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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Novel dealing with relationships and jouneyings. Erica becomes friendly with the elegant Maria, who is haunted by war-time memories. The author's other publications include 'Marriages' and 'A Change in the Lighting'.'(Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
Literary Cultures of Eastern European 'Displaced Persons' in Australia : Elena Jonaitis, Helen Boris, Pavla Gruden and Elga Rodze-Kisele
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , October vol. 11 no. 4 2014; (p. 423-435)This paper draws upon findings from a project undertaken to interview writers who came to Australia as ‘Displaced Persons’ (DPs) after the Second World War, and examines the literary cultures within their communities. The focus is on four women writers, who exemplify the talent, resourcefulness, and contribution these immigrants made to literary and cultural life in Australia, and who significantly contribute to establishing alternative histories of Australian literature. The writers are Elena Jonaitis, originally from Lithuania; Helen Boris from Ukraine; Elga Rodze-Kisele from Latvia; and Pavla Gruden from Slovenia. The four women reveal how ethno-cultural identity and national attachments are an important aspect of these literary cultures. Their work also shows how their personal experience of immigration and the specificities of the DP experience impacts on literary production. These writers have had work published in their ethno-cultural community in Australia, their wider international diaspora and their original homeland. They have also established literary and cultural networks within their local community, and managed to engage a wider Australian audience. [Author's abstract]
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A Literary Biographical Exploration of the Transnational Literary Journeys of the Australian Writer Amy Witting and a Lithuanian Migrant Elena Jonaitis
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 1 2014; This paper explores the genesis and reflexivity of two inter-connected texts, one Elena’s Journey (1997), an autobiographical memoir of a Lithuanian migrant woman Elena Jonaitis and the other, Maria’s War (1998), a fictional novel written by the acclaimed Australian author Amy Witting. The latter text was first conceived from the oral recount of Elena Jonaitis’ experiences fleeing across Germany during World War Two. Witting, an Australian writer in a transnational setting, recognised the significance of Jonaitis’ story, even travelling to Germany to research material for a novel based on the migrant woman’s experiences. Witting subsequently decided that she was too much of ‘a born barnacle’ to write a novel underpinned by places and cultural discourses located outside Australia. Instead, Witting empowered Jonaitis, the other, a woman for whom English was a second language, to write her own story, one of ‘dispossession, endurance, love and survival.’ Soon after, Witting used the life writing of ‘the other’ to inform her own fiction, grounding her novel Maria’s War in Australia by creating the persona of an elderly migrant woman living in a retirement hostel in Sydney, who recounts her war-time experiences to a biographer. Witting commented that both books were ‘tracing the path followed by many Australian citizens and ancestors’. (Publication abstract) -
The Disempowerment of Women in the Domestic Sphere : The Fiction of Amy Witting (1918 – 2001)
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Crossroads : An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics , vol. 6 no. 2 2013; (p. 94-103)'This article examines ways in which the fiction of the acclaimed Australian writer Amy Witting, dubbed Australia’s Chekov and whom Helen Garner acknowledged as her ‘literary mother,’ interrogates the disempowerment of women in the domestic sphere, asserting that the home is a contested space and conflicted place for women. Witting subverts the notion that a ‘woman’s place is in the home’ by demonstrating that many
women are actually displaced and dispossessed in the inhibiting domestic spaces that are their ‘homes.’ In her fiction, women are isolated and excluded because of gender inequity
in regard to women’s rights and duties in the domestic sphere. Women are also marginalised in regard to inadequate financial rewards for domestic productivity and are affected by circumstances underpinned by discourses of poverty, class conflict and domestic violence. Witting asserts that the disempowerment of women in the home often leads to women appropriating masculinist attitudes and behaviours of oppression towards other women less powerful than themselves. In this article, these concepts are explored with close reference to five of Witting’s novels and interviews conducted with the author.' (Author's abstract)
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Paperbacks
1999
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 27 March 1999; (p. 8)
— Review of Maria's War 1998 single work novel -
Memories of War, Love and Loss
1998
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 16 August 1998; (p. 20)
-
Paperbacks
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 29 August 1998; (p. 9)
— Review of Maria's War 1998 single work novel -
