'In the photograph, the woman’s head tilts right. Her face registers a slight smile, but it’s hard to make out the expression behind her eyes, though I’m leaning into the page to look closer. What am I looking for? To put into language what the photograph purports to capture, some quality of the real beyond its paper, this fiction. Here’s my descriptive attempt. She is alone, not if you count the pigeons milling about her sandaled feet, or the tourists idling in the background. I think it’s summer or spring. Her sandals give it away. The woman is standing in Piazza San Marco. I’m guessing this from the caption beneath the photograph which reads: in Venice.' (Introduction)
Ivor Indyk points to the shortcomings of recent criticism of Kefala's Sydney Journals and concludes: 'The consolation one offers oneself, when confronted with the patronising criticism of Kefala and, more frequently in the recent past, the outright exclusion of her writing, is to hope that time will bring the recognition she deserves.' (232)
Sneja Gunew argues that Kefala's work has been marginalised by Australian literary criticism. 'The voice that manifest itself 40 years ago was categorized too quickly as "alien", a designation that has haunted Kefala's work thereafter. It is time to relocate her as a cultural pioneer who gave voice for over fifty years to those postwar immigrants who form an integral part of the fabric of Australian culture but whose contributions still require more systematic analysis and mapping, including a mapping in languages other than English.' (218)
Sneja Gunew argues that Kefala's work has been marginalised by Australian literary criticism. 'The voice that manifest itself 40 years ago was categorized too quickly as "alien", a designation that has haunted Kefala's work thereafter. It is time to relocate her as a cultural pioneer who gave voice for over fifty years to those postwar immigrants who form an integral part of the fabric of Australian culture but whose contributions still require more systematic analysis and mapping, including a mapping in languages other than English.' (218)
Ivor Indyk points to the shortcomings of recent criticism of Kefala's Sydney Journals and concludes: 'The consolation one offers oneself, when confronted with the patronising criticism of Kefala and, more frequently in the recent past, the outright exclusion of her writing, is to hope that time will bring the recognition she deserves.' (232)
