'A coming-of-age story of a spontaneous heroine who finds herself ensconced in the rigidity of a turn-of-the-century boarding school. The clever and highly imaginative Laura has difficulty fitting in with her wealthy classmates and begins to compromise her ideals in her search for popularity and acceptance.' (From the publisher's website.)
The Getting Of Wisdom
( dir. Bruce Beresford
)
Australia
:
Southern Cross Films
,
1978
Z1446682
1978
single work
film/TV
(taught in 2 units)
In the early 1900s, the spirited and talented Laura Tweedle Ramsbotham arrives at an exclusive Melbourne ladies' college, only to be greeted with jeers and treated as a country bumpkin. Although she is defiant towards her peers, the pressure almost defeats her. She soon learns, however, to be as ruthless as the other girls. Caught out after inventing an illicit liaison with the handsome new minister, she becomes a pariah until she is taken under the wing of an older girl, the elegant and kindly Evelyn Suitor. Laura subsequently falls in love with Evelyn, causing the latter to leave the school in order to escape Laura's attentions. Laura eventually completes her schooling, winning a two-year music scholarship to study piano.
Source: Australian Screen.
Adapted secondary school text.
For early reviews see also Gay Howells's bibliography Henry Handel Richardson.
Greer discusses The Getting of Wisdom in relation to the themes expressed in Maurice Guest, Richardson's preceding novel, and identifies many parallels in the tensions between characters, ranging from sexual to artistic tension. Greer praises The Getting of Wisdom at the expense of Richard Mahony because the former is less ambitious and presents a subject that is "like the rest of us, ordinary, and therefore deeply important".
Greer discusses The Getting of Wisdom in relation to the themes expressed in Maurice Guest, Richardson's preceding novel, and identifies many parallels in the tensions between characters, ranging from sexual to artistic tension. Greer praises The Getting of Wisdom at the expense of Richard Mahony because the former is less ambitious and presents a subject that is "like the rest of us, ordinary, and therefore deeply important".
Greer discusses The Getting of Wisdom in relation to the themes expressed in Maurice Guest, Richardson's preceding novel, and identifies many parallels in the tensions between characters, ranging from sexual to artistic tension. Greer praises The Getting of Wisdom at the expense of Richard Mahony because the former is less ambitious and presents a subject that is "like the rest of us, ordinary, and therefore deeply important".
From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Children's Literature, 1840-1940
Toronto
:
University of Toronto Press
,
2018
15039944
2018
multi chapter work
criticism
'Through a comparison of Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand texts published between 1840 and 1940, From Colonial to Modern develops a new history of colonial girlhoods revealing how girlhood in each of these emerging nations reflects a unique political, social, and cultural context.
'Print culture was central to the definition, and redefinition, of colonial girlhood during this period of rapid change. Models of girlhood are shared between settler colonies and contain many similar attitudes towards family, the natural world, education, employment, modernity, and race, yet, as the authors argue, these texts also reveal different attitudes that emerged out of distinct colonial experiences. Unlike the imperial model representing the British ideal, the transnational girl is an adaptation of British imperial femininity and holds, for example, a unique perception of Indigenous culture and imperialism. Drawing on fiction, girls’ magazines, and school magazine, the authors shine a light on neglected corners of the literary histories of these three nations and strengthen our knowledge of femininity in white settler colonies.' (Publication summary)
McLaren discusses a number of Australian novels (all recently re-issued) which have been central to developing the way in which Australians and foreigners think about white society in this continent. He distinguishes several trends and traditions in describing and characterising Australia's social and political system. Whereas Clarke and Richardson present Australia as a prison, Palmer and Waten present it as a land offering the promise of freedom. Furphy, on the other hand, is seen as a writer 'who shows us a country seeming to offer plentitude but finally withholding its promise' (54).
McLaren concludes that the 'past expressed in these fictions variously produced values of solidarity, egalitarianism, harmony with the land, but their values remain circumscribed by fear of the powerless and the dispossessed, by the arrogance of the powerful, and by distrust of the outsider. Our future will be secure only as we accept continuity with the past, enter into dialogue with the differences of the present, and accept a common responsibility towards the land that supports us' (56).
