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y separately published work icon The River Ophelia single work   novel   horror  
Issue Details: First known date: 1995... 1995 The River Ophelia
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

"Justin loves Sade. And Justine is out of control.Set in a world of inner -city grunge bars and clubs, kinky sex, drug-taking desperation, The River Ophelia, explores the uncharted waters of female desire, where the roles of victim and victimized blur and shift. Both an homage to and subversion of de Sade's Justine and Shakespear's Hamlet, it is an explicit account of sex ual obsession and violence. In the tradition of Bret Easton Ellis and Kathy Acker, Justine Ettler's novel breaks new ground, and will electrify, shock , and provoke." Source: Book Description.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Picador , 1995 .
      Extent: 387p.
      ISBN: 0330356704

Works about this Work

A New Audience for Justine Ettler’s The River Ophelia : In Conversation with the Author Rebecca Johinke (interviewer), 2018 single work interview
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , April vol. 22 no. 1 2018;

'This article, in the form of a conversation between novelist Justine Ettler and literary and cultural studies scholar Rebecca Johinke, looks back at the reception of the Australian novel The River Ophelia in 1995. It also looks forward to speculate how audiences may read the novel in 2018 and beyond, given that in October 2017 it was re-released in e-book format with a new Author’s Note and Introduction (Ettler 2017a). The River Ophelia was a publishing sensation in Australia in the mid-90s as it describes sadistic and masochistic sex and domestic violence. Due to early reviews and the way it was marketed, it was labelled as ‘dirty realism’ or ‘grunge’. In this article, the authors argue for a re-appraisal of the text as a feminist parody and as a highly intertextual postmodern work. In and through their conversation, Johinke and Ettler reveal the extent to which genre confusion, and the question of what is and isn’t ‘real’ dominated the reception of the text at the time of its initial release, and how the intentional fallacy in cases where an author is conflated with a character can be adopted unselfconsciously, and indeed manipulated by, publishers and critics in the marketplace. In light of recent feminist activism around domestic violence and sexual abuse, such as the #MeToo campaign, the authors also discuss the depiction of domestic violence in The River Ophelia, and how certain representations of sex and female desire might play out in representations of abusive relationships. The question of what is and is not erotic, pornographic, or romantic literature is also discussed, both in relation to The River Ophelia, and in relation to several other controversial texts that have been published since its first release.' (Publication abstract)

Static or Grunge Revisited Ronald Blaber , 2015 single work essay
— Appears in: ‘Whaddaya Know?’ : Writings for Syd Harrex 2015; (p. 149-167)
'I Don't Wanna Live in This Place' : The 'Australian Cultural Cringe' in Subtopia and The River Ophelia Jay Daniel Thompson , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 3 2012;
'This article explores representations of the 'Australian cultural cringe' in A.L. McCann's Subtopia (2005) and Justine Ettler's The River Ophelia (1995). The protagonists of these novels express the kind of anti-Australian sentiments that were described by A.A. Phillips in his famous 1950 essay. The antipathy these protagonists feel towards Australia manifests itself in various forms of abjection.

I argue that the most striking aspect of these novels is the fact they have been published at a historical moment in which the whole notion of an 'Australian cultural cringe' seems to have become obsolete. My readings of these texts are energised by a number of questions. These include, do Subtopia and The River Ophelia uncritically portray Australia as crude and parochial? Or is something altogether more complex happening in these novels? What do these novels say about the relationship between national identity, place and the body?

In pursuing the above questions, I will bring to light important and provocative aspects of these two texts that have been overlooked or misread by critics.' (Author's abstract)
The Angels Are Not Coming Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 245-269)
Dance of the Emotional Void Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 119-138)

'In the literature of the last few decades depiction of sex have become commonplace. The old taboos which made any allusion to these matters something daring or transgressive have disappeared, to the extent that the reader is surprised, and perhaps a little disappointed, when he or she fails to find any sexual descriptions in the novel. It would appear that the characters have as few inhibitions when it comes to having sex as the writers when it comes to describing it.' (p. 119)

Compromised in the End by a Desire to Be Transgressive Catherine Cecilia Pratt , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 1 July 1995; (p. C12)

— Review of The River Ophelia Justine Ettler , 1995 single work novel
A Shallow River of Bilious Prose Rosemary Sorensen , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 1 July 1995; (p. 12A) Creme de la Phlegm : Unforgettable Australian Reviews 2006; (p. 269-271)

— Review of The River Ophelia Justine Ettler , 1995 single work novel
Salo in Darlo Don Anderson , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 172 1995; (p. 50)

— Review of The River Ophelia Justine Ettler , 1995 single work novel
Untitled Kristin Hammett , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 172 1995; (p. 51)

— Review of The River Ophelia Justine Ettler , 1995 single work novel
Hit Me, I Like It Penelope Nelson , 1995 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 July 1995; (p. rev 10)

— Review of The River Ophelia Justine Ettler , 1995 single work novel
Justine Ettler Thornton McCamish , 1996 single work biography
— Appears in: The Big Issue , June no. 1 1996; (p. 44)
Literature Joan Kirkby , 1998 single work criticism
— Appears in: Americanization and Australia 1998; (p. 228-244)
Sex in the City : Sexual Predation in Contemporary Australian Grunge Fiction Jean-François Vernay , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Aumla , May no. 107 2007; (p. 145-158)
'This essay will focus on the sexuality of grunge fiction characters, and will examine the relationship of this focus to issues of embodiment, culture and urban spaces' (146).
Reserviors of Desire Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 11-37)
Transgressions Xavier Pons , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 39-59)

'All serious art breaks the rules-there can be no innovation without some form of transgression. Yet the breaking of rules is not enough to produce serious art, and while the very focus of erotic writing seems to invite transgressions, these are not necessarily liberating or creative. When transgressions lie for the most part in the subject-matter, their translation into literary break-throughs is problematic, and they can in fact be undermined by writing that is bland, conventional and predictable. Literature, it bears perhaps repeating, is not the thing itself but a representation and thus a re-creation of it. Modes of representations are always ideologically loaded and, while the contemporary period has invented very little in terms of sexual practices, it has been able to innovate significantly in terms of representational practices. It remains to be seen what kind of articulation can be found between the two.' (p 39)

Last amended 29 Nov 2016 12:41:39
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