AustLit

Some available resources are not studies or reviews of individual works, but of Malouf's body of work in general or of his writing life. Such resources are collected under this tab.

This is also the section in which you will find works by Malouf himself that speak to his writing generally or to Australian culture more broadly, such as his 1998 Boyer Lectures.

Published in the Griffith Review, this is a short piece by David Malouf on fame and celebrity culture:

That celebrity should have the capacity to make itself visible, a subject of interest, an occasion for talk, is the sole condition of its being – this, rather than any quality it might have that makes it unique and irreplaceable. It should seem to be unique, but only till its replacement appears.

Not explicitly about his writing, it is nevertheless a musing on the cultural environment in which he writes and we read.

To read the piece in its entirely, follow this link.

The Boyer Lectures are a series of lectures presented on topics of special relevance to the Australian community by leading public figures chosen annually by the ABC board.

In 1998, David Malouf delivered six lectures under the umbrella title 'A Spirit of Play: The Making of Australian Consciousness':

What has made us into Australians? What blend of circumstances and influence has been at play to form a character, a place that we recognise as our own? Australia's history since settlement has been an interplay of inventiveness and openness - a spirit of play - against the fears of our isolation and difficult beginnings. David Malouf examines how we have managed to encompass and reconcile newness with continuity.

Transcripts (but not audio) for all six lectures are available on Radio National's website, and can be accessed via the links below:

• Lecture one: The Island (delivered 15 November 1998)
• Lecture two: A Complex Fate (delivered 22 November 1998)
• Lecture three: Landscapes (delivered 29 November 1998)
• Lecture four: Monuments to Time (delivered 6 December 1998)
• Lecture five: The Orphan in the Pacific (delivered 13 December 1998)
• Lecture six: A Spirit of Play (delivered 20 December 1998)

This interview by Candida Baker was originally published in Yacker 3: Australian Writers Talk about Their Work in 1989, but here has been republished as part of the AustLit Anthology of Criticism.

In it, Malouf 'described his own life-style as a constant striving to find the balance between the necessary amounts of stimulation and isolation. He said his peripatetic life-style suited him—it fitted in with his belief that there are no beginnings and endings, but only continuing and different stages.'

To read the interview in full, follow this link.

In 2002, Lorenzo Autero was bringing to an end his graduate studies in Australia, studying the theme of the double in David Malouf's novels. During this period, he interviewed Malouf, and published the interview in the Italian-language periodical Le Simplegadi.

The contents of the periodical are largely in Italian, but the interview is presented in English, with some Italian translation.

To read the interview in its entirety, follow this link: interview begins on page 14.

On his personal website, author Clive James includes a lengthy piece titled 'A Memory Called Malouf'. Ostensibly, originally, a review of Malouf's Dream Stuff, the piece soon extends to cover Malouf's work back to Fly Away Peter, Johnno, and 12 Edmonstone Street.

To read the piece in its entirety, follow this link.

Compiled by Ivor Indyk, David Malouf: A Celebration is a publication for the Friends of the National Library of Australia, now archived with PANDORA.

The book republishes five of Malouf's poems: 'Easier', 'Bad Dreams in Vienna', 'Adrift', 'Inspirations IV', and 'Beside the Sea'.

It also includes a number of short essays:

• Ivor Indyk's introduction (pp.1-4)
• Judith Rodriguez's 'Away in the Sixties' (pp.6-12)
• Vivian Smith's 'Over Thirty Years' (pp.15-18)
• Nicholas Jose's 'Giving Voice' (pp.21-26)

(An additional essay by Colm Tóibín has been removed for copyright reasons prior to the digitisation and archiving.)

To read David Malouf: A Celebration, follow this link.

In 'Our Own Way Back': Spatial Memory in the Poetry of David Malouf, Emily Bitto examines the 'spatial memory' of Malouf's poetry:

His poetry utilises a uniquely 'layered' time-perspective in which Malouf repeatedly revisits places of personal significance over numerous collections and, through memory and imagination, imbues these spaces with mythological significance. This process can be seen as a direct response to what Malouf perceives as 'the need to remap the world so that wherever you happen to be is the centre'. Although it may at first appear as simply an autobiographical phenomenon, this process of 'spatial memory' is also revealed as significant on a broader social level, as part of Malouf’s longstanding project of redefining Australia, in the eyes of its inhabitants, as a significant cultural and literary centre. When Malouf began publishing in the nineteen-sixties, his poetry, as well as his first novel Johnno, focused on the tension between the percieved 'provinciality'of Australia and the 'exoticism' of the cultural and colonial centres of England and Europe. It is arguable that Malouf's literary remapping of centre and edge is still pertinent today, though now in relation to the increasing cultural dominance of the United States. This essay examines the role of 'spatial memory' in Malouf’s poetry, focusing in particular on his numerous poems devoted to the area around Moreton Bay. It demonstrates the process by which these poems of personal memoir become significant on the broader level of social memory, and draws this exploration into a discussion of Malouf’s politics of space and memory.

To read the article (published in JASAL) in its entirety, follow this link.