AustLit

'Stephen Knight is a well-known medievalist and a central figure in the currently trending study of ‘medievalism’—the creative appropriation of medieval themes, images and narratives in every sort of modern medium. His latest book, The Politics of Myth, surveys nine figures, both fictional and historic, whose stories have achieved a resonance that transcends such facts as we have, or think we have, about their lives. Some of his choices are obvious candidates for his analyses, others a bit more quirky. Some, like the Arthurian triad of Arthur, Merlin and Guinevere, and Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, arose almost from their very beginnings as narrative fictions. Others, such as Robin Hood and Joan of Arc, Knight observes as they transition from indistinct historical milieux into the timeless halls of myth. Still others such as Elizabeth I, Shakespeare and Ned Kelly are better known to historians than to traditional mythographers.' (Introduction)

'Aboriginal women avoided the restrooms of the Country Women’s Association in Kempsey. Aware that white CWA members had expressed opposition to shared facilities, the women themselves elected to steer clear of the restrooms when in town. As Jennifer Jones explains in her measured and eloquent history of Aboriginal branches of the Country Women’s Association in postwar New South Wales, the segregation of public space was endemic. From 1905 Aboriginal women delivered their babies in a screened-off corner of the ‘Aboriginal annexe’ at Kempsey Hospital. This segregation of facilities was justified by accusations of lack of hygiene and ‘questionable living habits’. In 1962 the local newspaper reported on ‘appalling conditions’ on Aboriginal stations and reserves, dwellings and standards that were described as a ‘Health menace to the Shire’. It is little wonder that the women seemed ‘shy’ and unwilling to ‘mix’. Jones’ detailed study reveals the informal and banal racism encountered daily by Aboriginal women and how they lived ‘under the strain of such petty humiliations’ as their babies being weighed on the roadside from the car boot of the nursing sister of the ‘under-utilised’ Kempsey Baby Health Centre for five years.' (Introduction)

'After being funded by the CIA, and having received over a million dollars in government funding (while consistently railing against public funding for everyone and everything else), Quadrant magazine has sustained collateral damage from George Brandis' cuts to Australia Council funding. No doubt this came as a surprise, given Brandis' conservative attitude to the arts and the general politics of the Abbott/Turnbull government. It didn't take long for Quadrant's editor Keith Windschuttle to blame someone, predictably 'the left [which] remains in control of the arts'. Even here, Quadrant got it wrong, publishing a list of the 'grant assessors' on its website (in a nasty attempt to publicly shame). The list was incorrect, so Quadrant had to take it down and grudgingly admit its mistake.' (Publication abstract)