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Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 Brianna Bullen Reviews False Nostalgia by Aden Rolfe
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'‘Anamnesis,’ the first poem and section of Aden Rolfe’s brilliant philosophical poetry collection, refers to Plato’s concept of learning as a process of recovering knowledge from within.  This poem presents an initial simple supposition: “We who we are because of / what we remember,” which is then challenged and amended through Rolfe’s poetic interrogation in four sections. This poem introduces the settings—“coastlines and beaches / clearings and trails”—recurring through the collection, and the illusion of coherency, dependent on forgetting incongruities. It sets up the speaker and the addressee, their edited and untethered beings. Memory becomes “a range of values / not definitive states,” contemporary, relational, amendable, and always bittersweet. “They say we’re plural, post-memory / too old not to know / we should be playing what when / instead of / what if.’'  (Introduction)

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  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Mascara Literary Review no. 21 December 2017 12922163 2017 periodical issue

    'Over the years Mascara has published writers of distinction who cross genre and culture boundaries often with unique affinities. We have also been tasked to advocate for the cultural interests and cultural access of non-white writers in Australia. In 2012, we approached The Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne requesting that they establish a special prize or a fellowship for migrant or refugee literature since the lack of such encouragement, particularly for non-European migrants, is glaringly apparent. Conversations ensued with sporadic enthusiasm but were not followed up. Ultimately, our correspondence was dismissed by the bureaucracy of that powerful institution.' (Michelle Cahill , Editorial introduction)

    2017
Last amended 20 Feb 2018 13:19:17
http://mascarareview.com/brianna-bullen-reviews-false-nostalgia-by-aden-rolfe/ Brianna Bullen Reviews False Nostalgia by Aden Rolfesmall AustLit logo Mascara Literary Review
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