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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In 2023 the Sydney Review of Books celebrates a decade online and the publication of more than a thousand essays and longform reviews of Australian and international literature. Over these ten years the SRB has cleared a unique space for serious reflection on literature and for critical thinking about our culture more broadly. The journal has been shaped by the diverse aesthetic, political and critical dispositions of our contributors, each of whom has different questions to ask contemporary literature. As they’ve asked these questions, they’ve guided a bold and independent public conversation about literature, and especially about the many forms of Australian literature.
'Critic Swallows Book brings together twenty-two essays that together demonstrate the eclecticism of the Sydney Review of Books. It includes essays on decolonising Australian literature and revisiting the classics, on blockbuster fiction and book-length poetry, on modernism in the Antipodes and reading during the pandemic. Essays on Susan Sontag and Rita Felski sit alongside critical considerations of Murray Bail and Joan London, of Evelyn Araluen and Samia Khatun.
'Contributors: Timmah Ball, Paola Balla, Alix Beeston, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Andrew Brooks, Bonny Cassidy, Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Tom Clark, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Ben Etherington, Ross Gibson, Ivor Indyk, Yumna Kassab, Louis Klee, Jeanine Leane, James Ley, Catriona Menzies-Pike, Drusilla Modjeska, Alys Moody, Suneeta Peres da Costa, Oliver Reeson.' (Publication summary)
Contents
- The Place of Terrorism in Australia, single work
- Flow Charts, single work review
- Introduction, single work essay
- A Home in Ananda and the World, single work essay
- Vanishing Bolano, single work review
-
Staring Back,
single work
review
— Review of Dropbear 2021 selected work poetry essay ;'Since the invasion of Australia in 1788, First Nations Peoples have been forced into the literary images of the colonisers. We have been described as noble savages, vermin, half-castes, temptresses, and problems, just to name a few. Our entrapment in the literary canon of the invading settlers is what constructed and maintained the colonial mythscape of the modern nation of Australia.' (Introduction)
- The Time Police, single work review
-
Untimely Modernism,
single work
review
— Review of Dodge Rose 2015 single work novel ; -
The Provincial and the Princess,
single work
review
— Review of The Voyage 2012 single work novel ; -
The Living and the Undead,
single work
essay
'The death of an author can be an awkward subject for critics. Death calls for empathy, goodwill (however retrospective), and mourning. The genres appropriate to it – elegy, eulogy, obituary – tend to be ones that burnish the subjective. Faults may be mentioned but only as part of a wholistic appraisal of a life whose worth is ultimately affirmed. This sits in tension with criticism’s objective register and the open-ended nature of interpretation and judgement. Affirmation can come across as sentimental, objective appraisal as heartless or ‘too soon’. Perhaps death is a moment when critics ought to keep their thoughts to themselves.' (Introduction)
- Cryptic Cargo, single work review
- Expert Textpert, single work review
- Speculative Philology, single work review
-
Critic Swallows Book,
single work
essay
'Picture Trent Dalton sitting on a Brisbane street corner. A typewriter on a folding table in front of him, a hand-made sign stuck to it, upon which is written the words, ‘sentimental writer seeks stories’. Here he is, the most bankable Australian writer of the decade: a storyteller on the street, a man on the tools, a displaced sentimental bloke trying to make sense of twenty-first century life. And this is how he wrote his latest book, a work of non-fiction called Love Stories, the title of which is self-explanatory. Dalton has kept the ecstasy and epiphany dials turned to eleven since the release of Boy Swallows Universe in 2018 – and Australian readers love him.' (Introduction)
- Verisimilitude, single work review
-
Between Night and Night,
single work
review
— Review of Enfolded in the Wings of a Great Darkness 2019 selected work poetry ;'Death’s intrusion upon love is an old complaint. Philosophically, in Western Europe, it may have emerged as a problem in response to ideas of human limitation in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura. This was early materialist thinking intended to prepare the late Roman mind for the finitude of life, belief, control and pleasure. The poetry of death-in-love is another matter. It is characterised by rage, disbelief and helplessness. It is ancient and myriad.' (Introduction)
- Probably Not Tomorrow, single work review
-
Fully Present, Utterly Connected,
single work
review
— Review of The Golden Age 2014 single work novel ; - A History of Shapes, single work review
- Wayward Revolutions, single work review
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
The 17 Best Books of 2023
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22 January 2024;
— Review of The Sitter 2023 single work novel ; Killing for Country : A Family Story 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; The Conversion 2023 single work novel ; The Vitals 2023 single work prose ; Right Story, Wrong Story : Adventures in Indigenous Thinking 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; Praiseworthy 2023 single work novel ; Edenglassie 2023 single work novel ; Women and Children 2023 single work novel ; The Art of Breaking Ice 2023 single work novel ; I'd Rather Not 2023 single work autobiography ; On Peter Carey : Writers on Writers 2023 single work biography ; New Australian Fiction 2023 2023 anthology short story ; Critic Swallows Book : Ten Years of the Sydney Review of Books 2023 anthology review essay -
Brio, Style and Close Reading : A Collection of Essays Celebrates a Remarkable Publication
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 13 December 2023;
— Review of Critic Swallows Book : Ten Years of the Sydney Review of Books 2023 anthology review essay'Critic Swallows Book collects 22 diverse essays from the Sydney Review of Books (SRB) to celebrate its ten-year anniversary. Established in 2013, the SRB is devoted to long form criticism and is an open access, online-only publication.' (Introduction)
-
Brio, Style and Close Reading : A Collection of Essays Celebrates a Remarkable Publication
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 13 December 2023;
— Review of Critic Swallows Book : Ten Years of the Sydney Review of Books 2023 anthology review essay'Critic Swallows Book collects 22 diverse essays from the Sydney Review of Books (SRB) to celebrate its ten-year anniversary. Established in 2013, the SRB is devoted to long form criticism and is an open access, online-only publication.' (Introduction)
-
The 17 Best Books of 2023
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22 January 2024;
— Review of The Sitter 2023 single work novel ; Killing for Country : A Family Story 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; The Conversion 2023 single work novel ; The Vitals 2023 single work prose ; Right Story, Wrong Story : Adventures in Indigenous Thinking 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; Praiseworthy 2023 single work novel ; Edenglassie 2023 single work novel ; Women and Children 2023 single work novel ; The Art of Breaking Ice 2023 single work novel ; I'd Rather Not 2023 single work autobiography ; On Peter Carey : Writers on Writers 2023 single work biography ; New Australian Fiction 2023 2023 anthology short story ; Critic Swallows Book : Ten Years of the Sydney Review of Books 2023 anthology review essay