AustLit logo

AustLit

Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 'The Inexhaustible Properties of a Lady’s Pen' : The Literary Craft of Georgiana Molloy
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In 1830, English woman Georgiana Molloy arrived on the shores of Augusta in south-west Western Australia with her husband. Molloy’s long letters to her family capture their efforts to establish themselves. While much has been written on Molloy’s pioneering spirit, attention to her literary ability has been scarce. This chapter, through its analysis of Molloy’s vivid letters to her family and her lush and alluring correspondence with James Mangles, articulates how she used writing to craft a particular persona, advance her knowledge of botany and alleviate her isolation. In doing so, it will illuminate Molloy’s growing confidence as a botanist, and the particularly feminine inflection of her responses to the Australian environment.'

Source: Abstract.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing Devaleena Das (editor), Sanjukta Dasgupta (editor), London : Palgrave Macmillan , 2017 13603502 2017 anthology criticism

    'This volume explores the subterfuges, strategies, and choices that Australian women writers have navigated in order to challenge patriarchal stereotypes and assert themselves as writers of substance. Contextualized within the pioneering efforts of white, Aboriginal, and immigrant Australian women in initiating an alternative literary tradition, the text captures a wide range of multiracial Australian women authors’ insightful reflections on crucial issues such as war and silent mourning, emergence of a Australian national heroine, racial purity and Aboriginal motherhood, communism and activism, feminist rivalry, sexual transgressions, autobiography and art of letter writing, city space and female subjectivity, lesbianism, gender implications of spatial categories, placement and displacement, dwelling and travel, location and dislocation and female body politics. Claiming Space for Australian Women’s Writing tracks Australian women authors’ varied journeys across cultural, political and racial borders in the canter of contemporary political discourse.'

    Source: Publisher's blurb.

    London : Palgrave Macmillan , 2017
    pg. 181-196
Last amended 16 Apr 2018 10:46:48
181-196 'The Inexhaustible Properties of a Lady’s Pen' : The Literary Craft of Georgiana Molloysmall AustLit logo
X