Fencing in the Frontier single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2010... 2010 Fencing in the Frontier
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'...examines a rather less masked from of cultural domination and inscription : that of the fence as a marker of territorial possession, management and (from the settler point of view) 'improvement.' In a number of contemporary texts, ranging from Rodney Hall's The Second Bridegroom (1991), via Doris Pilkington-Garimara's Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1996) and Philip Noyce's subsequent 2001 film adaptation, through to Kate Grenville's The Secret River (2005) and poetry by Anthony Lawrence, the fence is analyzed as a material semiotic form inscribing both the text of the land and the spaces of texts.' (Introduction: Imaginary Antipodes, 12-13)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Frontier Skirmishes : Literary and Cultural Debates in Australia after 1992 Russell West-Pavlov (editor), Jennifer Wawrzinek (editor), Heidelberg : Winter Verlag , 2010 Z1797661 2010 anthology criticism "The frontier has been the central metaphorical figure governing discursive configurations in the last two decades in Australia. The cultural landscape since the Australian High Court's 'Mabo' decision of 1992 has been increasingly openly defined as a site of animosity and hostility. Frontiers, both real and imagined, past and present, continue to haunt the cultural landscape of Australia. This volume explores a range of paraliterary and literary discussion of recent years which can be interpreted as displacements into the cultural realm of erstwhile frontier conflicts along the borders of white colonial settlement. The collection gathers together a distinguished group of scholars and writers from Australia, Europe and Asia to investigate the dual manifestations of frontiers - both genuinely historiographical and more broadly metaphorical - in the cultural debates taking place in the Australian public sphere from the early 1990s onwards. Long since terminated as real armed conflicts, these past skirmishes none the less continue to resonate in the consciousness of white Australia, leaving their mark upon literary texts, films, artworks, and public discourse."--Back cover. Heidelberg : Winter Verlag , 2010 pg. 81-94
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Imaginary Antipodes : Essays on Contemporary Australian Literature and Culture Russell West-Pavlov , Heidelberg : Winter Verlag , 2011 Z1819744 2011 selected work criticism 'How can contemporary Australian literature and culture be ‘imagined’ from abroad? What particular refractions may emerge out of an expatriate reflection upon Antipodean literature and culture? This collection of essays summarizes fifteen years’ work done from an explicitly European perspective. The unashamedly outside perspective these essays present envisages a largely ‘imaginary Antipodes’ whose character is regarded from four distinct angles: indigenous literary production, white settler identities, migrant destinies, and the global construction of Australian literature, thereby gesturing towards the transnational perspective that furnishes the framing rationale for the collection itself. The thirteen essays range over a broad selection of literary and filmic texts, from classics such as Patrick White and Crocodile Dundee, via Castro, Davison, Fremd, Gooneratne, Grenville, Hall, Hospital, Lawrence, McGahan, Malouf, Martin, Morgan, Scott, Teo, or Yasbincek, through to wider issues such as indigenous poetry, the post-Mabo ‘history wars’ of the 1990s, and the global translation of Australian literature' (Publisher blurb). Heidelberg : Winter Verlag , 2011 pg. 87-100

Works about this Work

The Fence in Australian Short Fiction : 'A Constant Crossing of Boundaries'? Kieran Dolin , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cultural History , vol. 28 no. 2/3 2010; (p. 141-153)
'This article contributes to discussions about the significance of fences in the Australian social imaginary. It undertakes a historical and intertextual reading of eight short stories that take the fence as their titular symbol, and explores how the fence story is rewritten at various moments of change in twentieth-century Australia. Developments in narrative form and representation are related to changes in the cultural and political contexts, through a critical engagement with Iser's argument that the institution of literature works through a 'constant crossing of the boundary between the real and the imaginary'. As an Australian icon, the fence image illustrates the continuing power of settler discourse; however, the literary reworkings of the fence story disclose new visions of identity and otherness.' (Author's abstract)
The Fence in Australian Short Fiction : 'A Constant Crossing of Boundaries'? Kieran Dolin , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Cultural History , vol. 28 no. 2/3 2010; (p. 141-153)
'This article contributes to discussions about the significance of fences in the Australian social imaginary. It undertakes a historical and intertextual reading of eight short stories that take the fence as their titular symbol, and explores how the fence story is rewritten at various moments of change in twentieth-century Australia. Developments in narrative form and representation are related to changes in the cultural and political contexts, through a critical engagement with Iser's argument that the institution of literature works through a 'constant crossing of the boundary between the real and the imaginary'. As an Australian icon, the fence image illustrates the continuing power of settler discourse; however, the literary reworkings of the fence story disclose new visions of identity and otherness.' (Author's abstract)
Last amended 25 Sep 2012 10:11:42
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