Thylacine single work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 1985... 1985 Thylacine
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Notes

  • Inside back cover of Night Animals states that 'Thylacine' was first published in the Sydney Sun-Herald but no date is given.

Affiliation Notes

  • Thylacines and the Anthropocene

    This work is affiliated with the Thylacines and the Anthropocene dataset, tracking thylacine extinction and ecological themes in Australian literature. 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Short Stories no. 9 1985 Z606087 1985 periodical issue 1985 pg. 38-43
    Note: With an illustration by Waldemar Buczynski
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Night Animals Bruce Pascoe , Ringwood : Penguin , 1986 Z390962 1986 selected work short story 'Night Animals is about people on the edge, threatened by the collapse of their visions, with only the night as witness: the local butcher whose business booms mysteriously; the whites whose scheme involves spiked flour; a tart and a fool who meet in a pub and find solidarity; a man inspired by the brilliance of a tropical parrot. Whatever the setting, these stories ring with the clarity of the bush in the night, the haunting cry of the boo-book owl.' (Source: Back cover) Ringwood : Penguin , 1986 pg. 1-8
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Personal Best 2 : Stories and Statements by Australian Writers Garry Disher (editor), North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1991 Z232459 1991 anthology short story criticism extract biography poetry North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1991 pg. 161-169
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Century of Australian Stories Carmel Bird (editor), Ringwood : Viking , 2000 Z290212 2000 anthology short story Ringwood : Viking , 2000 pg. 528-533

Works about this Work

The Tasmanian Tiger From Extinction to Identity : Myth in White Australian Society and Fiction Anne Le Guellec-Minel , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Literary Location and Dislocation of Myth in the Post/Colonial Anglophone World 2017; (p. 67-83)

The Thylacine or 'Tasmanian Tiger' today is a well-known and well-loved icon of the Australian world. Although it is probable that the species had already disappeared from mainland Australia by 1788, it was still present in Tasmania when settlement of the island began in 1803. As the colony expanded, this largest surviving carnivorous marsupial came to be seen as such a formidable threat to the pastoral economy that bounty schemes were introduced to eradicate it. Since the last captive thylacine died in 1936, however, it has become a symbol of Australian and more specifically Tasmanian identity. The heraldic crests of several towns in Tasmania feature at least one thylacine as supporter and the State Tasmania has two. It also appears on licence plates and until quite recently graced the labels of the state's best-selling beer.' Nor are all Australians reconciled with the official view that the 'Tassie tiger' should now be considered irreversibly lost. Every year, there are several claimed sightings throughout Australia and thousands of dollars have been put towards the quest for the thylacine, either to try to catch it alive or to clone it back to life using DNA material extracted from museum specimens. Tourist shops cater to thylacine nostalgia by selling T-shirts, magnets, and key-rings adorned with tigers and the caption 'I want to believe' as well as mugs and caps that simply read: 'I'm alive'. Such a reversal in the perceptions of the thylacine, from colonist's bane to national icon and naturalist's grail constitutes a striking example of the complex and contradictory uses mythical constructions of otherness have been put to in settler communities.' (Introduction)
 

The Tasmanian Tiger From Extinction to Identity : Myth in White Australian Society and Fiction Anne Le Guellec-Minel , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Literary Location and Dislocation of Myth in the Post/Colonial Anglophone World 2017; (p. 67-83)

The Thylacine or 'Tasmanian Tiger' today is a well-known and well-loved icon of the Australian world. Although it is probable that the species had already disappeared from mainland Australia by 1788, it was still present in Tasmania when settlement of the island began in 1803. As the colony expanded, this largest surviving carnivorous marsupial came to be seen as such a formidable threat to the pastoral economy that bounty schemes were introduced to eradicate it. Since the last captive thylacine died in 1936, however, it has become a symbol of Australian and more specifically Tasmanian identity. The heraldic crests of several towns in Tasmania feature at least one thylacine as supporter and the State Tasmania has two. It also appears on licence plates and until quite recently graced the labels of the state's best-selling beer.' Nor are all Australians reconciled with the official view that the 'Tassie tiger' should now be considered irreversibly lost. Every year, there are several claimed sightings throughout Australia and thousands of dollars have been put towards the quest for the thylacine, either to try to catch it alive or to clone it back to life using DNA material extracted from museum specimens. Tourist shops cater to thylacine nostalgia by selling T-shirts, magnets, and key-rings adorned with tigers and the caption 'I want to believe' as well as mugs and caps that simply read: 'I'm alive'. Such a reversal in the perceptions of the thylacine, from colonist's bane to national icon and naturalist's grail constitutes a striking example of the complex and contradictory uses mythical constructions of otherness have been put to in settler communities.' (Introduction)
 

Last amended 7 Jun 2022 18:01:15
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