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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Queensland is known in the Australian imagination as the frontier, a place of barren land and wild politics – and, conversely, as Australia's playground, with its sub-tropical weather, beaches and natural wonders. It's a place that has long had an image of difference to the rest of the country, both within and without its borders, an image based in the reality of a different sense of distance, a different apprehension of time, different architecture.'
'By the Book presents a wide-ranging history of the literature of Queensland from European settlement to the present day, a period of immense change for this state. The state is broken up into geographic regions, with each chapter building a rich sense of the regional specificity of its literary culture.'
'Thematic chapters are also included, covering travel writing, writing for children, and indigenous writing. By the Book also covers the role of institutions such as schools, public libraries, the press and publishers in shaping the writing and reading of books in Queensland.' (Source: ABC shop website)
Contents
* Contents derived from the
St Lucia,
Indooroopilly - St Lucia area,
Brisbane - North West,
Brisbane,
Queensland,:University of Queensland Press
, 2007 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
- Introduction : By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland, single work criticism (p. 1-10; notes 323)
- Roles for Writers : Brisbane and Literature, 1859-1975, single work criticism (p. 13-72; notes 323-330)
- An Unlikely City : The Making of Literary Brisbane, 1975-2001, single work criticism (p. 73-91; notes 330-334)
- Natural Imaginings: The Literature of the Hinterland, single work criticism (p. 92-110; ; notes 334-336)
- 'From Progress into Stand-Still Days': Literature, History and the Darling Downs, single work criticism (p. 111-139; notes 337-340)
- (Re)Writing Traditions : The Bush Ethos in Central Queensland Writing, single work criticism (p. 143-181; notes 340-345)
- 'Where the Pelican Builds': Writing in the West, single work criticism (p. 185-209; notes 345-349)
- Warm Words : North Queensland Writing, single work criticism (p. 213-255; notes 349-358)
- 'Bitin Back' : Indigenous Writing in Queensland, single work criticism (p. 259-277; notes 358-359)
- Locating Queensland Children's Literature : Reef, Bush and City, single work criticism (p. 278-300; notes 360-362)
-
The Holiday-Maker's Happy Hunting Ground : Travel Writing in Queensland
The Holiday-Maker's Happy Hunting Ground : Travel Writing in Queensland, 1860-1950,
single work
criticism
(p. 301-322; notes 362-365)'A few years ago, on a research trip to East Africa, I met a young man from my home town of Brisbane. Slightly sheepish at the implausible coincidence of our meeting, I struggled to say something that would be of relevance to both of us. ‘Nice place,’ I hesitantly opined of Brisbane. ‘Nah, shithole,’ he tersely said and, sensing that the conversation was at an end, I turned back to my Kenyan delicacy, spaghetti. The interchange reminded me of two things: first, it is always more difficult to leave home behind you than you think; and second, your home is not the same home as anybody else's.' (Extract)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also e-book.
Works about this Work
-
Trauma, Memory and Landscape in Queensland : Women Writing ‘a New Alphabet of Moss and Water’
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , December vol. 19 no. 2 2012; (p. 205-216) 'The cultural association of Queensland with a condition of imagination or unreality has a strong history. Queensland has always ‘retained much of its quality as an abstraction, an idea’, asserts Thea Astley in her famous essay on the state's identity (Astley 1976: 263). In one of the most quoted descriptions of Queensland's literary representation, Pat Buckridge draws attention to its ‘othering’, suggesting that Queensland possesses ‘a different sense of distance, different architecture, a different apprehension of time, a distinctive preoccupation with personal eccentricity, and . . . a strong sense of cultural antitheses’ (1976: 30). Rosie Scott comes closest to the concerns of this present article when she asserts that this so-called difference ‘is definitely partly to do with the landscape. In Brisbane, for instance, the rickety old wooden Queenslanders drenched in bougainvillea, the palms, the astounding number of birds even in Red Hill where I lived, the jacarandas, are all unique in Australia’ (quoted in Sheahan-Bright and Glover 2002: xv). For Vivienne Muller, Buckridge's ‘cultural antitheses’ are most clearly expressed in precisely this interpretation of Queensland as a place somewhere between imagined wilderness and paradise (2001: 72). Thus, as Gillian Whitlock suggests, such differences are primarily fictional constructs that feed ‘an image making process founded more on nationalist debates about city and bush, centre and periphery, the Southern states versus the Deep North than on any “real” sense of regionalism’ (quoted in Muller 2001: 80). Queensland, in this reading, is subject to the Orientalist discourse of an Australian national identity in which the so-called civilisation of the south-eastern urban capitals necessitates a dark ‘other’. I want to draw out this understanding of the landscape as it is imagined in Queensland women's writing. Gail Reekie (1994: 8) suggests that, ‘Women's sense of place, of region, is powerfully constructed by their marginality to History.’ These narratives do assert Queensland's ‘difference’, but as part of an articulation of psychological extremity experienced by those living on the edges of a simultaneously ideological and geographically limited space. The Queensland landscape, I argue, is thus used as both setting for and symbol of traumatic experience.' (Publication abstract) -
Facilitiating ‘Storied Relationships to a Place’ : The Capacity of the University to Lead Communities Towards Resilience Through Creative Arts Activities
