'This is the first publication of Michael Dransfield selected poems, gathered from every book in his relatively considerable output. They were chosen by poet and critic John Kinsella, whose lively Introduction positions this indelible Australian poet at an international level.
'Always controversial, poet Michael Dransfield's life story has tended to obscure his talent and achievement. Tales of drugs, sexual ambiguity and mythical and ancestral kingdoms have become iconic in the story of Michael Dransfield. However, he was much more. Visionary, poet-ecologist, minstrel, a writer of remarkable dexterity and versatility, he published four collections in three years and another three appeared after his death at 24. While never simply a young poet of his age - the late 60s and early 70s - he was connected to the popular culture of his time and place. He intended to change the world, and believed in the power of his own voice. Linguistically innovative and ahead of his time in so many ways, he also looked back. He was undoubtedly one of the great poets writing in English in his era, whose resonances are increasingly pertinent. Dransfield links the innovations of late twentieth-century Australian poetry with that revolutionary implosion of Ern Malley.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'In just over one hundred days it will be fifty years since Michael Dransfield’s death in 1973. A half a century, as I have observed elsewhere, is a very long time in literature, especially modern literature and especially modern poetry whose history – influenced at least partly by the accessibility of poetry from what were, in the past, unavailable cultures and languages – is inclined to develop at breakneck speed. With a nice harmony, it is twenty years since the publication of this retrospective edited by John Kinsella which, itself, appeared after the two major contributions to understanding Dransfield’s life and work: Livio Dobrez’s Parnassus Mad Ward: Michael Dransfield and the New Australian Poetry (1990) and Patricia Dobrez’s biography of 1999.' (Introduction)
This essay 'seeks to find new ways to address Australian poetry, through the example of Michael Dransfield, a controversially significant poet.' (139)
'How to 'abandon Europe'? The oxymoronic quest to semantically or ideologically discard the signs of that which signifies modern thought and historical rationality in Europe's colonies is dismissed by Rama as futile. However, when the postcolonial relations of 'peripheries' to the European 'center' are examined the engagements between t he colonies and Europe are not characterized by straightforwardness either. While complete abandonment may not be possible, neither is complete affiliation. As such, postcoloniality can still be seen as a luminal state in its ambivalent positioning between what might be seen as originary Europe and a derivative periphery.
This article takes the periphery as a transnational, multilingual space, and it takes postcoloniality beyond the Anglosphere. It tests the hypothesis that there are postcolonial legacies shared across the Global South. Of central importance here is how postcoloniality is understood in Australia and Latin America, and how this is communicated in contemporary poetry pensamiento latinoamericano ['Latin American thought'].' (p. 189)
'In just over one hundred days it will be fifty years since Michael Dransfield’s death in 1973. A half a century, as I have observed elsewhere, is a very long time in literature, especially modern literature and especially modern poetry whose history – influenced at least partly by the accessibility of poetry from what were, in the past, unavailable cultures and languages – is inclined to develop at breakneck speed. With a nice harmony, it is twenty years since the publication of this retrospective edited by John Kinsella which, itself, appeared after the two major contributions to understanding Dransfield’s life and work: Livio Dobrez’s Parnassus Mad Ward: Michael Dransfield and the New Australian Poetry (1990) and Patricia Dobrez’s biography of 1999.' (Introduction)
'How to 'abandon Europe'? The oxymoronic quest to semantically or ideologically discard the signs of that which signifies modern thought and historical rationality in Europe's colonies is dismissed by Rama as futile. However, when the postcolonial relations of 'peripheries' to the European 'center' are examined the engagements between t he colonies and Europe are not characterized by straightforwardness either. While complete abandonment may not be possible, neither is complete affiliation. As such, postcoloniality can still be seen as a luminal state in its ambivalent positioning between what might be seen as originary Europe and a derivative periphery.
This article takes the periphery as a transnational, multilingual space, and it takes postcoloniality beyond the Anglosphere. It tests the hypothesis that there are postcolonial legacies shared across the Global South. Of central importance here is how postcoloniality is understood in Australia and Latin America, and how this is communicated in contemporary poetry pensamiento latinoamericano ['Latin American thought'].' (p. 189)
This essay 'seeks to find new ways to address Australian poetry, through the example of Michael Dransfield, a controversially significant poet.' (139)
