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Notes
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Epigraph:
We keep coming back and coming back
[...] to the hotel instead of the hymns
That fall upon it out of the wind.
Wallace Stevens
When you see people who are thin from lack of
food, beg them to accept your help;
remember that you may need their friendship in
times to come.
Rig Veda
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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“A Taste of Elsewhere” : Consuming the Exotic in Simone Lazaroo’s Sustenance
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , vol. 54 no. 4 2018; (p. 469-483)'Simone Lazaroo’s novel Sustenance (2010) explores Australian identity and its positioning of the Asian other, using the touristic setting of Bali to evidence the process of othering that takes place in Australian society, where acceptance of the other remains superficial and alterity is maintained. Through a close reading of Sustenance’s culinary extracts, this article argues that consumptive practices and the layering of stereotypes are used by Lazaroo to critically portray Australia’s neocolonial relation to Asia as well as to evidence the downsides of the consumptive celebration of difference which blinds people to the realities of racism and intolerance. It explores how world views are transmitted through foodways, and how this feature of food is used in conflicting ways: by the local population and the tourists to generate interactions that rely on the mutual essentialization of cultural differences, and by the main character to underscore commonalities and to facilitate cross-cultural understanding.' (Publication abstract)
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“The Root of All Evil”? Transnational Cosmopolitanism in the Fiction of Dewi Anggraeni, Simone Lazaroo and Merlinda Bobis
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , December vol. 52 no. 5 2016; (p. 595-609) Mediating Literary Borders : Asian Australian Writing 2018; (p. 69-83) This article exposes the contradictions of cosmopolitan citizenship and world peace in novels by three Southeast Asian Australian women authors. Their fiction questions the viability of transnational sisterhood in an age of humanitarian intervention where women and children have become pawns for renewed western imperialist ventures. This article asks in turn whether the incommensurable space opened up by the failures of various forms of what Stuart Hall calls cosmopolitanism “from above” can be reinvested through “reading up the ladder of privilege”, as proposed by Chandra T. Mohanty. Simone Lazaroo’s Sustenance (2010) and Merlinda Bobis’s The Solemn Lantern Maker (2008) build “grass-roots” forms of cosmopolitanism and touristic hospitality designed to redress the many evils of contemporary postcolonial societies. The Root of all Evil (1987) by Dewi Anggraeni objects to the Spivakian native informant and upwardly mobile migrant woman’s imperious desire to help her homeland’s subaltern female underclass, in light of the latter’s lack of agency and the harm such intervention may cause. (Publication abstract) -
Untitled
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 28 August 2010; (p. 26)
— Review of Sustenance 2010 single work novel -
Elsewhere
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 324 2010; (p. 42)
— Review of Sustenance 2010 single work novel -
Off the Shelf
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 31 August 2010; (p. 6)
— Review of Dead Man's Gold 2010 single work children's fiction ; The Fremantle Doctor 2007 single work novel ; Sustenance 2010 single work novel ; Traitor 2010 single work novel ; The West : Australian Poems 1989-2009 2010 selected work poetry ; Takeshita Demons 2010 single work children's fiction
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Off the Shelf : Fiction
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 17 July 2010; (p. 30)
— Review of Sustenance 2010 single work novel -
Mixed Menu of Suspense
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 24 July 2010; (p. 24)
— Review of Sustenance 2010 single work novel -
Pick of the Week
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 August 2010; (p. 34)
— Review of Sustenance 2010 single work novel -
Off the Shelf
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 31 August 2010; (p. 6)
— Review of Dead Man's Gold 2010 single work children's fiction ; The Fremantle Doctor 2007 single work novel ; Sustenance 2010 single work novel ; Traitor 2010 single work novel ; The West : Australian Poems 1989-2009 2010 selected work poetry ; Takeshita Demons 2010 single work children's fiction -
Elsewhere
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 324 2010; (p. 42)
— Review of Sustenance 2010 single work novel -
“The Root of All Evil”? Transnational Cosmopolitanism in the Fiction of Dewi Anggraeni, Simone Lazaroo and Merlinda Bobis
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , December vol. 52 no. 5 2016; (p. 595-609) Mediating Literary Borders : Asian Australian Writing 2018; (p. 69-83) This article exposes the contradictions of cosmopolitan citizenship and world peace in novels by three Southeast Asian Australian women authors. Their fiction questions the viability of transnational sisterhood in an age of humanitarian intervention where women and children have become pawns for renewed western imperialist ventures. This article asks in turn whether the incommensurable space opened up by the failures of various forms of what Stuart Hall calls cosmopolitanism “from above” can be reinvested through “reading up the ladder of privilege”, as proposed by Chandra T. Mohanty. Simone Lazaroo’s Sustenance (2010) and Merlinda Bobis’s The Solemn Lantern Maker (2008) build “grass-roots” forms of cosmopolitanism and touristic hospitality designed to redress the many evils of contemporary postcolonial societies. The Root of all Evil (1987) by Dewi Anggraeni objects to the Spivakian native informant and upwardly mobile migrant woman’s imperious desire to help her homeland’s subaltern female underclass, in light of the latter’s lack of agency and the harm such intervention may cause. (Publication abstract) -
“A Taste of Elsewhere” : Consuming the Exotic in Simone Lazaroo’s Sustenance
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , vol. 54 no. 4 2018; (p. 469-483)'Simone Lazaroo’s novel Sustenance (2010) explores Australian identity and its positioning of the Asian other, using the touristic setting of Bali to evidence the process of othering that takes place in Australian society, where acceptance of the other remains superficial and alterity is maintained. Through a close reading of Sustenance’s culinary extracts, this article argues that consumptive practices and the layering of stereotypes are used by Lazaroo to critically portray Australia’s neocolonial relation to Asia as well as to evidence the downsides of the consumptive celebration of difference which blinds people to the realities of racism and intolerance. It explores how world views are transmitted through foodways, and how this feature of food is used in conflicting ways: by the local population and the tourists to generate interactions that rely on the mutual essentialization of cultural differences, and by the main character to underscore commonalities and to facilitate cross-cultural understanding.' (Publication abstract)
Awards
- 2011 shortlisted Barbara Jefferis Award
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Bali,
cIndonesia,cSoutheast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
