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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Deals with a group of long-lost Scottish adventurers whose self-contained community, Columba, has been isolated from the wider world in a remote valley since 1745, allowing them to develop a radically alternative society [...] The chief distinguishing feature of Columba is its fostering of the practice of handfasting, a custom allowing trial marriages of a year and a day.'
Source: Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction.
Notes
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The typescript copy in the State Library of SA, described by Helen Thomson in the Introduction to the 1984 edition as 'a fair copy in another hand which has been amended by Spence' gives the author's name as Hugh Victor Keith. This is, however, the name of the principle character of the book.
Contents
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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A Feminist, Imperialist Utopia: Sir Julius Vogel and Anno Domini 2000
2022
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 81 no. 2 2022; (p. 176-182) Meanjin Online 2022; 'Utopias are neither as popular nor as frequent as their dark mirror, dystopias. Projecting from today into the future, using the thought experiment of extrapolation '(if this goes on...)' tends to produce more pessimism than optimism. That is hardly surprising in our perennially anxious times. Nor are vintage utopias palatable to a modern audience: they can contain racism, eugenics, or happily exterminate most of the biosphere (as in Joseph Fraser's 1889 'Melbourne and Mars: My Mysterious Life on Two Planets'). What can seem perfection then can read like tedious hell now. Additionally, utopias are not easy to write well, as polemical perfection lacks conflict, tension, the inherent interest of the devil's party. Some have endured, like Plato's Republic, but it is certainly less read than 'The Handmaid's Tale' or 1984.' (Publication abstract) -
The Fiction of the Future : Australian Science Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 128-140) 'According to Russell Blackford 'commercial science fiction is the most international of literary forms.' He observes that 'Australian SF continues to flourish, even if it trails heroic fantasy in mass-market appeal.' Australian SF writers although published internationally, with a dedicated fan followings in USA, UK and Europe, were overlooked for a very long time by Australian multinational publishers. The international editions had to be imported and were then distributed in Australia (Congreve and Marquardt 8). Blackford in his chapter throws light on the history of Australian SF and observes how Australian SF writers, with their concern for the future, achieved a powerful synthesis in form and content. The progress of Australian SF, maturity of style in the work of younger writers, and massive worldwide sales make Blackford optimistic as he asserts that 'the best Australian writers in the genre will be prominent players on the world stage.' (Editor's foreword xii-xiii) -
A 'Curious Political and Social Experiment' : A Settler Utopia, Feminism and a Greater Britain in Catherine Helen Spence's Handfasted
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Victorian Settler Narratives : Emigrants, Cosmopolitans and Returnees in Nineteenth-Century Literature 2011; (p. 207-220)'Catherine Helen Spence presents the fictional lost colony as a utopian space for the radical feminist transformation of marriage and the state. Her settlers have intermarried with an indigenous group and reinvented marriage to include a probationary period of 'handfasting' where couples live as if married for a year and a day before deciding whether they wish to confirm their relationships more permanently with marriage. Though too early to be considered a 'New Woman' novel, Handfasted positions its brand of feminism with many of the discursive strategies that late nineteenth-century New Women novelists used, including the argument that women's rights and sexual freedom would help Anglo-Saxon women act as nation and empire builders. Greater Britain offers an important theoretical lens for the novel as a whole and for Spence's brand of feminism. Dilke's Greater Britain continues, saying that America offers the English race the moral directorship of the globe, by ruling mankind through Saxon institutions and the English tongue.'
Source: Abstract.
