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y separately published work icon Killing Darcy single work   novel   young adult  
Issue Details: First known date: 1998... 1998 Killing Darcy
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Angry young Koori Darcy Mango is on parole, and looking for his mob in Northern New South Wales. Befriending the Menzies family wasn't at all what he had in mind, but then neither was the old house hidden in the bush near Desperation Creek. Why does the camera from the house take pictures of the past? It's Darcy's fate to find out.' (Source: UQP website)

Exhibitions

8707337
11469012
11468710
19691518
19567105
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Notes

  • Dedication: For Bill, who dreamt the camera.

  • Epigraph: I am your blundering kind companion.

    I am your home that keeps out bitter weather.

    I am the perilous slow deposit of time's wisdom.

    You are my threat, my murder. And yet remember,

    I am yourself. Come, let us live together. (Judith Wright, Flesh)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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  • Sound recording.
  • Large print.
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Works about this Work

Children's and Young Adult Literature Michelle J. Smith , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
Flourishing in Country : An Examination of Well-Being in Australian YA Fiction Adrielle Britten , Brooke Collins-Gearing , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Jeunesse : Young People, Texts, Culture , Winter vol. 12 no. 2 2020; (p. 15-39) 'This article is the result of a collaboration between two academics—one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous—to investigate the representation of Indigeneity in two contemporary YA novels. Melissa Lucashenko's killing Darcy is narrated by multiple Indigenous and non-Indigenous characters, whereas Clare Atkins's Nona and Me is told from the perspective of a white character and explores her relationship with an Indigenous community. Cultural identity forms a significant part of well-being, and this article investigates versions of sufficient well-being. It explores how the novels represent flourishing subjects—both Indigenous and non-Indigenous—in the context of Australia as it struggles to come to terms with its colonial past and demonstrates how cognitive mapping replaces damaging colonial assumptions about Indigenous Peoples with a model of overcoming.' (Publication abstract)
Serious Issues for Young Readers BlackWords : Serious Issues for Young Readers Anita Heiss , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: The BlackWords Essays 2015; (p. 8) The BlackWords Essays 2019;

In this essay Heiss discusses Indigenous-authored works that are targeted for upper-primary and young adult readers, that address issues of identity, self esteem, relationships and peer-group pressure that are available for both educators and students. Heiss recommends that these works discussed in this essay, will not only engage young Indigenous students, but also non-Indigenous students and other readers with a sense of sameness in terms of coming of age, facing friendships, and the growing pains that all teenagers face.
Scanners Bruce Gillespie , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary : The Independent Magazine About Science Fiction , August no. 80 2010; (p. 67)
— Review of The Centurion's Empire Sean McMullen , 1990 single work novel ; Cold Iron Sophie Masson , 1998 single work novel ; Killing Darcy Melissa Lucashenko , 1998 single work novel
y separately published work icon Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature Kathryn James , New York (City) : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group , 2009 Z1790145 2009 single work criticism
[Review] Killing Darcy Kevin Steinberger , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 42 no. 3 1998; (p. 40)
— Review of Killing Darcy Melissa Lucashenko , 1998 single work novel
[Review] Killing Darcy Gail Parr , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 13 no. 2 1998; (p. 36)
— Review of Killing Darcy Melissa Lucashenko , 1998 single work novel
Scanners Bruce Gillespie , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary : The Independent Magazine About Science Fiction , August no. 80 2010; (p. 67)
— Review of The Centurion's Empire Sean McMullen , 1990 single work novel ; Cold Iron Sophie Masson , 1998 single work novel ; Killing Darcy Melissa Lucashenko , 1998 single work novel
Teen Beat Alison Cotes , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 2 May 1998; (p. 9)
— Review of Rift Libby Hathorn , 1998 single work novel ; Killing Darcy Melissa Lucashenko , 1998 single work novel
Chilling Tale Tess Brady , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 201 1998; (p. 42-43)
— Review of Rift Libby Hathorn , 1998 single work novel ; Killing Darcy Melissa Lucashenko , 1998 single work novel
Performances of Colour : Narratives of Passing in Settler-Society Texts Clare Bradford , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Seriously Playful : Genre, Performance & Text 2004; (p. 77-84) In this paper, Bradford focuses on settler-society texts involving characters who move across the psychological and physical boundaries dividing races.
'Oh How Different!' : Regimes of Knowledge in Aboriginal Texts for Children Clare Bradford , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lion and the Unicorn , April vol. 27 no. 2 2003; (p. 199-217)
Transformative Fictions : Postcolonial Encounters in Australian Texts Clare Bradford , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , Winter vol. 28 no. 4 2003-2004; (p. 195-202)
'There's a Black Boy Dead and a Migloo Holding a Gun' : Death, Aboriginality and History in Australian Adolescent Literature Kathryn James , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , vol. 19 no. 1 2009; (p. 5-16) 'In 'Preying on the Past: Contexts of Some Recent Neo-Historical Fiction', Peter Pierce argues that, over the last five or so decades, Australian historical fiction has turned away from 'unconstrained and idealistic affirmations about Australia's future' to empathise instead with those figures in the historical landscape who were previously marginalised: 'victims of imperialism, patriarchy, racism, capitalism' (p.307).
This trend is particularly applicable to historical literature for younger readers, which now often tries to renegotiate history by providing a counterpoint to the metanarratives of the past (Stephens 2003, xii-xiii). Reflecting and responding to developments in the disciplines of historiography and, more generally, the humanities, texts in this genre are representative of the attempt to interrogate monolithic versions of Australian history - often called the 'three cheers' view - in which positivity, achievement and the peaceful settlement of the nation are key themes.
At issue in these novels is thus the redressing of past wrongs, particularly with respects to the violent aspects of colonisation when so many members of the Indigenous population either died or were forcibly displaced. Each of the three adolescent novels I focus upon in this paper - Melissa Lucashenko's Killing Darcy (1998), Gary Crew's No Such Country (1991) and Mark Svendsen's Poison Under Their Lips (2001) - is equally idiosyncratic in its approach to narrativising Australia's problematic colonial past' (Author's abstract).
y separately published work icon Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature Kathryn James , New York (City) : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group , 2009 Z1790145 2009 single work criticism
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Awards

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