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Special Issue Website Series , October no. 12 2011; 'This article reports on the leadership aspects of the community creative arts based Resurfacing Stronger project, which was mounted in response to the recent flood crisis in Queensland, Australia, and involved the participation of a regional university. The project combines creative writing workshops and the publication of community writing with a study of contemporary community writing in Central Queensland. These various components are focused on gaining an understanding of the social dimensions of flood preparedness and response through creative writing as both action and product, as well as conducting a pilot study of contemporary community writing in the Central Queensland region. This article demonstrates the capacity of the university to lead communities towards resilience through creative arts activities, in this case, through leading community members in writing narratives of their individual relationships to localised places in times of crisis—what nature writer Barry Lopez has referred to as 'storied relationship[s] to a place' (1997).' (Author's abstract)
-
Untitled
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Reviews in Australian Studies , vol. 3 no. 1 2008;
— Review of By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007 anthology criticism -
Untitled
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 23 no. 4 2008; (p. 499-501)
— Review of By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007 anthology criticism -
A Queensland State of Mind
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , April vol. 3 no. 3 2008; (p. 13)
— Review of The Third Metropolis : Imagining Brisbane Through Art and Literature, 1940-1970 2007 single work criticism ; By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007 anthology criticism
-
In a Different State of Mind
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 July 2007; (p. 17)
— Review of By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007 anthology criticism -
An Itch to Ride a Trail of Words
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4-5 August 2007; (p. 8-9)
— Review of By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007 anthology criticism -
Hadgraft's Legacy
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 294 2007; (p. 52-53)
— Review of By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007 anthology criticism -
Untitled
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 7 no. 2007; (p. 107-111)
— Review of By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007 anthology criticism -
A Queensland State of Mind
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , April vol. 3 no. 3 2008; (p. 13)
— Review of The Third Metropolis : Imagining Brisbane Through Art and Literature, 1940-1970 2007 single work criticism ; By the Book : A Literary History of Queensland 2007 anthology criticism -
Puritans, Hedonists Mix in a Curious State
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4-5 August 2007; (p. 11) Rosemary Sorensen looks at two recent histories of Queensland, Buckridge and McKay's literary history and Ray Evans's A History of Queensland. -
Facilitiating ‘Storied Relationships to a Place’ : The Capacity of the University to Lead Communities Towards Resilience Through Creative Arts Activities
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Special Issue Website Series , October no. 12 2011; 'This article reports on the leadership aspects of the community creative arts based Resurfacing Stronger project, which was mounted in response to the recent flood crisis in Queensland, Australia, and involved the participation of a regional university. The project combines creative writing workshops and the publication of community writing with a study of contemporary community writing in Central Queensland. These various components are focused on gaining an understanding of the social dimensions of flood preparedness and response through creative writing as both action and product, as well as conducting a pilot study of contemporary community writing in the Central Queensland region. This article demonstrates the capacity of the university to lead communities towards resilience through creative arts activities, in this case, through leading community members in writing narratives of their individual relationships to localised places in times of crisis—what nature writer Barry Lopez has referred to as 'storied relationship[s] to a place' (1997).' (Author's abstract)
-
Trauma, Memory and Landscape in Queensland : Women Writing ‘a New Alphabet of Moss and Water’
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , December vol. 19 no. 2 2012; (p. 205-216) 'The cultural association of Queensland with a condition of imagination or unreality has a strong history. Queensland has always ‘retained much of its quality as an abstraction, an idea’, asserts Thea Astley in her famous essay on the state's identity (Astley 1976: 263). In one of the most quoted descriptions of Queensland's literary representation, Pat Buckridge draws attention to its ‘othering’, suggesting that Queensland possesses ‘a different sense of distance, different architecture, a different apprehension of time, a distinctive preoccupation with personal eccentricity, and . . . a strong sense of cultural antitheses’ (1976: 30). Rosie Scott comes closest to the concerns of this present article when she asserts that this so-called difference ‘is definitely partly to do with the landscape. In Brisbane, for instance, the rickety old wooden Queenslanders drenched in bougainvillea, the palms, the astounding number of birds even in Red Hill where I lived, the jacarandas, are all unique in Australia’ (quoted in Sheahan-Bright and Glover 2002: xv). For Vivienne Muller, Buckridge's ‘cultural antitheses’ are most clearly expressed in precisely this interpretation of Queensland as a place somewhere between imagined wilderness and paradise (2001: 72). Thus, as Gillian Whitlock suggests, such differences are primarily fictional constructs that feed ‘an image making process founded more on nationalist debates about city and bush, centre and periphery, the Southern states versus the Deep North than on any “real” sense of regionalism’ (quoted in Muller 2001: 80). Queensland, in this reading, is subject to the Orientalist discourse of an Australian national identity in which the so-called civilisation of the south-eastern urban capitals necessitates a dark ‘other’. I want to draw out this understanding of the landscape as it is imagined in Queensland women's writing. Gail Reekie (1994: 8) suggests that, ‘Women's sense of place, of region, is powerfully constructed by their marginality to History.’ These narratives do assert Queensland's ‘difference’, but as part of an articulation of psychological extremity experienced by those living on the edges of a simultaneously ideological and geographically limited space. The Queensland landscape, I argue, is thus used as both setting for and symbol of traumatic experience.' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 1 Jun 2015 13:22:15
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