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Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Ambivalence, Absence and Loss in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In this essay I aim to acknowledge the efficacy of the liberal humanist discourse in Remembering Babylon, whilst interrogating some of its more problematic aspects. In particular, I want to examine the implications of the notion of "shared suffering" by discussing Malouf's representation of non-indigenous trauma' (70).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Literary Studies ALS vol. 24 no. 2 2009 Z1696735 2009 periodical issue 2009 pg. 69-82
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Interpretations vol. 43 July 2010 Z1795293 2010 periodical issue Oz-Lit: Classroom and Curriculum 2010 pg. 43-52
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Falling Backwards : Australian Historical Fiction and The History Wars Jo Jones , Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2018 14523219 2018 multi chapter work criticism

    'Some stories are hard to tell. During a period known as the Australian History Wars, consideration of the national past was vexed, contested territory. There was marked vitriol – to an unprecedented extent – in public debate about the “reality” and interpretation of the events of colonisation. This study investigates the output of novelists who were brave enough to contribute to this vital cultural moment and the issues of politics and form they attempted to negotiate.

    'This book deals with the publically-waged debate over the suitability of novelists to render authoritative versions of significant events or periods as its starting point. From there, however, it delves deeper into the politics of form, analysing the connection between the realist modes of traditional, empiricist histories and the various explorations of the colonial past that have been figured through different historical novels. The forms of these novels range from classic realism to frontier Gothic, various Romanticisms, magical realism, and reflexive post-modernism.

    'The relative formal freedoms offered through historical novels, when compared to conventional history writing offer the chance to confront the past in all of its contradiction and complexity. The terrain of the postmodern and historical sublime — of loss and uncertainly — is one in which historical fiction can perform an important political and ethical role. The immeasurably vast space which lies beyond history, that space of those who are often unrepresented, often victims, often silent, is an abyss into which fiction, particularly historical fiction, is able imaginatively and ethically to descend.'  (Publication summary)

    Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2018
    pg. 134-159
Last amended 18 Sep 2020 06:53:30
69-82 Ambivalence, Absence and Loss in David Malouf's Remembering Babylonsmall AustLit logo Australian Literary Studies
43-52 Ambivalence, Absence and Loss in David Malouf's Remembering Babylonsmall AustLit logo Interpretations
134-159 Ambivalence, Absence and Loss in David Malouf's Remembering Babylonsmall AustLit logo
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