y separately published work icon Felons and Folksongs single work   criticism  
Is part of Commonwealth Literary Fund Lectures 1940 series - publisher
Issue Details: First known date: 1955... 1955 Felons and Folksongs
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Latest Issues

VIEW ALL ISSUES (C9759)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Notes:
Paper presented at the Commonwealth Literary Fund Lecture held at the University of Melbourne in 1955
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Works about this Work

Transported to Botany Bay : Imagining Australia in Nineteenth-Century Convict Broadsides Dorice Williams Elliott , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Victorian Literature and Culture , June vol. 43 no. 2 2015; (p. 235-259) 'The speaker of this ballad (circa 1828) laments the fact that, though he was born of “honest parents,” he became “a roving blade” and has been convicted of an unspecified crime for which he has been sentenced to “Botany Bay,” a popular name for Australia. Although he addresses his audience as “young men of learning,” the rest of the ballad implies that he, as is conventional in the broadside form, is a working-class apprentice gone astray. Like this fictional speaker, approximately 160,000 men and women convicted of crimes ranging from poaching hares to murder – but mostly theft – were transported to one of the new British colonies in Australia between the years 1787 and 1867. Minor crimes such as shoplifting, which today would merit some community service and a fine, yielded a sentence of seven years, while other felons were sentenced for fourteen years to life for more serious crimes. While non-fictional accounts of the young colony of New South Wales were published in Britain almost as soon as the First Fleet arrived there in 1788, these were written by people with at least a middle-class education, whereas the vast majority of the convicted felons who were transported came from the working classes. Since books and newspapers were expensive and the level of literacy among working-class people varied considerably, few of them would have had access to such accounts of the new colonies. Several descriptions, mostly borrowed from the writings of the officers who accompanied the First Fleet, were published in cheap chapbook form, while occasional letters from convicts to their families were printed and distributed, and of course there were unpublished letters plus word-of-mouth reports from convicts or soldiers who did return. But none of these were broadly disseminated among working-class people.' (Publication abstract)
Australian Literature: Notes : Commonwealth Literary Fund [Southerly, vol.15 no.4 1954] 1954 single work column
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 15 no. 4 1954; (p. 294-295)
Notes and Comments : Australian Literature [Southerly, vol.11 no.3 1950] 1950 single work column
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 11 no. 3 1950; (p. 179-180)
Notes and Comments : Australian Literature [Southerly, vol.11 no.3 1950] 1950 single work column
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 11 no. 3 1950; (p. 179-180)
Australian Literature: Notes : Commonwealth Literary Fund [Southerly, vol.15 no.4 1954] 1954 single work column
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 15 no. 4 1954; (p. 294-295)
Transported to Botany Bay : Imagining Australia in Nineteenth-Century Convict Broadsides Dorice Williams Elliott , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Victorian Literature and Culture , June vol. 43 no. 2 2015; (p. 235-259) 'The speaker of this ballad (circa 1828) laments the fact that, though he was born of “honest parents,” he became “a roving blade” and has been convicted of an unspecified crime for which he has been sentenced to “Botany Bay,” a popular name for Australia. Although he addresses his audience as “young men of learning,” the rest of the ballad implies that he, as is conventional in the broadside form, is a working-class apprentice gone astray. Like this fictional speaker, approximately 160,000 men and women convicted of crimes ranging from poaching hares to murder – but mostly theft – were transported to one of the new British colonies in Australia between the years 1787 and 1867. Minor crimes such as shoplifting, which today would merit some community service and a fine, yielded a sentence of seven years, while other felons were sentenced for fourteen years to life for more serious crimes. While non-fictional accounts of the young colony of New South Wales were published in Britain almost as soon as the First Fleet arrived there in 1788, these were written by people with at least a middle-class education, whereas the vast majority of the convicted felons who were transported came from the working classes. Since books and newspapers were expensive and the level of literacy among working-class people varied considerably, few of them would have had access to such accounts of the new colonies. Several descriptions, mostly borrowed from the writings of the officers who accompanied the First Fleet, were published in cheap chapbook form, while occasional letters from convicts to their families were printed and distributed, and of course there were unpublished letters plus word-of-mouth reports from convicts or soldiers who did return. But none of these were broadly disseminated among working-class people.' (Publication abstract)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (3)
Last amended 26 Jun 2001 14:32:40
282-300 Felons and Folksongssmall AustLit logo Meanjin
Informit * Subscription service. Check your library.
Subjects:
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X