y separately published work icon Backs to the Wall single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 1937... 1937 Backs to the Wall
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.

Notes

  • Listed as fiction by Miller, Australian Literature from its Beginnings to 1935 (1940) and Miller and Macartney, Australian Literature : A Bibliography to 1938 : Extended to 1950 (1956). However, this work appears to be autobiographical and has been listed with this form by numerous sources.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1938
Serialised by: The Northern Champion 1912 newspaper (3 issues)
Notes:
Serialised from 17 September 1938.
Link: Sighted: 27/10/2024
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Related Works

VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (1)

Works about this Work

“Whichever and Whatever It Was” : Rendering War and Peace in Australian WWI Narratives Clare Rhoden , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; 'Australian narratives of World War I (WWI) reflect a different but characteristic commemoration of that event. While the best (to modern eyes) novels of WWI present a comprehensive picture of disillusionment, futility and waste, Australian stories proffer the view that the war was worthwhile, and that the sacrifices of the Anzacs were honourable and justified. In placing WWI as a salient marker denoting the origin of the nation, Australian texts diverge from the revered WWI canon’s convincing portrayal of the war as a symbol of civilisation’s demise. Even accepting this divergence, however, there is much in Australian narratives that amplifies the memorialisation of the war in Australian society.' (Introduction)
Lovely Boys, Good Blokes, and Bonzer Bints : Love and Eroticism in British and Australian Great War Narratives Clare Rhoden , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 28 no. 1 2014; (p. 155-165, 257) 'Rhoden examines love and eroticisam in British and Australian Great War narratives. Interestingly, Australian narratives, with their protagonists even more separated from their women, are also likely to eschew homosexual themes. Although male tenderness exists, it is represented as being of a much lesser degree, at least in its physical manifestation. Male-male friendship–mateships–represented by Australian authors may carry undertones of emotional and physical intensity, but this is usually expressed in curt, economical gestures. The "lovely boys" of British works give way to a bunch of good blokes. Readers need to look more closely for evidence of romance and special individual bonds.' (Publication abstract)
Ruins or Foundations : Great War Literature in the Australian Curriculum Clare Rhoden , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012; 'The Great War has been represented in Australian curricula since 1914, in texts with tones ranging from bellicose patriotism to idealistic pacifism. Australian curricula have included war literature as one way of transmitting cultural values, values that continue to evolve as successive generations relate differently to war and peace. Changes in ethical perspectives and popular feeling have guided text selection and pedagogy, so that texts which were once accepted as foundational to Australian society seem, at later times, to document civilisation's ruin.

