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y separately published work icon Subhuman Redneck Poems selected work   poetry  
  • Author:agent Les Murray http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/murray-les
Issue Details: First known date: 1996... 1996 Subhuman Redneck Poems
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In this collection of poems, farmers, fathers, poverty-stricken pioneers, and people blackened by the grist of the sugar mills are exposed to the blazing midday sun of Murray's linguistic powers. Richly inventive, tenderly perceptive, and fiercely honest, these poems surprise and bare the human in all of us.'  (Publication summary)

Exhibitions

18005797
18005672

Notes

  • Dedication: To the glory of God

Contents

* Contents derived from the Potts Point, Kings Cross area, Inner Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,:Duffy and Snellgrove , 1996 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The Family Farmers' Victoryi"White grist that turns people black", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 9-10)
A Brief Historyi"We are the Australians. Our history is short.", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 11-12)
Where Humans Can't Leave and Mustn't Complaini"Where humans can't leave, and mustn't complain,", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 13)
Green Rose Tani"Poverty is still sacred. Christian", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 14-15)
The Say-But-the-Word Centurion Attempts a Summaryi"That numinous healer who preached Saturnalia and paradox", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 16-17)
Dead Trees in the Dami"Castle scaffolding tall in moat,", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 18)
Rock Musici"Sex is a Nazi. The students all knew", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 19)
The Rolloveri"Some of us primary producers, us farmers and authors", Les Murray , single work poetry satire (p. 20)
Late Summer Firesi"The paddocks shave black", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 21)
Cornichei"I work all day and hardly drink at all.", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 22-23)
Suspended Vesselsi"Here is too narrow and brief:", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 24-25)
The Water Columni"We had followed the catwalk upriver", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 26)
The Beneficiariesi"Higamus hogamus", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 27)
The Maenadsi"Four captured a man. When he grasped what they meant to do", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 28)
The Portrait Headi"How Jews may have pioneered sculpture under Pharaoh's knout:", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 29)
Phrygia, Birthplace of Embroideryi"When Mida, no less deserving of mercy or better for", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 30)
Like Wheeling Stacked Wateri"Dried nests in the overhanging limbs", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 31-32)
Wallis Lake Estuaryi"A long street of all blue windows,", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 33)
The Sand Coast Sonnets, Les Murray , sequence poetry (p. 33-38)
Twin Towns Historyi"The northern shore used to be framed up", Les Murray , single work poetry (p. 34)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Manchester,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Carcanet ,
      1996 .
      image of person or book cover 8894419443155054566.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 88p.
      ISBN: 1857542495
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Noonday Press ,
      1998 .
      image of person or book cover 6334709288340080311.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 103p.
      ISBN: 0374271550
Alternative title: Poemes subhumans
Language: Spanish , English
    • Barcelona,
      c
      Spain,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Columna ,
      2000 .
      image of person or book cover 2145085783992960855.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 255p.
      Edition info: Edicio Bilingue
      Note/s:
      • Text in Spanish and English
      ISBN: 848300870X

Works about this Work

Generation of ’68 and a Culture of Revolution Corey Wakeling , 2024 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry 2024; (p. 134-150)

'This chapter outlines how the 1970s brought radical expression, new explorations of poetic persona, and increasing belief in the poet’s role to advocate for rights and freedoms. It argues that anthologies seeking to capture the zeitgeist failed to do so, sometimes due to using frameworks borrowed from North America that elided local diversity. The chapter asserts that small press culture constituted a provisional, heterogeneous commons that undid traditional definitions of authorship and form, and offered a space to air the previously taboo. It traces the turn to America as well as to popular culture, other media, and documentary. Through an examination of Michael Dransfield’s reception, it demonstrates how umbrella terms delimit complex individual poetics while demonstrating affiliations in Dransfield’s self-examination with contemporaries like Pam Brown, Nigel Roberts, and Vicki Viidkikas. The chapter also considers the impact of the first anthology of women’s poetry, Mother, I’m Rooted. It redresses the elision of its editor, Kate Jennings, from other anthologies and critical framings of the period, as well as the marginalisation of Kevin Gilbert.'

Source: Abstract.

‘Nearly All Deep Fertile Soil’ : Les Murray, His Son and Autism Amanda Tink , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 37 no. 1 2022;

'‘It Allows a Portrait in Line Scan at Fifteen’ is one of Les Murray’s most well-known poems. It was written in 1993, first published in 1994, and featured in his 1996 book Subhuman Redneck Poems. The poem profiles, but does not name, Murray’s and his wife Valerie Murray’s second son (fourth child) Alexander, who, at three, was medically diagnosed as autistic. Both because the poem is Murray’s portrait of his son, and because it was Alexander’s autism diagnosis that prompted Murray’s full recognition of his own autism, this poem is also inherently as much about Murray as it is about Alexander. It explores not only their relationship as parent and child, but each of their relationships with autism, and how their shared autistic love of words, movies, and portraits deepens these relationships.' (Publication abstract)

The Stump : Looking Back on the Republic of Murray Jonathan Dunk , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , June 2019;

