Issue Details: First known date: 2007... 2007 The Shadow on the Field : Literature and Ecology in the Western Australian Wheatbelt
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Satellite images show a sharp line marking the end (or beginning) of the country cleared for farming in south-western Australia. It is the most visible clearance line on the planet and demarcates an area the size of Scotland from which, in the space of two generations, the native vegetation was almost entirely stripped. This chapter attempts to trace this far-reaching ecological event in the creative literatures of those generations, focussing on the inter-war years. (abstract taken from The Littoral Zone)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Littoral Zone : Australian Contexts and Their Writers C. A. Cranston (editor), Robert Zeller (editor), Amsterdam : Rodopi , 2007 Z1422293 2007 anthology criticism

    'In this, the first collection of ecocritical essays devoted to Australian contexts and their writers, Australian and US scholars explore the transliteration of land and sea through the works of Australian authors and through their own experiences. The littoral zone is the starting point in this fresh approach to reading literature organised around the natural environment - rainforest, desert, mountains, coast, islands, Antarctica. There's the beach, where sexual and spiritual crises occur; the Western Australian wheatbelt; deserts, camel trekking, and the transformation of a salt flat into an inland island; New Age literature that 'appropriates' Aboriginal culture as the healing poultice for an ailing West; a re-examination of pastoralism; an inquiry into whether Judith Wright's work can "persuade us to rejoice" in the world; the Limestone Plains, home of the bush capital and the bogong moth; tropical North Queensland; national parks where "the mountains meet the sea"; temperate islands, with their history of sealing, Soldier Settlement, and sea country pastoral; and Antarctica, where a utopian vision gives way to an emphasis on its 'timeless' icescape as minimalist backdrop for human dramas. The author-terrain includes poets, playwrights, novelists, and non-fiction writers across the range of contexts constituting the littoral zone of 'Australia'.'

    Source: Rodopi website, http://www.rodopi.nl
    Sighted: 28/08/2007

    Amsterdam : Rodopi , 2007
    pg. 45-69
Last amended 6 Jun 2012 13:59:14
45-69 The Shadow on the Field : Literature and Ecology in the Western Australian Wheatbeltsmall AustLit logo
Subjects:
  • Wheatbelt Region, Western Australia,
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