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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In a number of collaborative works of Indigenous life-writing, the historical and theoretical entanglements between orality and literacy ... the spheres of "talk" and "text" ... underwrite the limits and possibilities of such works as part of the broader project of contemporary cross-cultural representation. Paddy Roe's and Stephen Muecke's collaboration in Gularabula has been extremely influential in this field in Australia. Their work has shaped cross-cultural approaches to the genre since its publication in1983. This article revisits Gularabula in order to examine the relationship between talk and text in collaborative Indigenous/non-Indigenous works, and considers some critical responses to these efforts.' (p.59)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Teaching Indigenous Literature : An Ethics of Voice
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 70-94) 'My first class in teaching Indigenous literature was beset with a challenge: 'Why are you quoting that songline on overhead?! An Aboriginal student asked me, deeply offended, when I introduced a pre-scripted lecture on Aboriginal 'text'. 'It is not to be taken away from its context. It is sung, not written; it is performed with dancing and has a meaning that you would not understand!' My bravado failed and I gave her the stage. She was right. I had unwittingly performed a 'colonial' act of misappropriation. The pressures of early career academic life were my rather feeble excuse - at the last minute I had been asked to take over the unit from a retiring colleague on top of my normal teaching load, was finishing, at night, my PhD on Australian novel to film adaptation, and was processing all sorts of new realities. I'd been instructed by this colleague to show an 'example' of a songline as an introduction to a unit called 'Australian Society, Aboriginal Voices'.' (Author's introduction, 70)
-
Teaching Indigenous Literature : An Ethics of Voice
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 70-94) 'My first class in teaching Indigenous literature was beset with a challenge: 'Why are you quoting that songline on overhead?! An Aboriginal student asked me, deeply offended, when I introduced a pre-scripted lecture on Aboriginal 'text'. 'It is not to be taken away from its context. It is sung, not written; it is performed with dancing and has a meaning that you would not understand!' My bravado failed and I gave her the stage. She was right. I had unwittingly performed a 'colonial' act of misappropriation. The pressures of early career academic life were my rather feeble excuse - at the last minute I had been asked to take over the unit from a retiring colleague on top of my normal teaching load, was finishing, at night, my PhD on Australian novel to film adaptation, and was processing all sorts of new realities. I'd been instructed by this colleague to show an 'example' of a songline as an introduction to a unit called 'Australian Society, Aboriginal Voices'.' (Author's introduction, 70)
Last amended 3 Aug 2007 14:37:45
59-71; notes 208-210
Beyond Orality and Literacy: Textuality, Modernity and Representation in Gularabulu: Stories from the West Kimberley
Journal of Australian Studies
Journal of Australian Studies
149-169
Beyond Orality and Literacy: Textuality, Modernity and Representation in Gularabulu: Stories from the West Kimberley
Subjects:
- Gularabulu : Stories from the West Kimberley 1983 selected work criticism life story oral history
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