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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Bronco Jones, part-Aboriginal owner of Emu Station in the north of Western Australia, struggles against the machinations of a businessman and an anthropologist in this satirical portrait of anthropological exploitation of Aboriginal sacred sites.
'Seven Emus Station lies in the wild, red sandstone country back of the north-west port of Dampier. It is the prized property of Bronco Jones, his wife Possum and their bright, honey-coloured brood.
'The wealth of the property lures Appleby Gaunt, 'The Baron' who sweeps Bronco into a series of ruinous financial deals.
'Goborrow, a second-rate anthropologist, seizes the predicament as a means to boost his own credibility, with disastrous results for himself and 'The Baron'.
'An experimental novella, Seven Emus deals with issues of identity, ancestral fidelity and the misguided appropriation of cultural artefacts.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Available as a sound recording.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Xavier Herbert. Requiem for Genius
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Cultural Studies Review , vol. 23 no. 2 2017; (p. 106-125)'In today’s global celebrity culture it’s hard to imagine a word more over-used and abused than ‘genius’. It is a slippery word with a long and contradictory conceptual history. Yet, in the Land of the Tall Poppy, self-confessions of genius invariably have paved a broad road to public ridicule and denigration. Xavier Herbert’s notion of genius was not static. It changed throughout his life and it evolved through his writing. He agreed with Carlyle that the first condition of genius must always be a ‘transcendent capacity of taking trouble’ and on this foundation he built his own concept of genius, as the unending ‘capacity for loving’. This article explores what genius meant to Xavier Herbert and how it translated into his fiction, before considering how our sense of genius today influences the way we respond to his most challenging fictions of love and hate, 'Capricornia' and 'Poor Fellow My Country'.' (Publication abstract)
-
Mavericks and Misfits
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Hot Iron Corrugated Sky : 100 Years of Queensland Writing 2002; (p. 158-169) ''Place is not a simple concept. There is 'place' as we know it from walking along it, from looking and working and taking shelter in it. There is 'place' shown on maps, where we run our fingers across swathes of it, locating points or large areas in relation to each other, orienting ourselves. There is 'place' as landscape and seascape, depicted in painted, photographed and filmed images, and described in written texts. And there is the 'idea of place' - a product formed in a culture through association of a site with an accumulation of outputs and critical responses: emotion - all that comes culturally to settle in place.' (Author's introduction p. 158) -
y
Xavier Herbert : A Biography
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
1998
Z403827
1998
single work
biography
This first biography of Xavier Herbert (1901-1984) explores the contradictions at the core of his turbulent life and career. It charts his lifelong quest to discover the reality of his existence and to forge a larger-than-life identity.
-
Seven Emus
1981
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Xavier Herbert 1981; (p. 67-76) -
Untitled
1960
single work
review
— Appears in: Walkabout , vol. 26 no. 1960; (p. 38-39)
— Review of Seven Emus 1959 single work novel
-
Too Much Style
1959
single work
review
— Appears in: The Observer , 18 April vol. 2 no. 8 1959; (p. 249)
— Review of Seven Emus 1959 single work novel -
Untitled
1959
single work
review
— Appears in: The Cairns Post , 7 March 1959; (p. 6)
— Review of Seven Emus 1959 single work novel -
Herbert Disappoints
1959
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 20 no. 2 1959; (p. 108-109)
— Review of Seven Emus 1959 single work novel -
The Meat and the Shadow
1959
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , no. 1 1959; (p. 23-24)
— Review of Seven Emus 1959 single work novel -
Untitled
1959
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , Spring vol. 3 no. 4 1959; (p. 81-82)
— Review of Seven Emus 1959 single work novel -
Mavericks and Misfits
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Hot Iron Corrugated Sky : 100 Years of Queensland Writing 2002; (p. 158-169) ''Place is not a simple concept. There is 'place' as we know it from walking along it, from looking and working and taking shelter in it. There is 'place' shown on maps, where we run our fingers across swathes of it, locating points or large areas in relation to each other, orienting ourselves. There is 'place' as landscape and seascape, depicted in painted, photographed and filmed images, and described in written texts. And there is the 'idea of place' - a product formed in a culture through association of a site with an accumulation of outputs and critical responses: emotion - all that comes culturally to settle in place.' (Author's introduction p. 158) -
I Sinned Against Syntax
1960
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Meanjin , March vol. 19 no. 1 1960; (p. 31-35) -
y
Xavier Herbert : A Biography
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
1998
Z403827
1998
single work
biography
This first biography of Xavier Herbert (1901-1984) explores the contradictions at the core of his turbulent life and career. It charts his lifelong quest to discover the reality of his existence and to forge a larger-than-life identity.
-
Seven Emus
1981
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Xavier Herbert 1981; (p. 67-76) -
Xavier Herbert. Requiem for Genius
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Cultural Studies Review , vol. 23 no. 2 2017; (p. 106-125)'In today’s global celebrity culture it’s hard to imagine a word more over-used and abused than ‘genius’. It is a slippery word with a long and contradictory conceptual history. Yet, in the Land of the Tall Poppy, self-confessions of genius invariably have paved a broad road to public ridicule and denigration. Xavier Herbert’s notion of genius was not static. It changed throughout his life and it evolved through his writing. He agreed with Carlyle that the first condition of genius must always be a ‘transcendent capacity of taking trouble’ and on this foundation he built his own concept of genius, as the unending ‘capacity for loving’. This article explores what genius meant to Xavier Herbert and how it translated into his fiction, before considering how our sense of genius today influences the way we respond to his most challenging fictions of love and hate, 'Capricornia' and 'Poor Fellow My Country'.' (Publication abstract)
- Bush,
- Northern Territory,
