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Notes
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The Ape-men of Mobongu was first published in The Boys Weekly, a Sydney magazine published by the Daily Telegraph from April 1926 to December 1927.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Xavier Herbert’s Enlightenment : The Solomon Islands Nightmare, 1928
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Past & Present : Negotiating Literary and Cultural Geographies : Essays for Paul Sharrad 2018; (p. 61–83)'Before the appearance of his first major book, Capricornia (1938), the Australian novelist Xavier Herbert published approximately forty short stories under different names in a variety of magazines and newspapers.' These are gener-ally regarded as immature, written before he discovered either his voice or his theme, when he was experimenting with different audiences, genres, subjects and pseudonyms, and trying to establish a literary career. Of these early stories, about one quarter have maritime settings, mostly in the Timor, the Arafura, or the Coral Seas. Only two are set in Melanesia: The Ape-Men of Mobongu; in what was then commonly known as Dutch New Guinea, and The Other McLean; in the Solomon Islands. The first appeared in The Boys Weekly in 1927, the second in the Australian Journal (and the Northern Standard the following year).2 In this essay I intend to take a small step toward addressing the fiction of disconnection between Australia and its Pacific neighbours that, until the recent transnational turn in the humanities, Australian scholars have for the most part maintained simply by preferring national to comparative contexts of enquiry. Paul Sharrad has done more than most to extend the Australian frame of reference to include Pacific and south-east Asian cultural production. For that reason, lam pleased to take the opportunity provided by this publication in his honour not only to revisit the facts of Herbert's experience in the Australian-mandated territories of the Pacific in the 1920s, but also to ask what influence it had on his formation as an Australian writer in the 1930s.' (Introduction)
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Intertexts of Capricornia
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Shadow of the Precursor 2012; (p. 62-73) 'This chapter explores some of the many illuminating literary as well as film intertexts of Xavier Herbert's "vast" 1938 novel Capricornia, looking backwards and forwards in time. It considers both "vertical and "horizontal" types of intertextuality. Thus, some relationships begin with reference to another literary text ("horizontal"), while others work across modes, from novel to film or vice versa ("vertical"). Locating the novel in terms of a global system of intertexts, the chapter offers a balance to readings that attempt to objectify and limit the novel's "reality," especially by narrowly nation-focused explanations. The effect is expansive, moving between conventional literary codes of meaning and into mythic, cartographic and astrological realms of apprehension. What emerges is a text just as impure as the novel's own social idealism - a creole text to embody the Creole Nation. (62) -
Preface to 'The Ape Men of Mobongu'
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 12 no. 3 2002; (p. 5-9) Xavier Herbert wrote under the name Herbert Astor up until 1933 and McDougall is interested in his captivity narrative The Ape-Men of Mobongu which is one of only two known stories that he wrote for children. McDougall posits that Herbert's representation (or lack there of) regarding Australia's indigenous population is a projection of 'his own unconsious horror of darkness and blind fear of the primitive' (6). Furthermore, he claims this limits Herbert's ability to 'control or transcend animal impulses, lack of civilisation and lack of humanity' and instead, the novel functions as a 'primitivist metaphor' which supports the perceived superiority of white people over indigenous people, the explorer-hero over the idigene (6-7).
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Preface to 'The Ape Men of Mobongu'
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 12 no. 3 2002; (p. 5-9) Xavier Herbert wrote under the name Herbert Astor up until 1933 and McDougall is interested in his captivity narrative The Ape-Men of Mobongu which is one of only two known stories that he wrote for children. McDougall posits that Herbert's representation (or lack there of) regarding Australia's indigenous population is a projection of 'his own unconsious horror of darkness and blind fear of the primitive' (6). Furthermore, he claims this limits Herbert's ability to 'control or transcend animal impulses, lack of civilisation and lack of humanity' and instead, the novel functions as a 'primitivist metaphor' which supports the perceived superiority of white people over indigenous people, the explorer-hero over the idigene (6-7). -
Intertexts of Capricornia
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Shadow of the Precursor 2012; (p. 62-73) 'This chapter explores some of the many illuminating literary as well as film intertexts of Xavier Herbert's "vast" 1938 novel Capricornia, looking backwards and forwards in time. It considers both "vertical and "horizontal" types of intertextuality. Thus, some relationships begin with reference to another literary text ("horizontal"), while others work across modes, from novel to film or vice versa ("vertical"). Locating the novel in terms of a global system of intertexts, the chapter offers a balance to readings that attempt to objectify and limit the novel's "reality," especially by narrowly nation-focused explanations. The effect is expansive, moving between conventional literary codes of meaning and into mythic, cartographic and astrological realms of apprehension. What emerges is a text just as impure as the novel's own social idealism - a creole text to embody the Creole Nation. (62) -
Xavier Herbert’s Enlightenment : The Solomon Islands Nightmare, 1928
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Past & Present : Negotiating Literary and Cultural Geographies : Essays for Paul Sharrad 2018; (p. 61–83)'Before the appearance of his first major book, Capricornia (1938), the Australian novelist Xavier Herbert published approximately forty short stories under different names in a variety of magazines and newspapers.' These are gener-ally regarded as immature, written before he discovered either his voice or his theme, when he was experimenting with different audiences, genres, subjects and pseudonyms, and trying to establish a literary career. Of these early stories, about one quarter have maritime settings, mostly in the Timor, the Arafura, or the Coral Seas. Only two are set in Melanesia: The Ape-Men of Mobongu; in what was then commonly known as Dutch New Guinea, and The Other McLean; in the Solomon Islands. The first appeared in The Boys Weekly in 1927, the second in the Australian Journal (and the Northern Standard the following year).2 In this essay I intend to take a small step toward addressing the fiction of disconnection between Australia and its Pacific neighbours that, until the recent transnational turn in the humanities, Australian scholars have for the most part maintained simply by preferring national to comparative contexts of enquiry. Paul Sharrad has done more than most to extend the Australian frame of reference to include Pacific and south-east Asian cultural production. For that reason, lam pleased to take the opportunity provided by this publication in his honour not only to revisit the facts of Herbert's experience in the Australian-mandated territories of the Pacific in the 1920s, but also to ask what influence it had on his formation as an Australian writer in the 1930s.' (Introduction)
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Sepik River,
cPapua New Guinea,cPacific Region,
- 1927