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Australian Fantasies
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 81-95)'Australian culture is frequently described as materialistic, hedonistic and fun-loving, and no doubt it is, in some respects, all those things. The 'land of the long week-end', its 'great stupor' perhaps, even the 'lucky country' - all these more or less flattering tags suggest, sometimes in the face of what their authors intended, that nothing can go seriously wrong in Australia, where life cannot be but easy-going and enjoyable. And so it would appear that, as Craig McGregor observed, 'the Australian race is engaged in a whole-hearted pursuit of happiness without guilt. The beach, in particular, has been for several decades one of the major symbols of the Australian way of life, the locus of Australian hedonism, where people worship the sun, display their near-naked bodies, and ogle other people's...' (p. 81)
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Sexuality in Utopia : Catherine Helen Spence, William Lane and Social Dreaming in Nineteenth-Century Australia
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Victorian Studies Journal , vol. 8 no. 2002; (p. 35-44) Discusses some of Spence's and Lane's attitudes to sexuality and other aspects of gender that manifest themselves in their critiques of existing society, as well as through their visions of a better alternative.
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Lecturer Restores Rejected Novel
1984
single work
review
— Appears in: The Toowoomba Chronicle , 5 June 1984; (p. 27)
— Review of Handfasted 1879 single work novel -
A Feast of Writing by Women: Serious, and Witty and Wise
1984
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 May 1984; (p. 8)
— Review of And So Say All of Us : Stories by Australian Women 1984 anthology short story ; Handfasted 1879 single work novel -
A Plea for Liberation, Years Ahead of Its Time
1984
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 5 June vol. 104 no. 5419 1984; (p. 88,91)
— Review of Handfasted 1879 single work novel -
Loosen Your Marriage Tie
1984
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23 June 1984; (p. 42)
— Review of Handfasted 1879 single work novel -
Wiff of Danger Lasts Century of Changes
1984
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 9 June 1984; (p. 16)
— Review of Handfasted 1879 single work novel -
Sexuality in Utopia : Catherine Helen Spence, William Lane and Social Dreaming in Nineteenth-Century Australia
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Victorian Studies Journal , vol. 8 no. 2002; (p. 35-44) Discusses some of Spence's and Lane's attitudes to sexuality and other aspects of gender that manifest themselves in their critiques of existing society, as well as through their visions of a better alternative. -
Afterword
1984
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Handfasted 1984; (p. 363-378) -
Star Trek - The Australian Feminist Generation
1994
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , December vol. 6 no. 4 1994; (p. 6-8) -
Australian Fantasies
2009
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Messengers of Eros : Representations of Sex in Australian Writing 2009; (p. 81-95)'Australian culture is frequently described as materialistic, hedonistic and fun-loving, and no doubt it is, in some respects, all those things. The 'land of the long week-end', its 'great stupor' perhaps, even the 'lucky country' - all these more or less flattering tags suggest, sometimes in the face of what their authors intended, that nothing can go seriously wrong in Australia, where life cannot be but easy-going and enjoyable. And so it would appear that, as Craig McGregor observed, 'the Australian race is engaged in a whole-hearted pursuit of happiness without guilt. The beach, in particular, has been for several decades one of the major symbols of the Australian way of life, the locus of Australian hedonism, where people worship the sun, display their near-naked bodies, and ogle other people's...' (p. 81)
-
The Fiction of the Future : Australian Science Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 128-140) 'According to Russell Blackford 'commercial science fiction is the most international of literary forms.' He observes that 'Australian SF continues to flourish, even if it trails heroic fantasy in mass-market appeal.' Australian SF writers although published internationally, with a dedicated fan followings in USA, UK and Europe, were overlooked for a very long time by Australian multinational publishers. The international editions had to be imported and were then distributed in Australia (Congreve and Marquardt 8). Blackford in his chapter throws light on the history of Australian SF and observes how Australian SF writers, with their concern for the future, achieved a powerful synthesis in form and content. The progress of Australian SF, maturity of style in the work of younger writers, and massive worldwide sales make Blackford optimistic as he asserts that 'the best Australian writers in the genre will be prominent players on the world stage.' (Editor's foreword xii-xiii)
- Melbourne, Victoria,
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New York (City),
New York (State),
cUnited States of America (USA),cAmericas,
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San Francisco,
California,
cUnited States of America (USA),cAmericas,
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cUnited States of America (USA),cAmericas,
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London,
cEngland,ccUnited Kingdom (UK),cWestern Europe, Europe,
- Europe,