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Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 Exhuming Passions : The Pressure of the Past in Ireland and Australia
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Exhuming Passions is a collection of essays by leading Australian and Irish scholars about how the past is remembered and contested in these two countries that are often singled out because of their bitterly disputed remembrance.

Each chapter addresses a different topical issue such as how war is commemorated - particularly the changing national myths surrounding Anzac Day and the Easter Rising; government apologies for harms done by previous generations - to the Stolen Generations and state apologies for institutional and religious child sexual abuse.

The book also discusses how the past is constructed in film and literature - Irish and Australian historical fiction, the changing cinematic representations of Irish religions, how the colonial past is represented in Australian cinema, as well as the changing urban culture of Canberra and Dublin. [From the publisher's website]

Notes

  • Contents indexed selectively.

Contents

* Contents derived from the Nedlands, Inner Perth, Perth, Western Australia,:UWA Publishing , 2012 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The 'Deficit of Remembrance' : The Great War Revival in Australia and Ireland, Dominic Bryan , single work criticism (p. 163-186)
Irish and Australian Historical Fiction, Oona Frawley , Sue Kossew , single work criticism
'In recent years, in both Australia and Ireland, prominent authors have offered fictional reconsiderations of periods crucial to national consciousness and definition. In Australia, for example, Kate Grenville's work has generated considerable debate about the use of history in fiction, and about the responsibility of the fiction writer to accurately or authentically represent historical events, persons and periods. The project of recovering history and thereby uncovering the nation's past sins can also be identified in other contemporary novels by authors such as Gail Jones and Larissa Behrendt. In Ireland, Roddy Doyle, Joseph O'Connor and Sebastian Barry have been at the forefront of this historical analysis and deployment...' (From author's introduction, 187)
(p. 187-206)
Reconciliation and the History Wars in Australian Cinema, Felicity Collins , single work criticism
'When The Proposition ( a UK/Australia co-production, directed by John Hillcoat and scripted by Nick Cave) was released in 2005, film reviewers had no qualms about claiming this spectacular saga of colonial violence on the Queensland frontier as a 'history' film. A reviewer on BBC Radio 4 described The Proposition as 'a bushranger Western...set in violent 1880s Australian outback exposing the bitter racial tensions between English and Irish settlers. A Sunday Times review declared that 'Australia's brutal post-colonial history is stripped of all the lies in a bloody clash of cultures between the British police, the Irish bushrangers and the Aborigines.' Foregrounding the film's revisionist spectacle of colonial violence, an Australian reviewer predicted that, despite 'scenes of throat-cutting torture, rape and exploding heads...The Proposition could be the most accurate look at our national history yet'. (Author's introduction, 207)
(p. 207-222)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Untitled Dymphna Lonergan , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 4 no. 2 2012;

— Review of Exhuming Passions : The Pressure of the Past in Ireland and Australia 2011 anthology criticism
Untitled Dymphna Lonergan , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 4 no. 2 2012;

— Review of Exhuming Passions : The Pressure of the Past in Ireland and Australia 2011 anthology criticism
Last amended 3 Jul 2012 08:55:01
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