'This article considers remembrance and forgetting of ‘June Fourth’ (also known as the Tiananmen Square Incident or the Tiananmen Square Massacre) in Australia’s Chinese-language (Sinophone) narratives. Australia’s Sinophone narratives are defined as including those texts created using the Chinese language in Australia as well as the Chinese-language translations of Australian Anglophone narrative texts involving China. The article considers four examples of remembrance and forgetting of June Fourth – each Australian in substance: the 1989 performance of Retrial of a Political Prisoner by Chinese students in Sydney; the novel Oz Tale Sweet and Sour by Leo Xi Rang Liu (Liu Ao), written and first published in Chinese; and Chinese-language translations of two Anglophone texts written by white Australians – Nicholas Jose’s Avenue of Eternal Peace (translated by Li Yao) and The Hawke Memoirs (translated by a large committee).'
'Genres of written communication do not take place in a vacuum; rather they are fundamentally influenced by historical context and socio-political circumstance. In recent years, the political memoir genre in Australia has moved away from its tradition of personalised narrative towards a more assertive mode of historical representation. Drawing on empirical and oral history research, this article examines recent alterations in the genre as manifest in six political memoirs produced by senior members of the Rudd–Gillard Labor government. I conclude that Australia's embittered and combative political culture has driven changes in the aesthetic and epistemological features of the genre itself. This research demonstrates that the “trust deficit” embedded in contemporary democracies is manifest not only in the daily ephemera of public discourse, but also in long-form modes and genres of political communication.' (Publication abstract)
'Some years ago, in my essay ‘No Secret Selves?’, I attempted to develop a typology for the personal writings of politicians. I have since tried to refine that typology, though I still remain unhappy with the nomenclature. I would now suggest a fivefold typology as follows: (1) personalised policy essay; (2) political autobiography; (3) political memoir; (4) politician’s autobiography; and (5) political diary. As references in this workshop suggest that some of you have read that essay, I will spend little time on those categories that have remained unchanged and will concentrate on the refinements and more particularly on the category of the political diary.' (Introduction)
'Some years ago, in my essay ‘No Secret Selves?’, I attempted to develop a typology for the personal writings of politicians. I have since tried to refine that typology, though I still remain unhappy with the nomenclature. I would now suggest a fivefold typology as follows: (1) personalised policy essay; (2) political autobiography; (3) political memoir; (4) politician’s autobiography; and (5) political diary. As references in this workshop suggest that some of you have read that essay, I will spend little time on those categories that have remained unchanged and will concentrate on the refinements and more particularly on the category of the political diary.' (Introduction)
'Genres of written communication do not take place in a vacuum; rather they are fundamentally influenced by historical context and socio-political circumstance. In recent years, the political memoir genre in Australia has moved away from its tradition of personalised narrative towards a more assertive mode of historical representation. Drawing on empirical and oral history research, this article examines recent alterations in the genre as manifest in six political memoirs produced by senior members of the Rudd–Gillard Labor government. I conclude that Australia's embittered and combative political culture has driven changes in the aesthetic and epistemological features of the genre itself. This research demonstrates that the “trust deficit” embedded in contemporary democracies is manifest not only in the daily ephemera of public discourse, but also in long-form modes and genres of political communication.' (Publication abstract)
'This article considers remembrance and forgetting of ‘June Fourth’ (also known as the Tiananmen Square Incident or the Tiananmen Square Massacre) in Australia’s Chinese-language (Sinophone) narratives. Australia’s Sinophone narratives are defined as including those texts created using the Chinese language in Australia as well as the Chinese-language translations of Australian Anglophone narrative texts involving China. The article considers four examples of remembrance and forgetting of June Fourth – each Australian in substance: the 1989 performance of Retrial of a Political Prisoner by Chinese students in Sydney; the novel Oz Tale Sweet and Sour by Leo Xi Rang Liu (Liu Ao), written and first published in Chinese; and Chinese-language translations of two Anglophone texts written by white Australians – Nicholas Jose’s Avenue of Eternal Peace (translated by Li Yao) and The Hawke Memoirs (translated by a large committee).'
