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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
This autobiography is Doris Brett's personal account of her struggle with ovarian cancer. She has used "diary style" entries, poetry and fables to recount and examine her experiences and memories.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Truth-Telling : A Passage to Survival in Doris Brett's 'Eating the Underworld. A Memoir in Three Voices'
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Politics and Poetics of Passage in Canadian and Australian Culture and Fiction 2006; (p. 175-187) 'Doris Brett is a poet, writer and psychotherapist whose 2001 book, "Eating the Underworld. A Memoir in Three Voices", tells three concurrent stories about survival. The author survives ovarian cancer and its return; she is the daughter of Holocaust survivors whose experiences are the background to her own childhood; and she describes herself as a survivor of childhood sibling abuse. The three stories have subterranean links which Brett uncovers in ways that raise ethical and psychological questions of great complexity. Layers of understanding about family and memory are knitted together through three different narrative strategies: poetry, journal writing and fairy tales. The result is as complex as a Fair Isle sweater. This multifaceted effort at truth-telling becomes Brett's passage to survival; through the processes of negotiating and narrating she constructs an identity that enables her to make sense of her life. Brett's first story in "Eating the Underworld" is the intimately personal one of her physical and emotional experience of ovarian cancer, and its recurrence, which covers a period of several years. Her second narrative is motivated by and is a response to the writings of her sister Lily Brett. Lily, herself a well-established poet, short story writer and essayist, has written extensively as the child of Holocaust survivors. Readers of "Eating the Underworld" have no way to adjudicate between the two sisters' versions of their mother, but in choosing to write memoir rather than fiction, Doris has implicitly entered into a 'pact' with her readers. What part can fairy tales possibly play in such 'will to truth'? Do fairy tales lie outside any autobiographical pact in Doris's memoir? If so, why has she included them and why does she give the very last words in the book to her fairy tale characters? What kind of narrative trust can include the use of fairy tales and how are readers expected to relate them to the journal and poetry sections of "Eating the Underworld"?' [Source: Flinders Academic Commons. ] -
Writers Reveal Personal Inspiration
2002
single work
column
— Appears in: State Library of Victoria News , June-September no. 20 2002; (p. 10) -
Sister Pacts
2002
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 61 no. 1 2002; (p. 186-195)
— Review of Eating the Underworld : A Memoir in Three Voices 2001 single work autobiography -
Memoir : Some Fact, Some Friction
2002
single work
biography
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 13 January 2002; (p. 10) -
Women's Lives
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 236 2001; (p. 12-13)
— Review of Eating the Underworld : A Memoir in Three Voices 2001 single work autobiography ; Roundabout at Bangalow : An Intimate Chronicle 2001 single work autobiography
-
Voices in the Darkness
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 6 October 2001; (p. 9)
— Review of Eating the Underworld : A Memoir in Three Voices 2001 single work autobiography -
Blood Ties
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 16 October vol. 119 no. 6297 2001; (p. 90)
— Review of Eating the Underworld : A Memoir in Three Voices 2001 single work autobiography -
Hard Lessions Distilled Through the Past
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 October 2001; (p. 10-11)
— Review of Eating the Underworld : A Memoir in Three Voices 2001 single work autobiography -
In Short
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3-4 November 2001; (p. 15)
— Review of Sweet Sentence 2001 single work novel ; Eating the Underworld : A Memoir in Three Voices 2001 single work autobiography -
An Incomplete Story
2001
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 17 November 2001; (p. 18)
— Review of Eating the Underworld : A Memoir in Three Voices 2001 single work autobiography -
Truth-Telling : A Passage to Survival in Doris Brett's 'Eating the Underworld. A Memoir in Three Voices'
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Politics and Poetics of Passage in Canadian and Australian Culture and Fiction 2006; (p. 175-187) 'Doris Brett is a poet, writer and psychotherapist whose 2001 book, "Eating the Underworld. A Memoir in Three Voices", tells three concurrent stories about survival. The author survives ovarian cancer and its return; she is the daughter of Holocaust survivors whose experiences are the background to her own childhood; and she describes herself as a survivor of childhood sibling abuse. The three stories have subterranean links which Brett uncovers in ways that raise ethical and psychological questions of great complexity. Layers of understanding about family and memory are knitted together through three different narrative strategies: poetry, journal writing and fairy tales. The result is as complex as a Fair Isle sweater. This multifaceted effort at truth-telling becomes Brett's passage to survival; through the processes of negotiating and narrating she constructs an identity that enables her to make sense of her life. Brett's first story in "Eating the Underworld" is the intimately personal one of her physical and emotional experience of ovarian cancer, and its recurrence, which covers a period of several years. Her second narrative is motivated by and is a response to the writings of her sister Lily Brett. Lily, herself a well-established poet, short story writer and essayist, has written extensively as the child of Holocaust survivors. Readers of "Eating the Underworld" have no way to adjudicate between the two sisters' versions of their mother, but in choosing to write memoir rather than fiction, Doris has implicitly entered into a 'pact' with her readers. What part can fairy tales possibly play in such 'will to truth'? Do fairy tales lie outside any autobiographical pact in Doris's memoir? If so, why has she included them and why does she give the very last words in the book to her fairy tale characters? What kind of narrative trust can include the use of fairy tales and how are readers expected to relate them to the journal and poetry sections of "Eating the Underworld"?' [Source: Flinders Academic Commons. ] -
Sisters of the Netherworld Find Family Matters
2001
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 September 2001; (p. 10) -
The Conflict Between Truth and Memory
2001
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 14 October 2001; (p. 53) -
Memoir : Some Fact, Some Friction
2002
single work
biography
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 13 January 2002; (p. 10) -
Writers Reveal Personal Inspiration
2002
single work
column
— Appears in: State Library of Victoria News , June-September no. 20 2002; (p. 10)
Last amended 11 Jun 2020 14:24:53
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