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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Heriot's Ithaka : Soul, Country and the Possibility of Home in To The Islands
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 3 2014; 'The final line of Randolph Stow's To the Islands - " 'My soul', he whispered, over the sea-surge, 'my should is a strange country'" - has perplexed and fascinated readers and critics for five decades. In 1975 Leonie Kramer found Stow's final sentence to be misplaced: ‘It belongs – if indeed it belongs at all – not at the end of a novel of this kind, but near the beginning'. At a time when interest in Stow and his work is again on the ascendency, this paper investigates what Heriot might have appreciated his soul to be, before arguing that he could not have spoken those resonant words until the very moment when he is blinded by illumination atop the coastal cliff. Heriot walks into homelessness in a quest for home. Like Cavafy's ideal voyager his journey is long and hard, and only once he discovers his soul can he appreciate he has no home. Only then can he understand the true meaning of the islands.' (Publication abstract) -
Mal du Pays : Symbolic Geography in the Work of Randolph Stow
1991
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 15 no. 1 1991; (p. 3-25)
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Mal du Pays : Symbolic Geography in the Work of Randolph Stow
1991
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 15 no. 1 1991; (p. 3-25) -
Heriot's Ithaka : Soul, Country and the Possibility of Home in To The Islands
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 3 2014; 'The final line of Randolph Stow's To the Islands - " 'My soul', he whispered, over the sea-surge, 'my should is a strange country'" - has perplexed and fascinated readers and critics for five decades. In 1975 Leonie Kramer found Stow's final sentence to be misplaced: ‘It belongs – if indeed it belongs at all – not at the end of a novel of this kind, but near the beginning'. At a time when interest in Stow and his work is again on the ascendency, this paper investigates what Heriot might have appreciated his soul to be, before arguing that he could not have spoken those resonant words until the very moment when he is blinded by illumination atop the coastal cliff. Heriot walks into homelessness in a quest for home. Like Cavafy's ideal voyager his journey is long and hard, and only once he discovers his soul can he appreciate he has no home. Only then can he understand the true meaning of the islands.' (Publication abstract)
405-408
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