y separately published work icon Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Rainforests evoke vivid imagery; the profusion of intertwined trees and undergrowth both invites and confounds exploration. Acclaimed writer Janette Turner Hospital conjures up a rainforest for readers by weaving threads of connection and meaning into a labyrinth of characters and plot lines. From The Ivory Swing to Orpheus Lost, Hospital's award-winning novels and short stories have challenged and intrigued readers for over twenty-five years. Hospital's books tackle complex themes of dislocation, identity, ethics and the nature of reality, wrapping around a reader like rainforest creepers, remaining attached long after the last page is turned.

In this groundbreaking work of literary criticism, David Callahan signposts and analyses the major themes scattered throughout Janette Turner Hospital's writing. Rainforest Narratives is the perfect companion to her fiction for readers and scholars alike.' -- Publisher description.

Notes

  • Dedication: For my children, Nicholas and Kate, who have put up with my working on weekends for far too much of their childhood.

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Works about this Work

Trauma, Memory and Landscape in Queensland : Women Writing ‘a New Alphabet of Moss and Water’ Jessica Gildersleeve , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , December vol. 19 no. 2 2012; (p. 205-216) 'The cultural association of Queensland with a condition of imagination or unreality has a strong history. Queensland has always ‘retained much of its quality as an abstraction, an idea’, asserts Thea Astley in her famous essay on the state's identity (Astley 1976: 263). In one of the most quoted descriptions of Queensland's literary representation, Pat Buckridge draws attention to its ‘othering’, suggesting that Queensland possesses ‘a different sense of distance, different architecture, a different apprehension of time, a distinctive preoccupation with personal eccentricity, and . . . a strong sense of cultural antitheses’ (1976: 30). Rosie Scott comes closest to the concerns of this present article when she asserts that this so-called difference ‘is definitely partly to do with the landscape. In Brisbane, for instance, the rickety old wooden Queenslanders drenched in bougainvillea, the palms, the astounding number of birds even in Red Hill where I lived, the jacarandas, are all unique in Australia’ (quoted in Sheahan-Bright and Glover 2002: xv). For Vivienne Muller, Buckridge's ‘cultural antitheses’ are most clearly expressed in precisely this interpretation of Queensland as a place somewhere between imagined wilderness and paradise (2001: 72). Thus, as Gillian Whitlock suggests, such differences are primarily fictional constructs that feed ‘an image making process founded more on nationalist debates about city and bush, centre and periphery, the Southern states versus the Deep North than on any “real” sense of regionalism’ (quoted in Muller 2001: 80). Queensland, in this reading, is subject to the Orientalist discourse of an Australian national identity in which the so-called civilisation of the south-eastern urban capitals necessitates a dark ‘other’. I want to draw out this understanding of the landscape as it is imagined in Queensland women's writing. Gail Reekie (1994: 8) suggests that, ‘Women's sense of place, of region, is powerfully constructed by their marginality to History.’ These narratives do assert Queensland's ‘difference’, but as part of an articulation of psychological extremity experienced by those living on the edges of a simultaneously ideological and geographically limited space. The Queensland landscape, I argue, is thus used as both setting for and symbol of traumatic experience.' (Publication abstract)
Untitled Marion Spies , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Zeitschrift fur Australienstudien , no. 25 2011; (p. 146-151)
— Review of Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism
Untitled Pradeep Trikha , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Prosopisia , vol. 3 no. 1 2010; (p. 77-79)
— Review of Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism
[Review] Rainforest Narratives Bronwen Levy , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature , Spring vol. 29 no. 1 2010; (p. 210-212)
— Review of Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism
The Year's Work in Fiction: 2009-2010 Elizabeth Webby , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 55 no. 1 2010; (p. 119-139)
— Review of Fear Factor : Terror Incognito 2009 anthology short story extract ; A True History of the Hula Hoop Judith Lanigan , 2009 single work novel ; The World Beneath Cate Kennedy , 2009 single work novel ; The Paperbark Shoe Goldie Goldbloom , 2009 single work novel ; Swimming : A Novel Enza Gandolfo , 2004 single work novel ; The Bath Fugues Brian Castro , 2009 selected work novella ; The Lost Life Steven Carroll , 2009 single work novel ; Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism ; Brian Castro's Fiction : The Seductive Play of Language Bernadette Brennan , 2008 multi chapter work criticism ; Legacy Larissa Behrendt , 2009 single work novel ; The Nature of Ice Robyn Mundy , 2009 single work novel ; Lovesong Alex Miller , 2009 single work novel ; Wonders of a Godless World Andrew McGahan , 2009 single work novel ; Smoke in the Room Emily Maguire , 2009 single work novel ; The Australian Long Story 2009 anthology short story prose novella autobiography ; Every Secret Thing Marie Munkara , 2008 selected work short story ; Arrhythmia : Stories of Desire Richard Rossiter , 2009 selected work short story ; The China Garden Kristina Olsson , 2009 single work novel ; Barley Patch Gerald Murnane , 2009 single work novel ; Tom Hurstbourne, or, A Squatter's Life John Clavering Wood , 2010 single work novel ; Truth Peter Temple , 2009 single work novel ; The Window Seat and Other Stories Archie Weller , 2009 selected work short story ; Headlong : A Novel Susan Varga , 2009 single work novel ; The Legacy Kirsten Tranter , 2010 single work novel
