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y separately published work icon Spider Cup single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1990... 1990 Spider Cup
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Does a wife exist only when her husband is contemplating her?....A wife is called into being only by a husband: therefore does she cease to exist when he stops observing her, stops regarding her?

'Elinor leaves her husband suddenly and goes to France, to the village of Severac-le-Chateau. There she ponders the lives of other women. In the seventeenth century a wife is murdered for faithlessness: in the early twentieth century a woman embroiders sheets for a trousseau never needed; in the 1980's a successful pediatrician may or may not know what her husband is up to.

'Elinor's process of transformation - from a wife to a self - is written with subtlety and humour. The journey she undertakes is more than a journey of the flesh.'

Source: Publlisher's blurb (Minerva ed.).

Notes

  • Dedication: For Graham

  • Epigraph:

    There may be in the cup

    A spider steep'd and one may drink; depart,

    And yet partake no venom, (for his knowledge

    Is not infected): But if one present

    Th'abhorr'd image to his eye, make known

    How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides

    With violent hefts: I have drunk, and seen the spider.

    Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1990 .
      image of person or book cover 2209833828987598015.png
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 153p.
      Note/s:
      • Cover title and spine title: Spidercup.
      ISBN: 0140124446(pbk)
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Minerva , 1996 .
      image of person or book cover 5588100308693040499.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 153p.
      ISBN: 1863305750
Alternative title: Il veleno nel cuore
Language: Italian
    • c
      Italy,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Marlin ,
      2006 .
      image of person or book cover 5509543618479624074.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 208p.p.
      ISBN: 9788860430106, 8860430100

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Texts and Textiles : Affect, Synaesthesia and Metaphor in Fiction Diana Mary Eva Thomas , Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Press , 2017 11791282 2017 multi chapter work criticism

'This study shows how fiction that makes use of textiles as an essential element utilizes synaesthetic writing and synaesthetic metaphor to create an affective link to, and response in, the reader. These links and responses are examined using affect theory from Silvan Tomkins and Brian Massumi and work on synaesthesia by Richard Cytowic, Lawrence Marks, and V.S. Ramachandran, among others. Synaesthetic writing, including synaesthetic metaphors, has been explored in poetry since the 1920s and, more recently, in fiction, but these studies have been general in nature. By narrowing the field of investigation to those novels that specifically employ three types of hand-crafted textiles (quilt-making, knitting and embroidery), the book isolates how these textiles are used in fiction. The combination of synaesthesia, memory, metaphor and, particularly, synaesthetic metaphor in fiction with textiles in the text of the case studies selected, shows how these are used to create affect in readers, enhancing their engagement in the story.

'The work is framed within the context of the history of textile production and the use of textiles in fiction internationally, but concentrates on Australian authors who have used textiles in their writing. The decision to focus on Australian authors was taken in light of the quality and depth of the writing of textile fiction produced in Australia between 1980 and 2005 in the three categories of hand-crafted textiles – quilt-making, knitting and embroidery. The texts chosen for intensive study are: Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection (1999, quilting); Marele Day’s Lambs of God (1997, knitting) and Anne Bartlett’s Knitting (2005, knitting); Jessica Anderson’s Tirra Lirra by the River (1978, embroidery) and Marion Halligan’s Spider Cup (1990, embroidery).' (Publication summary)

Journeys and Pilgrimages : Marion Halligan's Fiction Dorothy Jones , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 24 no. 1 2010; (p. 19-23)
French Kookaburras and Australian Nightingales : Looking to France and back to Australia in Works by Marion Halligan and Mary Moody Susan Barrett , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: France and Australia Face to Face 2008; (p. 129-142)
What About the Spider... Marion Halligan , 2001 single work short story
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 60 no. 4 2001; (p. 18-25) Shooting the Fox 2011; (p. 96-106)
Tales of Love, Lust, Jealousy and Revenge : Intertextuality in Marion Halligan's Spidercup Ulla Rahbek , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: English Studies , vol. 77 no. 4 1996; (p. 367-374)
Halligan's Web Sue Hosking , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The CRNLE Reviews Journal , no. 1 1990; (p. 86-88)

— Review of Spider Cup Marion Halligan , 1990 single work novel
Spirit's Daring Kate Veitch , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10 February 1990; (p. 75)

— Review of A Body of Water : A Year's Notebook Beverley Farmer , 1990 selected work autobiography short story poetry diary ; Spider Cup Marion Halligan , 1990 single work novel
In Short Form, the Writers' Promise Abounds Mollie Missen , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 February 1990; (p. 9)

— Review of Max and Other Stories Meredith Jelbart , 1990 selected work short story ; Spider Cup Marion Halligan , 1990 single work novel
Drawing the Line Reba Gostand , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , July vol. 9 no. 2 1990; (p. 59)

— Review of Spider Cup Marion Halligan , 1990 single work novel ; Over the Top with Jim : Hugh Lunn's Tap-Dancing, Bugle-Blowing Memoir of a Well-Spent Boyhood Hugh Lunn , 1989 single work autobiography ; Sisters : A Novel Ada Cambridge , 1904 single work novel ; North of the Moonlight Sonata Kerryn Goldsworthy , 1989 selected work short story ; Longhand : A Writer's Notebook Murray Bail , 1989 single work autobiography novel ; Mo Burdekin Sarah Campion , 1941 single work novel
It All Comes Back to the Power of Words Katharine England , 1990 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 3 March 1990; (p. 15)

— Review of Spider Cup Marion Halligan , 1990 single work novel
Tales of Love, Lust, Jealousy and Revenge : Intertextuality in Marion Halligan's Spidercup Ulla Rahbek , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: English Studies , vol. 77 no. 4 1996; (p. 367-374)
Subject Matters Marion Halligan , 1995 single work criticism essay
— Appears in: A Sense of Difference 1995; (p. 15-23)
The author offers comments on the writing process in five Australian novels by women writers. She stresses that her comments are those of a practitioner reflecting on the work of friends.
French Kookaburras and Australian Nightingales : Looking to France and back to Australia in Works by Marion Halligan and Mary Moody Susan Barrett , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: France and Australia Face to Face 2008; (p. 129-142)
Journeys and Pilgrimages : Marion Halligan's Fiction Dorothy Jones , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 24 no. 1 2010; (p. 19-23)
Whodunits Will Never be the Same Robert Hefner , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 25 March 1990; (p. 26)
Last amended 20 Feb 2024 11:52:01
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