'When monuments fall, they create ripples, shockwaves, fragments, pyroclastic flow – pick your metaphor. Les Murray was definitely that. Over his long career, he produced more poetry, more critically well-regarded poetry, and – stranger still – more commercially profitable poetry than pretty much anyone else in the Australian landscape. Unlike the famous expatriate coterie of his peers (Peter Porter, Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes, Clive James and so forth), he did it mostly from his own paddock, without modulating his principles to fashion or his prejudices to progress. You could think of Murray as the problematic old bastard grandad some of us had, if he’d been an internationally renowned poet. Structurally rarer, Murray’s work created and sustained an entire idea or moment or myth of Australia pretty much on its own. Let’s be blunt, there just aren’t that many writers who can pull off a feat of that magnitude.' (Introduction)

An Australian Hybridity of Dialect and Didactics in Les Murray's Subhuman Redneck Poems Rodney McRae , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian and New Zealand Literature 2016; (p. 145-154)

‘Studying Les Murray’s poetry provides students the opportunity to recognize important contexts for Australians’ connection to an often daunting land, for the tensions between city and country perceptions, and for contemporary manifestations of clashing Indigenous and postcolonial identities. Thus, selecting Murray as a representative of Australian poetry seems clear for many, especially those who now consider him to be Australia’s preeminent poet-although there are some for whom he is not their first choice, for distinctive reasons. Elleke Boehmer noted in 1995 that Murray is ‘Australia’s self-elected bard of the demonic’ (218), and in 2007 Dan Chiasson argued that he ‘is now routinely mentioned among three or four leading English-language poets’ (136). In his long career, he has had published over forty books of poetry and essays. His work has garnered many literary awards, including the coveted T.S. Eliot Prize in 1996 and a Queens’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1998. (Introduction)

‘The Elephant Has Left the Room’: Jacket Magazine and the Internet John Tranter , 2012 single work autobiography
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012;
'Australian poet John Tranter trained in all aspects of publishing, from hand-lettering to editing, from litho platemaking to screen printing, and developed an early familiarity with computers. The development of the Internet in the 1990s found him armed with a formidable array of skills. He published the free international Internet-only magazine Jacket single-handed in 1997. Jacket quickly grew to become the most widely read and highly respected literary magazine ever published from Australia. In late 2010 John Tranter gave it to the University of Pennsylvania, where it continues to flourish. This memoir traces John Tranter's publication of literary materials on the Internet including the technical and literary problems faced by Jacket, and outlines the many other projects that resulted in the Internet publication of over fifty thousand mostly Australian poems, articles, reviews, interviews and photographs.' (Editor's abstract)
Murray and Other Rivers Alan Wearne , 1997 single work review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , May vol. 7 no. 4 1997; (p. 43-44)

— Review of The Wild Reply Emma Lew , 1997 selected work poetry ; Accidental Grace Judith Beveridge , 1996 selected work poetry ; Subhuman Redneck Poems Les Murray , 1996 selected work poetry ; Dogstown: Poems Lee Fuhler , 1996 selected work poetry
With Rhyme and Reason Geoff Page , 1996 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian's Review of Books , December-January (1996-1997) vol. 1 no. 4 1996; (p. 20-21)

— Review of Lineations Robert Gray , 1996 selected work poetry ; Accidental Grace Judith Beveridge , 1996 selected work poetry ; Subhuman Redneck Poems Les Murray , 1996 selected work poetry
Sensitive Redneck Poems David McCooey , 1997 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 4 January 1997; (p. 5)

— Review of The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse 1986 anthology poetry ; Subhuman Redneck Poems Les Murray , 1996 selected work poetry
First-Rate Poetry Worth Reading, Redneck or Not Geoff Page , 1996 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 9 November 1996; (p. C10)

— Review of Subhuman Redneck Poems Les Murray , 1996 selected work poetry
Jesting with Death Peter Steele , 1996 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23 November 1996; (p. 11s)

— Review of Subhuman Redneck Poems Les Murray , 1996 selected work poetry
Les Murray Ramona Koval (interviewer), 2005 single work interview
— Appears in: Tasting Life Twice : Conversations with Remarkable Writers 2005; (p. 267-291)
The Country Calling Nicholas Wroe , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Illawarra Mercury Weekender , 5-6 March 2011; (p. 21)
Poet Les Murray spends as much time in cities as he does in the country.
‘The Elephant Has Left the Room’: Jacket Magazine and the Internet John Tranter , 2012 single work autobiography
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012;
'Australian poet John Tranter trained in all aspects of publishing, from hand-lettering to editing, from litho platemaking to screen printing, and developed an early familiarity with computers. The development of the Internet in the 1990s found him armed with a formidable array of skills. He published the free international Internet-only magazine Jacket single-handed in 1997. Jacket quickly grew to become the most widely read and highly respected literary magazine ever published from Australia. In late 2010 John Tranter gave it to the University of Pennsylvania, where it continues to flourish. This memoir traces John Tranter's publication of literary materials on the Internet including the technical and literary problems faced by Jacket, and outlines the many other projects that resulted in the Internet publication of over fifty thousand mostly Australian poems, articles, reviews, interviews and photographs.' (Editor's abstract)
Redneck Hits the Mark (from Les Murray: A Life in Progress) Peter F. Alexander , 1999 extract
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 13 November 1999; (p. 7)
Subhuman Redneck Politics Jamie Grant , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: Counterbalancing Light : Essays on the Poetry of Les Murray 1997; (p. 123-136) Southerly , Winter vol. 58 no. 2 1998; (p. 126-139)
Last amended 1 May 2019 13:38:27
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