Issue Details: First known date: 2002... 2002 B-b-british Objects : Possession, Naming, and Translation in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Author's abstract: 'Imported material forms were central to the settlement of Australia as a penal colony, beginning with the "discovery" of the continent by James Cook, who took possession of New South Wales in 1770 by naming Possession Island. The first part of this article traces the intersection in early journals and legal records between material instability and naming, arguing that as Aboriginal peoples and convicts challenged the social meaning of objects, the ability to refer to those objects became essential. The second part explores failed naming in David Malouf's novel "Remembering Babylon" (1993), set on the early-nineteenth-century frontier, whose central character calls himself a "B-b-british object," stuttered words that evoke the historical importance and the vulnerability of imported goods during colonization and settlement in Australia.'

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon PMLA vol. 117 no. 5 October 2002 Z1109294 2002 periodical issue Contents indexed selectively. 2002 pg. 1158-1171
Last amended 12 Feb 2009 12:06:38
1158-1171 B-b-british Objects : Possession, Naming, and Translation in David Malouf's Remembering Babylonsmall AustLit logo PMLA
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