AustLit
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Contents
- Trying to Catch the Voice, single work short story (p. 7)
- The Snowman in the Dutch Masterpiece, single work short story (p. 8-17)
- Love an Apple, single work short story (p. 18-21)
- Letter to Mr Boo Boo, single work short story (p. 22)
- Off the Boards, single work short story (p. 23-28)
- Six, single work short story (p. 29-32)
- Getting it All Together, single work short story (p. 33-38)
- Dialogue in Shade, single work short story (p. 39)
- End of the Moon, single work short story (p. 40-42)
- Futurei"It doesn't really matter if I met him in a bar, picked him up or was", single work poetry (p. 43)
- The Treadmill, single work short story (p. 44-46)
- Stuffing, single work short story (p. 47-50)
- The Relationship, single work short story (p. 51-53)
- Saturday Night at the Local, single work short story (p. 54-55)
- Wired Out, single work short story (p. 56-61)
- Future? You Must Be Crazy, single work short story (p. 62-63)
- Steve and the Big Smoke, single work short story (p. 64-67)
- A Part Dialogue about Wrappings, single work (p. 68-69)
- Vous Voulez?, single work short story (p. 70-75)
- A View of the Map, single work short story (p. 76-77)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Confessional Surrealist Feminist : Vicki Viidikas’s Poetics and Politics
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 2 no. 18 2018;'This essay seeks to illuminate the entwined aesthetics of Vicki Viidikas’s poetry. Viidikas was a Sydney poet: she lived in Balmain, and spent long periods of time in India later in life. She was part of the generation of ‘68, which revelled in the countercultural spirit of the 1960s and 70s. Viidikas published three books of poetry in her lifetime: Condition Red (1973), Knäbel (1978), and India Ink (1984), as well as a book of short stories and prose poems, Wrappings (1974). Between 1985 and 1998 she published only a handful of poems in journals; India Ink would be her last book.
'The essay uses formative aesthetic, political, and material influences to read Viidikas’s work from 1973 to 1998. I argue that there are three major aspects in Viidikas’s poetry: the confessional, the surrealist, and the feminist. By contextualising her work in the confessional poetry genre, the surrealism of André Breton, and second wave feminism, I show that these aspects interact and overlap in subtle ways in her poems. Viidikas was steeped in feminist ideals for women’s writing, and was committed to representing female subjectivity in highly personal and uncensored ways. I show that in her poetry, a feminist ethos energises both her confessional voice and her surrealism. I also pay attention to the material circumstances of her poetry’s production, and the social and aesthetic practices of the generation of ‘68. This situated reading of Viidikas’s poetry allows me to look to the last 14 years of her life, when she retreated from publishing. While critics typically focus on her drug addiction in explaining her later marginalisation, I posit that the anti-capitalist values that Viidikas absorbed in her youth played a significant role in her withdrawal, in the 1980s and 90s, from the literary networks that had previously sustained her.' (Publication abstract)
-
Virgin Sock-Washers and Tweed Jackets
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 68 no. 2 2008; (p. 177-192) -
Untitled
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 260)
— Review of Wrappings 1974 selected work short story -
Untitled
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Good Reading Guide 1989; (p. 260)
— Review of Wrappings 1974 selected work short story -
New Modes in Fiction
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 36 no. 4 1976; (p. 442-459)
— Review of Johnno : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; The Short Story Embassy : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; Living Together 1974 single work novel ; The Electrical Experience : A Discontinuous Narrative 1974 selected work short story ; A Kindness Cup 1974 single work novel ; Wrappings 1974 selected work short story
-
Breaking the Rules : New Fiction by Australian Women
1975
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , Summer vol. 34 no. 4 1975; (p. 415-420)
— Review of Wrappings 1974 selected work short story ; The Beginning of Everything and the End of Everything Else 1974 single work novel ; All That False Instruction : A Novel of Lesbian Love 1975 single work novel ; Crying in the Garden 1974 single work novel -
New Modes in Fiction
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 36 no. 4 1976; (p. 442-459)
— Review of Johnno : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; The Short Story Embassy : A Novel 1975 single work novel ; Living Together 1974 single work novel ; The Electrical Experience : A Discontinuous Narrative 1974 selected work short story ; A Kindness Cup 1974 single work novel ; Wrappings 1974 selected work short story -
The Trendy and the True
1975
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 60 1975; (p. 83-85)
— Review of Wrappings 1974 selected work short story ; Zimmer's Essay 1974 selected work novel poetry ; The Fat Man in History : Short Stories 1974 selected work short story -
Untitled
1975
single work
review
— Appears in: Blacksmith , Winter no. 2 1975; (p. 54)
— Review of Wrappings 1974 selected work short story ; The Fat Man in History : Short Stories 1974 selected work short story -
Untitled
1974
single work
review
— Appears in: Westerly , December no. 4 1974; (p. 73-74)
— Review of Wrappings 1974 selected work short story -
Virgin Sock-Washers and Tweed Jackets
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 68 no. 2 2008; (p. 177-192) -
Short Story Chronicle, 1974
1975
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , Autumn vol. 34 no. 1 1975; (p. 34-39) -
Confessional Surrealist Feminist : Vicki Viidikas’s Poetics and Politics
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 2 no. 18 2018;'This essay seeks to illuminate the entwined aesthetics of Vicki Viidikas’s poetry. Viidikas was a Sydney poet: she lived in Balmain, and spent long periods of time in India later in life. She was part of the generation of ‘68, which revelled in the countercultural spirit of the 1960s and 70s. Viidikas published three books of poetry in her lifetime: Condition Red (1973), Knäbel (1978), and India Ink (1984), as well as a book of short stories and prose poems, Wrappings (1974). Between 1985 and 1998 she published only a handful of poems in journals; India Ink would be her last book.
'The essay uses formative aesthetic, political, and material influences to read Viidikas’s work from 1973 to 1998. I argue that there are three major aspects in Viidikas’s poetry: the confessional, the surrealist, and the feminist. By contextualising her work in the confessional poetry genre, the surrealism of André Breton, and second wave feminism, I show that these aspects interact and overlap in subtle ways in her poems. Viidikas was steeped in feminist ideals for women’s writing, and was committed to representing female subjectivity in highly personal and uncensored ways. I show that in her poetry, a feminist ethos energises both her confessional voice and her surrealism. I also pay attention to the material circumstances of her poetry’s production, and the social and aesthetic practices of the generation of ‘68. This situated reading of Viidikas’s poetry allows me to look to the last 14 years of her life, when she retreated from publishing. While critics typically focus on her drug addiction in explaining her later marginalisation, I posit that the anti-capitalist values that Viidikas absorbed in her youth played a significant role in her withdrawal, in the 1980s and 90s, from the literary networks that had previously sustained her.' (Publication abstract)