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  • Author:agent Charles Harpur http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/harpur-charles
Issue Details: First known date: 1858... 1858 Note
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In 1858 Charles Harpur was drawn into an argument with Frank Fowler, the editor of the Month : A Literary and Critical Journal. J. Normington-Rawling in Charles Harpur, An Australian (Angus & Robertson, 1962): 226 writes that 'Harpur had allowed himself to be inveigled into the position of defending as poetry the writings of Henry Parkes. In doing so he chose to see the issue as one between colonists [Harpur] and immigrants [Fowler]...' Harpur wrote a Note with an accompanying poem published in the Empire (9 March 1858) which was commented on by Fowler in the pages of the Month. Harpur continued the argument with this Note in the 28 May 1858 issue of the Empire published with a version of his poem A Rhyme.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Empire 28 May 1858 Z1737705 1858 newspaper issue 1858 pg. 2

Works about this Work

An Unsettled Community : Harpur's Carnival, Harris' Assonance, Mackellar's Code John Kinsella , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Republics of Letters : Literary Communities in Australia 2012; (p. 227-238)
Michael Farrell observes 'a textual community is conventionally defined as people brought together by shared texts or reading practices, though 'such a bringing together may be virtual, through online networks'. Recognising that imagined communities, even in Anderson's classic formulation, are indeed 'imagined', papering over forms of difference in inequality, Farrell examines a seemingly disparate group of text by Charles Harpur, Norman Harris and Dorothea Mackellar that betray the 'plural knowledges of the past', forms of poetry that do not support the settlement upon which the imagined community of the nation depends. These are works that by virtue of their aberrant style and form and stance have been left to one side of the cultural nations canon, even when written by poets like Harpur and Mackellar, who otherwise have been enlisted into that settlement. They form, he argues, a community of 'wild' or 'fugitive' texts distinguished by 'their disinterest in building a national literature'. (Source: Kirkpatrick, Peter and Dixon, Robert: Introduction xviii)
An Unsettled Community : Harpur's Carnival, Harris' Assonance, Mackellar's Code John Kinsella , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Republics of Letters : Literary Communities in Australia 2012; (p. 227-238)
Michael Farrell observes 'a textual community is conventionally defined as people brought together by shared texts or reading practices, though 'such a bringing together may be virtual, through online networks'. Recognising that imagined communities, even in Anderson's classic formulation, are indeed 'imagined', papering over forms of difference in inequality, Farrell examines a seemingly disparate group of text by Charles Harpur, Norman Harris and Dorothea Mackellar that betray the 'plural knowledges of the past', forms of poetry that do not support the settlement upon which the imagined community of the nation depends. These are works that by virtue of their aberrant style and form and stance have been left to one side of the cultural nations canon, even when written by poets like Harpur and Mackellar, who otherwise have been enlisted into that settlement. They form, he argues, a community of 'wild' or 'fugitive' texts distinguished by 'their disinterest in building a national literature'. (Source: Kirkpatrick, Peter and Dixon, Robert: Introduction xviii)
Last amended 17 Jul 2012 15:29:13
2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60425051 Notesmall AustLit logo The Empire
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