AustLit logo
image of person or book cover 8654104981310901927.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity multi chapter work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity
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

'‘Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity’ investigates the interaction between suburbs and suburbia in a century-long series of Australian novels. It puts the often trenchantly anti-suburban rhetoric of Australian fiction in dialogue with its evocative and imaginative rendering of suburban place and time.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Anthem Press ,
      2018 .
      image of person or book cover 8654104981310901927.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 254p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published November 2018.

      ISBN: 9781783088140

Works about this Work

Brigid Rooney. Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity. Naomi Riddle , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 2 2020;

— Review of Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Brigid Rooney , 2018 multi chapter work criticism
'‘One might ask whether both novels and suburbs are obsolete,’ writes Brigid Rooney, at the start of her inquiry into suburban space in the Australian novel (9). Why should we care for the suburbs—those sub-urban spaces ringing the inner city, those in-between feminised spaces neither urban nor rural—when globalism, market deregulation, and the big-four (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) have collapsed the distinction between globe, city, suburb and home. The homogenised and ever-expanding land-creep of late capitalism has nullified ideas of the centre and periphery. The grids, the bungalows, the post-war facades, and the ubiquitous red tile roofs, are earmarked for redevelopment.' (Introduction)
Review of Brigid Rooney’s Suburban Space, The Novel and Australian Modernity Suzie Gibson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , April vol. 35 no. 1 2020;

— Review of Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Brigid Rooney , 2018 multi chapter work criticism

'The very word suburban often carries a pejorative meaning that aligns it with an unsightly urban sprawl. In reality, many modern suburban homes and streets are tarnished with a lack of individuality, presenting as part of commodified en masse living conditions where every home looks alike down to the ubiquitous and inhospitable roller door garage frontages. Much has been written about suburban spaces and the need to liberate one’s self from their insularity. A widely known example is Richard Yates’s famed Revolutionary Road (1961), chronicling a couple’s efforts to retrieve their marriage through daring plans to leave their leafy suburban life in Connecticut in order to make a break for Paris – a glittering world city that promises to replace sombre mediocrity with freedom and glamour.' (Publication abstract)

[Review] Like Nothing on This Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt and Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Meg Brayshaw , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , November no. 65 2019;

— Review of Like Nothing on This Earth : A Literary History of the Wheatbelt Tony Hughes-d'Aeth , 2017 multi chapter work criticism ; Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Brigid Rooney , 2018 multi chapter work criticism
'In his landmark work of spatial history The Road to Botany Bay (1988), Paul Carter delineates the close relationship between Australian space and language. The modern settler nation was inaugurated not only through the invaders’ physical presence but also their assertion of linguistic control through written documentation. Accordingly, space, place and land often frame investigations of settler Australian literature and culture. Despite this, however, the transnational fervour for place-based literary studies and literary geography has not produced an abundance of site-specific critical monographs on place in Australian literature. In this context, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth’s Like Nothing on This Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt (UWAP, 2017) and Brigid Rooney’s Suburban Space, The Novel and Australian Modernity (Anthem, 2018) are significant recent works of Australian scholarship, offering careful and compelling critical investigations of the complex meaning-making relations of space, place and text.' (Introduction)
[Review] Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Elizabeth McMahon , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 78 no. 3 2018; (p. 245-251)

— Review of Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Brigid Rooney , 2018 multi chapter work criticism
'It was my very great pleasure to launch Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity by Brigid Rooney at Sappho Books last December. Brigid is a colleague in Australian literary studies, the current President of the Australian Association for the study of Australian Literature, and current chair of English at University of Sydney. So, quite a full plate. In addition, she has written an outstanding book that opens up the question of suburbia in Australian fiction: the architectures, streets, cultures, their inherent nostalgia and their brutality.' (Introduction)
[Review] Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Elizabeth McMahon , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 78 no. 3 2018; (p. 245-251)

— Review of Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Brigid Rooney , 2018 multi chapter work criticism
'It was my very great pleasure to launch Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity by Brigid Rooney at Sappho Books last December. Brigid is a colleague in Australian literary studies, the current President of the Australian Association for the study of Australian Literature, and current chair of English at University of Sydney. So, quite a full plate. In addition, she has written an outstanding book that opens up the question of suburbia in Australian fiction: the architectures, streets, cultures, their inherent nostalgia and their brutality.' (Introduction)
[Review] Like Nothing on This Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt and Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Meg Brayshaw , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , November no. 65 2019;

— Review of Like Nothing on This Earth : A Literary History of the Wheatbelt Tony Hughes-d'Aeth , 2017 multi chapter work criticism ; Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Brigid Rooney , 2018 multi chapter work criticism
'In his landmark work of spatial history The Road to Botany Bay (1988), Paul Carter delineates the close relationship between Australian space and language. The modern settler nation was inaugurated not only through the invaders’ physical presence but also their assertion of linguistic control through written documentation. Accordingly, space, place and land often frame investigations of settler Australian literature and culture. Despite this, however, the transnational fervour for place-based literary studies and literary geography has not produced an abundance of site-specific critical monographs on place in Australian literature. In this context, Tony Hughes-d’Aeth’s Like Nothing on This Earth: A Literary History of the Wheatbelt (UWAP, 2017) and Brigid Rooney’s Suburban Space, The Novel and Australian Modernity (Anthem, 2018) are significant recent works of Australian scholarship, offering careful and compelling critical investigations of the complex meaning-making relations of space, place and text.' (Introduction)
Review of Brigid Rooney’s Suburban Space, The Novel and Australian Modernity Suzie Gibson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , April vol. 35 no. 1 2020;

— Review of Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Brigid Rooney , 2018 multi chapter work criticism

'The very word suburban often carries a pejorative meaning that aligns it with an unsightly urban sprawl. In reality, many modern suburban homes and streets are tarnished with a lack of individuality, presenting as part of commodified en masse living conditions where every home looks alike down to the ubiquitous and inhospitable roller door garage frontages. Much has been written about suburban spaces and the need to liberate one’s self from their insularity. A widely known example is Richard Yates’s famed Revolutionary Road (1961), chronicling a couple’s efforts to retrieve their marriage through daring plans to leave their leafy suburban life in Connecticut in order to make a break for Paris – a glittering world city that promises to replace sombre mediocrity with freedom and glamour.' (Publication abstract)

Brigid Rooney. Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity. Naomi Riddle , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 2 2020;

— Review of Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity Brigid Rooney , 2018 multi chapter work criticism
'‘One might ask whether both novels and suburbs are obsolete,’ writes Brigid Rooney, at the start of her inquiry into suburban space in the Australian novel (9). Why should we care for the suburbs—those sub-urban spaces ringing the inner city, those in-between feminised spaces neither urban nor rural—when globalism, market deregulation, and the big-four (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) have collapsed the distinction between globe, city, suburb and home. The homogenised and ever-expanding land-creep of late capitalism has nullified ideas of the centre and periphery. The grids, the bungalows, the post-war facades, and the ubiquitous red tile roofs, are earmarked for redevelopment.' (Introduction)
Last amended 23 Jul 2019 08:28:22
X