image of person or book cover 808242662945555697.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon Running Wild : Essays, Fictions and Memoirs Presented to Michael Wilding anthology   criticism   biography   short story   essay  
Issue Details: First known date: 2004... 2004 Running Wild : Essays, Fictions and Memoirs Presented to Michael Wilding
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

From the editors' introduction: Michael Wilding, the distinguished teacher, critic and writer, retired in 2000 from his Personal Chair in English and Australian Literature at the University of Sydney. Two of his former colleagues, David Brooks and Brian Kiernan, have put together this Festschrift as a mark of honour to his brilliant career.

A number of his colleagues and students have written about Michael's achievements as a scholar and critic in various fields, and many among them about his attendant interest in the politics of writing and criticism. These essays on a vast range of themes in English and Australian literatures (including the ones on Michael's own novels and short stories), some on European literature, and one on its interaction with Asian literature have been grouped together in broadly chronological sequence according to topic.

The last section of this volume has essays on Professor Wilding's parallel career as a creative writer, fiction by some of the contributors and a variety of memoirs.

Notes

  • Contents indexed selectively.

Contents

* Contents derived from the Sydney, New South Wales,: New Delhi,
c
India,
c
South Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
:
Sydney Association for Studies in Society and Culture ,Manohar , 2004 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction [to Running Wild], S. N. Mukherjee , single work biography (p. 9-11)
Towards the Real : A. B. Paterson, the Bush and the Boer War, Ken A. Stewart , single work criticism
The essay discusses Paterson's Boer War writings in the context of the poet's personal development as well as of contemporary political, historical, cultural and social concerns.
(p. 113-128)
Christina Stead's Politics, Jennifer Gribble , single work criticism
Discusses Stead's attitude towards socialism and communism as it reveals itself in her posthumously published novel I'm Dying Laughing and in some of her personal statements. Gribble concludes that Stead's novel 'takes an authoritative place among the political reassessments of communism that are only now beginning to emerge' (184).
(p. 173-186)
Michael Wilding's Short Stories : A Speculative Note, Robert Yeo , single work criticism
Discusses narrative techniques in Wilding's short stories and their place in contemporary fiction writing and theory.
(p. 187-196)
Tichborne Redivivus : Re-viewing Michael Wilding's Fiction, Brian Kiernan , single work criticism
Discusses the issues of truth and fiction in Wilding's writing, especially in his 'selective memoir' Wildest Dreams (1998).
(p. 197-207)
Literary New Chums : Michael Wilding and Marcus Clarke, Laurie Hergenhan , single work essay

Hergenhan's contribution to the Festschrift for Michael Wilding starts as a memoir, reminiscing about the mid-1960s when he and Wilding were colleagues at the University of Sydney. Both Wilding and Hergenhan were interested in a Marcus Clarke 'revival', and both did some critical writing on Clarke which, in Wilding's case, led to the significant monograph Marcus Clarke (1977). Hergenhan discovers an affinity between the two writers who both were expatriates from England having to make sense of the new environment in Australia, and who both were Australian as well as international writers. He argues that 'perhaps Wilding saw much of himself in Clarke' (226), and concludes:

'Clarke provided a literary model [for Wilding], a morale booster, and above all an analogue of a thoroughly professional writer, with a flexible, restless outlook, pursuing the new with the aid of the old, a young expatriate writer, beginning his acclimatisation but always nurturing his internationalism. ... Theirs is one of the most fascinating connections - of "imagined counterparts" - in Australian literary history' (232).

(p. 223-232)
Stories of Things Happening, Bruce A. Clunies Ross , single work essay
In this autobiographical piece Clunies Ross recalls incidents that have formed the climax of Living Together and are narrated in Wilding's 'Oxford stories', and he discloses their auto/biographical connections. Reminiscing about the experiences of young Australian expatriate writers in England in the 1960s, he emphasises that it is difficult to 'distinguish memories of stories from memories of things happening' (240).
(p. 233-246)
The Voice on the Verandah, Don Graham , single work short story humour

This humorous story about an American poet and critic who attends a literary conference in Australia and meets up with a number of Australian and international friends and colleagues is written in the 'roman a clef' mode. Readers acquainted with the Australian literary scene will probably recognise many of the characters in the story, including the author and the recipient of the Festschrift, and the satirical style itself is a tribute to the latter.

(p. 247-258)
Pursuing Wild Dreams, Adrian Caesar , single work short story humour (p. 259-265)
Paranoia, Surveillance and Literary Politics, Ian Syson , single work criticism

Syson investigates the background to recent attempts by right-wing journalists, historians and intellectuals (mainly in Quadrant and the Courier-Mail) to discredit some former sympathisers with socialism and communism, such as Manning Clark and Henry Reynolds. This leads to a more general discussion of the representation of Australia's history, the role Quadrant, the CIA and the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom have played in it, and the continuing impact of the Cold War on Australian politics and culture.

(p. 267-274)
Carrying Yves Tanguy up the Stairs, Vivian Smith , single work autobiography
Vivian Smith's memoir recalls an exhibition of modern French art which toured Australia, including Hobart, in the early 1950s while he was a young university student, and the impact it had on him, and on various people from other sectors of society. The piece includes reflections on Australian culture in the mid-20th century, and the changes since then, particularly with regard to attitudes towards the UK and continental Europe.
(p. 275-281)
The O in Bondi, Van Ikin , single work short story science fiction (p. 283-284)
Among Thieves, Terry Dowling , single work short story science fiction (p. 285-295)
Michael Wilding : A Select Bibliography, single work bibliography (p. 297-304)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Words and Worth Brigid Rooney , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 65 no. 1 2005; (p. 168-171)

— Review of Words for Their Own Sake : The Pursuit of Literature in an Economic Rationalist World 2004 anthology criticism essay ; Running Wild : Essays, Fictions and Memoirs Presented to Michael Wilding 2004 anthology criticism biography short story essay
From Robin Hood to Bourdieu Laurie Hergenhan , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: Newswrite : The NSW Writers' Centre Magazine , June no. 148 2005; (p. 34)

— Review of Running Wild : Essays, Fictions and Memoirs Presented to Michael Wilding 2004 anthology criticism biography short story essay
From Robin Hood to Bourdieu Laurie Hergenhan , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: Newswrite : The NSW Writers' Centre Magazine , June no. 148 2005; (p. 34)

— Review of Running Wild : Essays, Fictions and Memoirs Presented to Michael Wilding 2004 anthology criticism biography short story essay
Words and Worth Brigid Rooney , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 65 no. 1 2005; (p. 168-171)

— Review of Words for Their Own Sake : The Pursuit of Literature in an Economic Rationalist World 2004 anthology criticism essay ; Running Wild : Essays, Fictions and Memoirs Presented to Michael Wilding 2004 anthology criticism biography short story essay
Last amended 9 Jan 2020 14:22:13
X