In recent years, overseas texts have been preferred above Australian examples as mediators of the Great War, an event still held by many to be of essential importance to Australia. This paper first considers arguments for including Great War texts on the national curriculum, exploring what war literature can, and cannot, be expected to bring to the program. Interrogating the purpose/s of war literature in the curriculum and the ways in which the texts may be used to meet such expectations, the paper then discusses styles of war texts and investigates whether there is a case for including more texts by Australian authors.' (Author's abstract)
What’s Missing in This Picture? : The ‘Middle Parts of Fortune’ in Australian Great War Literature Clare Rhoden , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Philament : Borders, Regions, Worlds , August no. 16 2010; (p. 21-33) 'Disillusionment as a style of war fiction, with its characteristic debunking of old- fashioned glorious-war notions, owes its prominence more to the post-war, depression-oppressed mood of the 1930s than to the war's factual history. Soldier authors such as Sassoon, Graves and Aldington followed Remarque's popular All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) with their own reminiscences, part auto-biography, part imagination, and wholly literary. With an emphasis on the terrible conditions and the devastating experiences of sensitive individual protagonists, the disenchanted novels of the Great War canon expose war's futility and horror. The disenchantment perspective is generally summarised as the culpable sacrifice of idealistic young men by war-mongering politicians and profiteers. Its tropes are the Western Front trench, mud, shellshock, summary executions and the ruin of a generation. Although recent historical and literary analyses have demonstrated errors, exaggerations and misunderstandings in these clichés, popular memory still prefers disillusion. So indeed does current literary fiction set in the period.' (p. 2)
In Short : Nonfiction Bruce Elder , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 May 2007; (p. 35)
— Review of Backs to the Wall G. D. Mitchell , 1937 single work autobiography
Evocative Tale of Life on the Front Geoff Pryor , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 28 April 2007; (p. 13)
— Review of Backs to the Wall G. D. Mitchell , 1937 single work autobiography
In Short : Nonfiction Bruce Elder , 2007 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 May 2007; (p. 35)
— Review of Backs to the Wall G. D. Mitchell , 1937 single work autobiography
New Australian Books Frederick T. Macartney , 1937 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 12 May vol. 9 no. 5 1937; (p. 69-70)
— Review of The Picnic Martin Boyd , 1937 single work novel ; The Tramp and Other Stories Dal Stivens , 1936 selected work short story ; Plaque with Laurel M. Barnard Eldershaw , 1937 single work novel ; Old Man Murray Will Lawson , 1937 single work novel ; Backs to the Wall G. D. Mitchell , 1937 single work autobiography
Outstanding New Publications and Best Sellers 1937 single work column
— Appears in: All About Books , 15 June vol. 9 no. 6 1937; (p. 88)
What’s Missing in This Picture? : The ‘Middle Parts of Fortune’ in Australian Great War Literature Clare Rhoden , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Philament : Borders, Regions, Worlds , August no. 16 2010; (p. 21-33) 'Disillusionment as a style of war fiction, with its characteristic debunking of old- fashioned glorious-war notions, owes its prominence more to the post-war, depression-oppressed mood of the 1930s than to the war's factual history. Soldier authors such as Sassoon, Graves and Aldington followed Remarque's popular All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) with their own reminiscences, part auto-biography, part imagination, and wholly literary. With an emphasis on the terrible conditions and the devastating experiences of sensitive individual protagonists, the disenchanted novels of the Great War canon expose war's futility and horror. The disenchantment perspective is generally summarised as the culpable sacrifice of idealistic young men by war-mongering politicians and profiteers. Its tropes are the Western Front trench, mud, shellshock, summary executions and the ruin of a generation. Although recent historical and literary analyses have demonstrated errors, exaggerations and misunderstandings in these clichés, popular memory still prefers disillusion. So indeed does current literary fiction set in the period.' (p. 2)
Ruins or Foundations : Great War Literature in the Australian Curriculum Clare Rhoden , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012; 'The Great War has been represented in Australian curricula since 1914, in texts with tones ranging from bellicose patriotism to idealistic pacifism. Australian curricula have included war literature as one way of transmitting cultural values, values that continue to evolve as successive generations relate differently to war and peace. Changes in ethical perspectives and popular feeling have guided text selection and pedagogy, so that texts which were once accepted as foundational to Australian society seem, at later times, to document civilisation's ruin.

In recent years, overseas texts have been preferred above Australian examples as mediators of the Great War, an event still held by many to be of essential importance to Australia. This paper first considers arguments for including Great War texts on the national curriculum, exploring what war literature can, and cannot, be expected to bring to the program. Interrogating the purpose/s of war literature in the curriculum and the ways in which the texts may be used to meet such expectations, the paper then discusses styles of war texts and investigates whether there is a case for including more texts by Australian authors.' (Author's abstract)
Lovely Boys, Good Blokes, and Bonzer Bints : Love and Eroticism in British and Australian Great War Narratives Clare Rhoden , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 28 no. 1 2014; (p. 155-165, 257) 'Rhoden examines love and eroticisam in British and Australian Great War narratives. Interestingly, Australian narratives, with their protagonists even more separated from their women, are also likely to eschew homosexual themes. Although male tenderness exists, it is represented as being of a much lesser degree, at least in its physical manifestation. Male-male friendship–mateships–represented by Australian authors may carry undertones of emotional and physical intensity, but this is usually expressed in curt, economical gestures. The "lovely boys" of British works give way to a bunch of good blokes. Readers need to look more closely for evidence of romance and special individual bonds.' (Publication abstract)
“Whichever and Whatever It Was” : Rendering War and Peace in Australian WWI Narratives Clare Rhoden , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; 'Australian narratives of World War I (WWI) reflect a different but characteristic commemoration of that event. While the best (to modern eyes) novels of WWI present a comprehensive picture of disillusionment, futility and waste, Australian stories proffer the view that the war was worthwhile, and that the sacrifices of the Anzacs were honourable and justified. In placing WWI as a salient marker denoting the origin of the nation, Australian texts diverge from the revered WWI canon’s convincing portrayal of the war as a symbol of civilisation’s demise. Even accepting this divergence, however, there is much in Australian narratives that amplifies the memorialisation of the war in Australian society.' (Introduction)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (8)
Last amended 27 Oct 2024 15:28:53
Subjects:
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X