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Notes
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This novel was published anonymously, but research indicates that R.H. Horne may have been the author. (See: Lurline Stuart's Early Convict Novels)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Irish Republicanism and the Colonial Australian Bushranger Narrative
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 36 no. 2 2021;'This article examines a range of colonial Australian Irish bushranger narratives in terms of their investments in revolutionary republicanism, arguing that these become increasingly contested and compromised over time. Beginning with the anonymously published novel Rebel Convicts (1858), it looks at how the fate of transported Irish revolutionaries is imagined in relation to colonial settlement and the convict system. It then turns to Ned Kelly’s Jerilderie Letter (c. 1879), highlighting Kelly’s rhetoric of resistance and mapping his affinities with Irish American republicanism. John Boyle O’Reilly was a Fenian activist, transported to Western Australia in 1867. His novel Moondyne (1878, 1879), rather than unleashing an Irish revolutionary political agenda, is based instead on an English-Catholic bushranger, and its interest in republicanism is in any case displaced from its Australian setting. Ned Kelly’s execution in 1880 gave rise to a new wave of popular narratives, including James Skipp Borlase’s The Iron-Clad Bushranger (1881), which fictionalises Kelly’s career – embroiling him in Irish Fenian plots – and recasts his political affiliations as criminal characteristics. Rolf Boldrewood’s Robbery Under Arms (1882–3) was also published in the wake of the Kelly saga but is notable for its political conservatism, stripping its Irish-Catholic bushrangers of their revolutionary potential to better serve the interests of a powerful pastoral elite. This conservatism is both challenged and magnified in Rosa Praed’s Outlaw and Lawmaker (1893), which celebrates the career of John Boyle O’Reilly while also re-directing his political radicalism into romance. The article concludes that the revolutionary figure of the Irish bushranger is gradually divorced from any radical agency and relegated to a remote chapter of colonial Australia’s history.'
Source: Abstract.
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Early Convict Novels
1995
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Proceedings : Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Sixteenth Annual Conference, 3-8 July 1994 1995; (p. 100-104) -
Untitled
1858
single work
review
— Appears in: My Note Book , 23 January 1858; (p. 453)
— Review of Rebel Convicts : An Australian Novel 1858 single work novel
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Untitled
1858
single work
review
— Appears in: My Note Book , 23 January 1858; (p. 453)
— Review of Rebel Convicts : An Australian Novel 1858 single work novel -
Early Convict Novels
1995
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Proceedings : Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Sixteenth Annual Conference, 3-8 July 1994 1995; (p. 100-104) -
Irish Republicanism and the Colonial Australian Bushranger Narrative
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 36 no. 2 2021;'This article examines a range of colonial Australian Irish bushranger narratives in terms of their investments in revolutionary republicanism, arguing that these become increasingly contested and compromised over time. Beginning with the anonymously published novel Rebel Convicts (1858), it looks at how the fate of transported Irish revolutionaries is imagined in relation to colonial settlement and the convict system. It then turns to Ned Kelly’s Jerilderie Letter (c. 1879), highlighting Kelly’s rhetoric of resistance and mapping his affinities with Irish American republicanism. John Boyle O’Reilly was a Fenian activist, transported to Western Australia in 1867. His novel Moondyne (1878, 1879), rather than unleashing an Irish revolutionary political agenda, is based instead on an English-Catholic bushranger, and its interest in republicanism is in any case displaced from its Australian setting. Ned Kelly’s execution in 1880 gave rise to a new wave of popular narratives, including James Skipp Borlase’s The Iron-Clad Bushranger (1881), which fictionalises Kelly’s career – embroiling him in Irish Fenian plots – and recasts his political affiliations as criminal characteristics. Rolf Boldrewood’s Robbery Under Arms (1882–3) was also published in the wake of the Kelly saga but is notable for its political conservatism, stripping its Irish-Catholic bushrangers of their revolutionary potential to better serve the interests of a powerful pastoral elite. This conservatism is both challenged and magnified in Rosa Praed’s Outlaw and Lawmaker (1893), which celebrates the career of John Boyle O’Reilly while also re-directing his political radicalism into romance. The article concludes that the revolutionary figure of the Irish bushranger is gradually divorced from any radical agency and relegated to a remote chapter of colonial Australia’s history.'
Source: Abstract.
- New South Wales,
- Van Diemen's Land (1803-1856), Tasmania,
- 1700-1799
- 1800-1899