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'Cicada Chimes is set over a twenty-four-hour period covering several years in time lapse; it moves from a funeral service in Rookwood, to a honeymoon in Paris, to the morning markets in Serres, Greece, and a church service in Surry Hills. The twenty-four-hour time structure is Helen Koukoutsis’ way of exploring the effects of her father’s death and mother’s grief on her Australian-Greek Orthodox identity. Written with understated humour, these poems smile at the tensions between marriage and motherhood, memory and forgetfulness, and life and death.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Reading Helen Koukoutsis : Cicada Chimes
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 2 2019;'In her collection of poems Cicada Chimes, Helen Koukoutsis, an Australian poet of Greek Orthodox heritage explores the conflicting emotions produced by death and loss. The collection begins with her father’s funeral and ends with a dramatic manifesto that shows grief’s expressive power. The questions that frame this reading of Cicada Chimes are: how does this modern Australian poet utilise cultural and religious traditions for elegy? What type of spirituality does Koukoutsis identify with? And how does her work both draw on, and critically distance itself from traditional Greek rituals of lament? I will argue that Koukoutsis’ speaker positions herself both inside and outside her Orthodox faith tradition. Her inherited Eastern Mediterranean beliefs and customs are a source of consolation for her, but they are also sites of alienation and oppression. This collection of poems negotiates this contradictory relationship to tradition.' (Publication abstract)
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[Review] Cicada Chimes
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Rabbit , no. 25 2018; (p. 108-110)
— Review of Cicada Chimes 2017 selected work poetry
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[Review] Cicada Chimes
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Rabbit , no. 25 2018; (p. 108-110)
— Review of Cicada Chimes 2017 selected work poetry -
Reading Helen Koukoutsis : Cicada Chimes
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 2 2019;'In her collection of poems Cicada Chimes, Helen Koukoutsis, an Australian poet of Greek Orthodox heritage explores the conflicting emotions produced by death and loss. The collection begins with her father’s funeral and ends with a dramatic manifesto that shows grief’s expressive power. The questions that frame this reading of Cicada Chimes are: how does this modern Australian poet utilise cultural and religious traditions for elegy? What type of spirituality does Koukoutsis identify with? And how does her work both draw on, and critically distance itself from traditional Greek rituals of lament? I will argue that Koukoutsis’ speaker positions herself both inside and outside her Orthodox faith tradition. Her inherited Eastern Mediterranean beliefs and customs are a source of consolation for her, but they are also sites of alienation and oppression. This collection of poems negotiates this contradictory relationship to tradition.' (Publication abstract)
