy Witting , 1989 single work novel
Museum Mentality Who Killed Australian Literature? Geordie Williamson , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 October 2012; (p. 8-9)
An Unwitting Excellence Peter Craven , 1990 single work biography
— Appears in: The Sunday Herald , 25 March 1990; (p. 36)
A Cuddly Kind of Power Diana Simmonds , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 19 June vol. 112 no. 5723 1990; (p. 142-143)
A Woman Not Made for Fame Susan Chenery , 1994 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 30 April-1 May 1994; (p. rev 6)
Amy Witting Recalls a Moment of Literary Glory Anne Lim , 1993 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 November 1993; (p. 3)
Last amended 18 Mar 2022 13:18:58
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