Habitat single work   poetry   "Houses and bodies:"
Issue Details: First known date: 1973... 1973 Habitat
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Alive : Poems 1971-72 Judith Wright , Cremorne : Angus and Robertson , 1973 Z565913 1973 selected work poetry Cremorne : Angus and Robertson , 1973 pg. 1-13
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Recent Queensland Poetry Greg McCart (editor), Deception Bay : Refulgence Publishers , 1975 Z121971 1975 anthology Deception Bay : Refulgence Publishers , 1975 pg. 24-32
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon A Human Pattern : Selected Poems Judith Wright , North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990 Z9022 1990 selected work poetry (taught in 3 units)

    'Judith Wright's own definitive selection of her poetry, covering the best and most memorable of her remarkable oeuvre.

    'From the elegant and moving precision of the first collection, The Moving Image (1946), to the political passion of Phantom Dwelling (1985), Wright's poetry speaks with intelligence and courage - and gracefully sensuous imagery.

    'Forty years of poetic production from Australia's best-loved poet.' (Publication summary)

    North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990
    pg. 156-162
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Collected Poems 1942-1985 Judith Wright , Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1994 Z501989 1994 selected work poetry war literature satire (taught in 8 units) Pymble : Angus and Robertson , 1994 pg. 297-309
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Equal Heart and Mind : Letters between Judith Wright and Jack McKinney Judith Wright , J. P. McKinney , Meredith McKinney (editor), Patricia Clarke (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2004 Z1131180 2004 selected work correspondence poetry The selection includes a preface by Patricia Clarka, pp. xi-xiii, and a memoir of her parents by Meredith McKinney. The letters, covering the years from 1945-1950, are arranged chronologically within themed sections and selected poems by Wright appear within and between the sections; each section is preceded by a biographical essay contextualising the letters. St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2004 pg. 183-184
    Note: Section IX only

Works about this Work

‘Silence is My Habitat’ : Judith Wright, Writing, and Deafness Jessica White , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Routledge Companion to Australian Literature 2020; (p. 243-253)
'Judith Wright, one of Australia’s most loved and popular poets, developed otosclerosis in her 20s and became increasingly deaf over the following decades of her life. Despite the long span of time which she lived with her disability, little critical attention has been paid to its impact on her craft. This chapter redresses this gap in scholarship on Wright. It illuminates how deafness influenced her decision to become a writer, contributed to her prolific correspondence, and shaped some of the content and themes of her work such as her attentiveness to the non-human world, her pleasure in and use of the trope of vision, and her awareness of the limits of language. The chapter concludes with a plea to readers to actively listen to and contemplate the voices of deaf writers.

‘I don’t remember any interviews in which [my deafness has] been regarded as something that people … wanted to know more about,’ Judith Wright observed in conversation with Heather Rusden in 1990 (‘On Being Deaf’ 27). Thirty years later, little has shifted in this regard in literary scholarship on one of Australia’s most famous poets, even though the loss of her hearing affected her for 63 of her 85 years and, as Wright acknowledged in the same interview, deafness has ‘really reached into all the interstices of my life, it’s been part of the conditions I live under’ (21). Notably, it also reached into Wright’s writing, guiding her towards her vocation and shaping her style and themes. Silence, for example, is prevalent in her oeuvre, as is her awareness of the limits of language. As someone who needed to strain constantly to hear, Wright also knew that meaning could easily break (one would need only to hide one’s lips), and that there were always conversations happening, whether between humans or other-than-humans, beyond her hearing which she could not access. In addition, having lost one sense, Wright’s perception of the world through her other senses was heightened, as becomes evident through the sensory detail in her poetry. She was also an inveterate writer of letters, as this was an easier mode of communication for her than listening on the telephone.'

Source: Abstract

‘Silence is My Habitat’ : Judith Wright, Writing, and Deafness Jessica White , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Routledge Companion to Australian Literature 2020; (p. 243-253)
'Judith Wright, one of Australia’s most loved and popular poets, developed otosclerosis in her 20s and became increasingly deaf over the following decades of her life. Despite the long span of time which she lived with her disability, little critical attention has been paid to its impact on her craft. This chapter redresses this gap in scholarship on Wright. It illuminates how deafness influenced her decision to become a writer, contributed to her prolific correspondence, and shaped some of the content and themes of her work such as her attentiveness to the non-human world, her pleasure in and use of the trope of vision, and her awareness of the limits of language. The chapter concludes with a plea to readers to actively listen to and contemplate the voices of deaf writers.

‘I don’t remember any interviews in which [my deafness has] been regarded as something that people … wanted to know more about,’ Judith Wright observed in conversation with Heather Rusden in 1990 (‘On Being Deaf’ 27). Thirty years later, little has shifted in this regard in literary scholarship on one of Australia’s most famous poets, even though the loss of her hearing affected her for 63 of her 85 years and, as Wright acknowledged in the same interview, deafness has ‘really reached into all the interstices of my life, it’s been part of the conditions I live under’ (21). Notably, it also reached into Wright’s writing, guiding her towards her vocation and shaping her style and themes. Silence, for example, is prevalent in her oeuvre, as is her awareness of the limits of language. As someone who needed to strain constantly to hear, Wright also knew that meaning could easily break (one would need only to hide one’s lips), and that there were always conversations happening, whether between humans or other-than-humans, beyond her hearing which she could not access. In addition, having lost one sense, Wright’s perception of the world through her other senses was heightened, as becomes evident through the sensory detail in her poetry. She was also an inveterate writer of letters, as this was an easier mode of communication for her than listening on the telephone.'

Source: Abstract

Last amended 27 Jul 2004 14:44:54
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