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y separately published work icon The Sunlit Zone single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2012... 2012 The Sunlit Zone
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Sunlit Zone is a moving elegy of love and loss, admirable for its narrative sweep and the family dynamic that drives it. A risk-taking work of rare, imaginative power.' (publisher's website)

Notes

  • Novel in verse form.
  • Epigraph:

    a shallow but complex layer of ocean in which vegetation
    flourishes most prolifically, and which the deep sea
    diver must keep in her sights
    if she is to return to it

  • Dedication: for my parents.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Parkville, Parkville - Carlton area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Five Islands Press , 2012 .
      image of person or book cover 7872277939030705876.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 165p.
      ISBN: 9780734047465 (pbk.)

Works about this Work

The Trouble with Poetry and Literary Awards Clare Millar , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , August 2020;

'Australia has a strong history of poetry, albeit largely white and male. Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Adam Lindsay Gordon, CJ Dennis, AD Hope and Dorothea Mackellar are all notable figures in Australia’s colonial history and literature. Why is it, then, that poetry collections are largely ignored by our major literary prizes?' (Introduction)

Fluid Worlds : Reflecting Climate Change in The Swan Book and The Sunlit Zone Jessica White , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 74 no. 1 2014; (p. 142-163)
Apocalyse Vs Utopia : A Writers Guide Lucy Sussex , 2014 single work essay
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 74 no. 1 2014; (p. 90-102)
‘Country’ in Australian Contemporary Verse Novels Linda Weste , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 3 2014;
'Research is yet to describe the stylistic preferences that shape contemporary Australian verse novels which provide political and social critique. This article examines Lisa Jacobson’s The Sunlit Zone (2011), Judy Johnson’s Jack (2006), and Geoff Page’s Freehold (2005), texts which share a stylistic preference for representations of speech and thought that are closer to ‘naturally’ occurring oral communication, and which maximise use of vernacular, regional idiom, and colloquial diction. A close reading of these texts identifies the expressivity markers by which they depict attitudes, beliefs, and values pertaining to ‘country’, with particular focus on analysing the interplay of poetic and narrative elements that is instrumental to foreground the ‘natural’, and to correlate their narratives with mimetic, real-world representation.' (Publication abstract)
Words at the Heart of All Jason Steger , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 18 January 2014; (p. 25)
Untitled Peter Kenneally , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July-August no. 343 2012; (p. 26)

— Review of The Sunlit Zone Lisa Jacobson , 2012 single work novel
Verse Novels Navigate Zones of Longing and Belonging Liam Davison , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 September 2012; (p. 22-23)

— Review of All the Way Home : A Story Told in Poems Kristin Henry , 2012 single work novel ; The Sunlit Zone Lisa Jacobson , 2012 single work novel
Collusion; The Sunlit Zone Bonny Cassidy , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 72 no. 2 2012; (p. 185-191)

— Review of Collusion Brook Emery , 2012 selected work poetry ; The Sunlit Zone Lisa Jacobson , 2012 single work novel
Jessica Wilkinson Reviews Lisa Jacobson Jessica Wilkinson , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , no. 41 2013;

— Review of The Sunlit Zone Lisa Jacobson , 2012 single work novel
A Verse Novel Packed with Poignancy Elizabeth Claire Alberts , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , April vol. 17 no. 1 2013;

— Review of The Sunlit Zone Lisa Jacobson , 2012 single work novel
y separately published work icon The Sunlit Zone : A Verse Novel and Essays Lisa Jacobson , Melbourne : 2009 Z1865556 2009 single work thesis

'The Sunlit Zone, the major project of my PhD thesis, is a verse novel about trauma and transformation. The work is concerned with the ways in which transformation might occur at the site of "the wound" and with how the journey of protagonist, North, shifts from a state of trauma into the sunlit zone that the novel's title suggests.

'This novel looks specifically at thresholds between loss, memory, hybridity and mourning. North's twin sister, Finn, is a hybrid creature who inclines always towards the sea. The Sunlit Zone is particularly concerned with loss on both a micro level (via the childhood trauma that tracks North into adulthood) and a macro level (via the impact of new technology on the 21st century).

'Set in Melbourne in 2040, the narrative moves between past and present in order to memorialise trauma and, in doing so, locate its redemption.'

'Writing/ the Wound consists of three essays, loosely linked, which explore the concerns of The Sunlit Zone in the light of theoretical critique. It aims to create a dialogue between essays and verse novel in order to examine the question: what is the relationship between trauma, transformation and writing? The first two essays critique novels ... [more]that influenced The Sunlit ZoneHybrid Bodies: Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake explores the trauma of new technology, drawing on Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection in Powers of Horror Broken Bodies: Tim Winton's Dirt Music looks at grief, spiritual transformation and road trauma, using Jacques Derrida's The Work Mourning. The third essay, "Concealed Bodies: Writing/ the Wound" incorporates memoir, photographs and critique. Drawing in particular on Roland Barthes' critique of photographs in Camera Lucida, it looks at how memory pierces the skin of The Sunlit Zone and contributes to its central concerns. ( http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/37379731)

Stella Award Women Writers Line up for Prize 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 21 March 2013; (p. 34)
Well-Versed Every Day Jane Sullivan , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 24 August 2013; (p. 30)
Words at the Heart of All Jason Steger , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 18 January 2014; (p. 25)
‘Country’ in Australian Contemporary Verse Novels Linda Weste , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 3 2014;
'Research is yet to describe the stylistic preferences that shape contemporary Australian verse novels which provide political and social critique. This article examines Lisa Jacobson’s The Sunlit Zone (2011), Judy Johnson’s Jack (2006), and Geoff Page’s Freehold (2005), texts which share a stylistic preference for representations of speech and thought that are closer to ‘naturally’ occurring oral communication, and which maximise use of vernacular, regional idiom, and colloquial diction. A close reading of these texts identifies the expressivity markers by which they depict attitudes, beliefs, and values pertaining to ‘country’, with particular focus on analysing the interplay of poetic and narrative elements that is instrumental to foreground the ‘natural’, and to correlate their narratives with mimetic, real-world representation.' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 23 Mar 2021 11:15:06
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