Reflections on Human Nature
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 5 September 1998; (p. 8)
— Review of Maria's War 1998 single work novel -
Retired, but Hardly Retiring
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 24 October 1998; (p. 9)
— Review of Maria's War 1998 single work novel -
Tea and Tennessee
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12-13 September 1998; (p. 14)
— Review of Maria's War 1998 single work novel -
Untitled
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian's Review of Books , September vol. 3 no. 6 1998; (p. 28)
— Review of Maria's War 1998 single work novel -
Memories of War, Love and Loss
1998
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 16 August 1998; (p. 20) -
A Tale of Two Elenas
1998
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5 September 1998; (p. 8) -
The Disempowerment of Women in the Domestic Sphere : The Fiction of Amy Witting (1918 – 2001)
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Crossroads : An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics , vol. 6 no. 2 2013; (p. 94-103)'This article examines ways in which the fiction of the acclaimed Australian writer Amy Witting, dubbed Australia’s Chekov and whom Helen Garner acknowledged as her ‘literary mother,’ interrogates the disempowerment of women in the domestic sphere, asserting that the home is a contested space and conflicted place for women. Witting subverts the notion that a ‘woman’s place is in the home’ by demonstrating that many
women are actually displaced and dispossessed in the inhibiting domestic spaces that are their ‘homes.’ In her fiction, women are isolated and excluded because of gender inequity
in regard to women’s rights and duties in the domestic sphere. Women are also marginalised in regard to inadequate financial rewards for domestic productivity and are affected by circumstances underpinned by discourses of poverty, class conflict and domestic violence. Witting asserts that the disempowerment of women in the home often leads to women appropriating masculinist attitudes and behaviours of oppression towards other women less powerful than themselves. In this article, these concepts are explored with close reference to five of Witting’s novels and interviews conducted with the author.' (Author's abstract)
-
A Literary Biographical Exploration of the Transnational Literary Journeys of the Australian Writer Amy Witting and a Lithuanian Migrant Elena Jonaitis
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 1 2014; This paper explores the genesis and reflexivity of two inter-connected texts, one Elena’s Journey (1997), an autobiographical memoir of a Lithuanian migrant woman Elena Jonaitis and the other, Maria’s War (1998), a fictional novel written by the acclaimed Australian author Amy Witting. The latter text was first conceived from the oral recount of Elena Jonaitis’ experiences fleeing across Germany during World War Two. Witting, an Australian writer in a transnational setting, recognised the significance of Jonaitis’ story, even travelling to Germany to research material for a novel based on the migrant woman’s experiences. Witting subsequently decided that she was too much of ‘a born barnacle’ to write a novel underpinned by places and cultural discourses located outside Australia. Instead, Witting empowered Jonaitis, the other, a woman for whom English was a second language, to write her own story, one of ‘dispossession, endurance, love and survival.’ Soon after, Witting used the life writing of ‘the other’ to inform her own fiction, grounding her novel Maria’s War in Australia by creating the persona of an elderly migrant woman living in a retirement hostel in Sydney, who recounts her war-time experiences to a biographer. Witting commented that both books were ‘tracing the path followed by many Australian citizens and ancestors’. (Publication abstract) -
Literary Cultures of Eastern European 'Displaced Persons' in Australia : Elena Jonaitis, Helen Boris, Pavla Gruden and Elga Rodze-Kisele
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , October vol. 11 no. 4 2014; (p. 423-435)This paper draws upon findings from a project undertaken to interview writers who came to Australia as ‘Displaced Persons’ (DPs) after the Second World War, and examines the literary cultures within their communities. The focus is on four women writers, who exemplify the talent, resourcefulness, and contribution these immigrants made to literary and cultural life in Australia, and who significantly contribute to establishing alternative histories of Australian literature. The writers are Elena Jonaitis, originally from Lithuania; Helen Boris from Ukraine; Elga Rodze-Kisele from Latvia; and Pavla Gruden from Slovenia. The four women reveal how ethno-cultural identity and national attachments are an important aspect of these literary cultures. Their work also shows how their personal experience of immigration and the specificities of the DP experience impacts on literary production. These writers have had work published in their ethno-cultural community in Australia, their wider international diaspora and their original homeland. They have also established literary and cultural networks within their local community, and managed to engage a wider Australian audience. [Author's abstract]