A Peripatetic Life Susan Lever , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 314 2009; (p. 54-55)
— Review of Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism
Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital by David Callahan Maureen Clark , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , no. 9 2009;
— Review of Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism
The Year's Work in Fiction: 2009-2010 Elizabeth Webby , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 55 no. 1 2010; (p. 119-139)
— Review of Fear Factor : Terror Incognito 2009 anthology short story extract ; A True History of the Hula Hoop Judith Lanigan , 2009 single work novel ; The World Beneath Cate Kennedy , 2009 single work novel ; The Paperbark Shoe Goldie Goldbloom , 2009 single work novel ; Swimming : A Novel Enza Gandolfo , 2004 single work novel ; The Bath Fugues Brian Castro , 2009 selected work novella ; The Lost Life Steven Carroll , 2009 single work novel ; Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism ; Brian Castro's Fiction : The Seductive Play of Language Bernadette Brennan , 2008 multi chapter work criticism ; Legacy Larissa Behrendt , 2009 single work novel ; The Nature of Ice Robyn Mundy , 2009 single work novel ; Lovesong Alex Miller , 2009 single work novel ; Wonders of a Godless World Andrew McGahan , 2009 single work novel ; Smoke in the Room Emily Maguire , 2009 single work novel ; The Australian Long Story 2009 anthology short story prose novella autobiography ; Every Secret Thing Marie Munkara , 2008 selected work short story ; Arrhythmia : Stories of Desire Richard Rossiter , 2009 selected work short story ; The China Garden Kristina Olsson , 2009 single work novel ; Barley Patch Gerald Murnane , 2009 single work novel ; Tom Hurstbourne, or, A Squatter's Life John Clavering Wood , 2010 single work novel ; Truth Peter Temple , 2009 single work novel ; The Window Seat and Other Stories Archie Weller , 2009 selected work short story ; Headlong : A Novel Susan Varga , 2009 single work novel ; The Legacy Kirsten Tranter , 2010 single work novel
Untitled Marion Spies , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Zeitschrift fur Australienstudien , no. 25 2011; (p. 146-151)
— Review of Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism
Untitled Pradeep Trikha , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Prosopisia , vol. 3 no. 1 2010; (p. 77-79)
— Review of Rainforest Narratives : The Work of Janette Turner Hospital David Callahan , 2009 single work criticism
Breaking the Barrier David Callahan , 2009 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 315 2009; (p. 6)
Trauma, Memory and Landscape in Queensland : Women Writing ‘a New Alphabet of Moss and Water’ Jessica Gildersleeve , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , December vol. 19 no. 2 2012; (p. 205-216) 'The cultural association of Queensland with a condition of imagination or unreality has a strong history. Queensland has always ‘retained much of its quality as an abstraction, an idea’, asserts Thea Astley in her famous essay on the state's identity (Astley 1976: 263). In one of the most quoted descriptions of Queensland's literary representation, Pat Buckridge draws attention to its ‘othering’, suggesting that Queensland possesses ‘a different sense of distance, different architecture, a different apprehension of time, a distinctive preoccupation with personal eccentricity, and . . . a strong sense of cultural antitheses’ (1976: 30). Rosie Scott comes closest to the concerns of this present article when she asserts that this so-called difference ‘is definitely partly to do with the landscape. In Brisbane, for instance, the rickety old wooden Queenslanders drenched in bougainvillea, the palms, the astounding number of birds even in Red Hill where I lived, the jacarandas, are all unique in Australia’ (quoted in Sheahan-Bright and Glover 2002: xv). For Vivienne Muller, Buckridge's ‘cultural antitheses’ are most clearly expressed in precisely this interpretation of Queensland as a place somewhere between imagined wilderness and paradise (2001: 72). Thus, as Gillian Whitlock suggests, such differences are primarily fictional constructs that feed ‘an image making process founded more on nationalist debates about city and bush, centre and periphery, the Southern states versus the Deep North than on any “real” sense of regionalism’ (quoted in Muller 2001: 80). Queensland, in this reading, is subject to the Orientalist discourse of an Australian national identity in which the so-called civilisation of the south-eastern urban capitals necessitates a dark ‘other’. I want to draw out this understanding of the landscape as it is imagined in Queensland women's writing. Gail Reekie (1994: 8) suggests that, ‘Women's sense of place, of region, is powerfully constructed by their marginality to History.’ These narratives do assert Queensland's ‘difference’, but as part of an articulation of psychological extremity experienced by those living on the edges of a simultaneously ideological and geographically limited space. The Queensland landscape, I argue, is thus used as both setting for and symbol of traumatic experience.' (Publication abstract)
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Last amended 8 Jul 2011 10:01:56
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