Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 'Blood and Land and Ghosts' : Haunting Words in Christos Tsiolkas's Dead Europe
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

Catherine Padmore's article seeks to understand the 'spectral effect' of Dead Europe. She explores 'two (out of many possible) main ideas, both of which involve a form of literary possession. These are:
1. The strategic use of the ghost story form to produce uncanny effects;
and
2. The lingering and difficult question of whether or not this novel is anti-Semitic.' (p.53)

Padmore concludes: 'Dead Europe can disturb readers on a number of levels. It uses traditional ghost story techniques and encourages reader identification with a confronting character to create a compelling literary possession not simply between characters within the book but between book and reader. In this way it provokes, but does not answer, multiple questions. Lodged in me, the novel's ghosts continue to provoke, unsettle and disturb, long after reading has finished.' (p.62)

Notes

  • Epigraph: Ah, do not ghosts prove - even rumours, whispers, stories of ghosts - that the past clings, that we are always going back ... - Graham Swift, Waterland (89)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon JASAL Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature; Spectres, Screens, Shadows, Mirrors Special Issue Tanya Dalziell (editor), Paul Genoni (editor), 2007 Z1373275 2007 periodical issue 2007 pg. 52-64
    Note: Includes list of works cited.

Works about this Work

'What's Haunting Dead Europe?' Trauma Fiction as a Reaction to Postmodern Governmentality Michael Vaughan , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 11 no. 2 2011;
'The ghosts of Christos Tsiolkas' Dead Europe have been a key focus of its critical reception. This article offers an alternative reading of these ghosts, arguing that Tsiolkas writes trauma fiction to challenge the totalising discourse of postmodern governmentality, to assert the impossibility of an end to history, and to write fiction which haunts its readers to enact an ethical relationship with the traumatic past.' (Author's abstract)
'What's Haunting Dead Europe?' Trauma Fiction as a Reaction to Postmodern Governmentality Michael Vaughan , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 11 no. 2 2011;
'The ghosts of Christos Tsiolkas' Dead Europe have been a key focus of its critical reception. This article offers an alternative reading of these ghosts, arguing that Tsiolkas writes trauma fiction to challenge the totalising discourse of postmodern governmentality, to assert the impossibility of an end to history, and to write fiction which haunts its readers to enact an ethical relationship with the traumatic past.' (Author's abstract)
Last amended 10 Aug 2010 15:46:46
52-64 http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-63067-20090910-1633-www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/326/467.html 'Blood and Land and Ghosts' : Haunting Words in Christos Tsiolkas's Dead Europesmall AustLit logo JASAL
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X