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Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 11 (Literature Unit 2)
Themes
Indigenous Australians, life and death, natural world/environmentalism, poetry, regional Australia, the past
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Personal and social
Cross-curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Sustainability
Contents
- The Moving Imagei"Here is the same clock that walked quietly", single work poetry (p. 3-6)
- Northern Riveri"When summer days grow harsh", Judith Wright (editor), single work poetry (p. 6-7)
- The Company of Loversi"We meet and part now over all the world;", single work poetry war literature (p. 7)
- Bora Ringi"The song is gone; the dance", single work poetry (p. 8)
- Blue Arabi"The small blue Arab stallion dances on the hill", single work poetry (p. 8)
- Trapped Dingoi"So here, twisted in steel, and spoiled with red", single work poetry (p. 9)
- Waitingi"Day's crystal hemisphere travels the land.", single work poetry (p. 9-10)
- Remittance Mani"The spendthrift, disinherited and graceless,", single work poetry (p. 10-11)
- "This ploughland vapoured with the dust of dreams," Soldier's Farmi"This ploughland drifted with the smoke of dreams,", single work poetry (p. 11-12)
- The Trainsi"Tunnelling through the night, the trains pass", single work poetry war literature (p. 12)
- The Idleri"The treasure islands were his desired landfall:", single work poetry (p. 13)
- Country Towni"This is no longer the landscape that they knew,", single work poetry (p. 13-14)
- The Hawthorn Hedgei"How long ago she planted the hawthorn hedge-", single work poetry (p. 14-15)
- Nigger's Leap : New Englandi"The eastward spurs tip backward from the sun.", single work poetry (p. 15-16)
- Sonneti"Now let the draughtsman of my eyes be done", single work poetry (p. 16)
- Bullockyi"Beside his heavy-shouldered team,", single work poetry (p. 17)
- Brother and Sistersi"The road turned out to be a cul-de-sac;", single work poetry (p. 18)
- Half-Caste Girli"Little Josie buried under the bright moon", single work poetry (p. 19)
- South of My Daysi"South of my days' circle, part of my blood's country,", single work poetry (p. 20-21)
- The Surferi"He thrust his joy against the weight of the sea,", single work poetry (p. 21-22)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
‘Deep Hanging Out’ : Native Species Images and Affective Labour
2017
single work
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 17 no. 1 2017;'This paper investigates the affective labour done by, specifically, native species images in Australian poetry, using Judith Wright's bird poems, and various poems about kangaroos as example. It uses the anthropological term, "deep hanging out", borrowed from an article about fashion models, to extend the idea of affective labour, and to measure poems' attentions to birds and animals, and their relation to iconising as the work of nationalism. It is concerned with cultural capital, and Canberra, and the human empire.' (Publication abstract)
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‘Sorry, above All, That I Can Make Nothing Right’ : Public Apology in Judith Wright
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , May no. 61 2017;'Since the middle of the twentieth century, the phenomenon of public apology has become increasingly prevalent and visible, enacted in contexts ranging from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the Australian government’s apology to the Stolen Generation, to the iconic genuflection of Willy Brandt before the Warsaw Ghetto Monument. While research surrounding public apology (particularly in the context of work on trauma, memory and reconciliation) has also become increasing prevalent, literary representations of public apology remain under-researched. Works like J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999) and Gail Jones’ Sorry (2007) present something of a scholarly conundrum. In the final historical and cultural assessment of public apologies, how are imaginative representations of apologies to be understood? Do they participate in the apologising process, or do they simply describe it? What implications does a judgement either way hold for scholarship on the larger relations between art and civic life? This paper finds a way into some of these large questions by considering the specific case of Judith Wright and the forms of literary redress she made to Indigenous Australians. ' (Introduction)
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A Century’s Worth of Passions
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 August 2016; (p. 21)
— Review of Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry -
Phillip Hall Reviews Judith Wright, Georgina Arnott and Katie Noonan
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , October no. 55.1 2016;
— Review of Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry ; The Unknown Judith Wright 2016 single work biography ; With Love and Fury 2016 selected work lyric/song -
Colonial Knowledge, Post-Colonial Poetics
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Issues in Australian Literature 2010; (p. 255-277)
-
Books Read Since the End of November 1994
1995
single work
review
— Appears in: Scratch Pad 12 , August 1995; (p. 1-3)
— Review of Crosskill : A Wyatt Novel 1994 single work novel ; A Window in Mrs X's Place : Selected Short Stories 1986 selected work short story ; Cutting Green Hay : Friendships, Movements and Cultural Conflicts in Australia's Great Decades 1983 single work autobiography ; The Pure Land 1974 single work novel ; Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry ; Love Lies Bleeding : A Crimes For a Summer Christmas Anthology 1994 anthology short story ; Australia's First Fabians : Middle-Class Radicals, Labour Activists and the Early Labour Movement ; Foreword by Gough Whitlam 1993 single work biography ; Our Lady of Chernobyl 1995 selected work short story ; Reading by Starlight: Postmodern Science Fiction 1995 single work criticism ; Mirrorsun Rising 1995 single work novel -
Like a Perfectly Cast Bell
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23-24 April 1994; (p. rev 7)
— Review of The Flame Tree Sakai Nobuo (translator), Meredith McKinney (translator), 1993 selected work poetry ; Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry -
Compasses of Love
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 7 May 1994; (p. 8)
— Review of The Flame Tree Sakai Nobuo (translator), Meredith McKinney (translator), 1993 selected work poetry ; Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry ; Peninsula 1994 selected work poetry -
Untitled
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , Winter vol. 39 no. 2 1994; (p. 91-93)
— Review of The Flame Tree Sakai Nobuo (translator), Meredith McKinney (translator), 1993 selected work poetry ; Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry -
A Poet's Life of Sweeping Themes
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12 March 1994; (p. 11A)
— Review of Collected Poems 1942-1985 1994 selected work poetry -
The Poetry of Judith Wright and Sylvia Plath : Some Points of Comparison
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Austral-Asian Encounters : From Literature and Women's Studies to Politics and Tourism 2003; (p. 430-440) -
Ancestral Echoes : Spectres of the Past in Judith Wright's Poetry
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2007; (p. 117-129)Sue King-Smith says: 'There are three main spectres in Wright's poetry that this article addresses. The first relates to the loss and separation Wright experienced when she became aware of the history of the land she had felt a profound sense of identification with since early childhood ... The second spectre relates to the traces of Aboriginal massacres and dispossessions. And the third is the spectre of the indigenous landscape that existed prior to British occupation, with a substantial number of indigenous species of flora and fauna now extinct.
'This article will argue that these spectres are intimately linked in Wright's writing and that her poetic and private relationships with the Australian landscape are constantly mediated by the need to acknowledge these ghosts.' (pp.117-118)
- y The God-Shaped Hole : Responding to the Good News in Australia Adelaide : ATF Press , 2008 Z1533434 2008 selected work criticism This book brings together a selection of Veronica Brady's critical addresses arguing that there are novels and poems that bear witness to the mystery of 'God' or an 'Other' who speaks through others.
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Are there Really Angels in Carlton? Australian Literature and Theology
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Ethical Investigations : Essays on Australian Literature and Poetics 2008; (p. 30-59) -
Colonial Knowledge, Post-Colonial Poetics
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Issues in Australian Literature 2010; (p. 255-277)