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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'For forty-five years, Social Alternatives has included fiction to probe socio-political issues. This issue brings fiction to the fore. Consistent with some earlier special issues (2021, 2013, 2009), we also include analysis of fiction as part of our commitment to a multidisciplinary platform for critical alternatives to oppressive norms. And in celebrating 45 years, our focus was necessarily broad. Social Alternatives believes that multiple mediums are beneficial in the promotion of public debates. Fictional representations of socio-economic and political concerns generate imaginative solutions to our current conditions. The founders of Social Alternatives consider fiction fundamental for the sharing of rigorous and fresh perspectives in the collective effort to navigate contemporary issues.' (Thu Hoang, Ginna Brock : Introduction)
Contents
- Arrowhead, single work short story (p. 6-9)
- Out of Africa, single work (p. 10-12)
- Dramteatri""Poetic justice" is unironic expression of the fact", single work poetry (p. 13)
- The Sun Is in the Bowli"Even w/ good intentions", single work poetry (p. 13)
- Escape from the Lucky Countryi"Within a great nation’s literature there are", single work poetry (p. 13)
- Alonei"in the whirl of voices", single work poetry (p. 13)
- Chicken, single work short story (p. 14-26)
- Furloughi"Shore leave starts", single work poetry (p. 27)
- Master of Ceremonies, single work short story (p. 28-29)
- Conspiracyi"Don’t believe a thing they say", single work poetry (p. 29)
-
From Stage to Page to Screen : The Traumatic Returns of Leah Purcell's 'the Drover's Wife',
single work
criticism
(p. 30-36)'In an interview with Harcourt, the American short story writer and novelist George Singleton uses a spatial analogy to compare the process of writing long- and short-form fiction. Singleton (2006) says, ‘Writing a novel is a walk across a bridge, while writing a short story is a walk across a tightrope.’ Singleton’s analogy captures the experiential differences of writing long and short prose and alludes to the characteristics that distinguish the short story as an enduring form: narrative economy, unity of effect or impression, and importantly, the compression of the story’s temporal setting and characters. In fact, while both the novel and the short story share the same formal characteristics (plot, point of view, dialogue, setting), the novel depends on expansion, the short story on compression. The process of adaptation is a complex project of reconfiguration: one that is not only governed by ethical issues and aesthetic tensions but by the various social, cultural, and political issues that arise in the calibration of old stories for new times, new audiences, and new medias. As Demelza Hall (2019) explains, ‘Works of adaptation are renowned for “talking back” to a text, while, at the same time, opening up new spaces and establishing new dialogues.’ In this context, it is interesting to consider the process of adapting the short story to the longer form, or as Singleton suggests, transitioning from tightrope to bridge. Since the past can be either contested or conserved, rewritten or reinstated, the act of retelling always necessitates thinking about the relationship between the story and history itself.' (Introduction)
- Food Courti"I smell before I see my father", single work poetry (p. 36)
- Cartmeli"The enigma of their affection", single work poetry (p. 36)
-
Alternative Histories of the Anthropocene : Andrew McGahan's 'The Rich Man's House',
single work
criticism
(p. 37-42)
'Andrew McGahan's final novel, The Rich Man's House (2019), collates many of the preoccupations of his literary career: power, the environment, and the precarious foundations of colonisation in Australia. This paper posits that the novel's commentary on human overreach is an alternative history that encapsulates the Anthropocene and explores the problematic, gendered dimensions of conquest and its representation. Situated within a broad and growing literary scholarship that explores the innovative application of ecological frameworks, the paper interrogates the novel's critique of intersecting erasures of coloniality, masculinist domination and historical certitude. It suggests that the disaster visited upon the characters of The Rich Man's House is a demonstration of a specific phenomenon: ecologist Barry Commoner's fourth rule of ecology - nature always bats last. This paper also contributes to scholarship on McGahan's oeuvre, noting that his final work is prescient in its awareness of increasing climate disaster.' (Publication abstract)
- Venus Hand Trapi"Tempting as it is to rub fingers", single work poetry (p. 42)
- Loafi"Morning settles on the loaf", single work poetry (p. 47)
-
Let the Animals Speak : Postromantic Renegotiations of the Animal Voice in 'only the Animals',
single work
criticism
(p. 48-55)
'Writers of the Romantic tradition have often sought a reconciliation with nature, and animals have provided a source of connection through which writers can explore the human-nonhuman relationship. Animal welfare, animal rights and vegetarianism were some of the considerations advanced by Romantic writers of the time questioning Cartesian ideas of animals as mechanistic. Mary Shelley and Herman Melville used anthropomorphic creatures to explore the human- nonhuman animal boundary and advance the idea of nonhuman animals as conscious and agential beings. In this paper, I examine 'Only the Animals' by Ceridwen Dovey, a contemporary novel which seeks to reconsider the animal voice in post-Romantic literary fiction. I also consider the influence of posthumanist thinking on representation and the relationships between human and nonhuman animals with reference to the work of Marc Bekoff and Cary Wolfe.' (Publication abstract)
- Genesis: I: I-VIIIi"The poem woke me up this morning. Rude. It was early and urgent and I didn't like it", single work poetry (p. 55)
-
Sharing Stories : Sentimentality and Sociable Reading as Articulating Concern for Animals,
single work
criticism
(p. 56-65)
'The literary work may be ideally placed to explore animal sentience and to capture human moments of appreciation of animal sentience. Reading occurs in a space of interiority in the first instance. That is, reading is an almost immediate experience of inter-subjectivity with literary characters and representation, arguably less mediated than the use of voiceover in film or visual art representation. Shared reading such as that which occurs in book clubs shifts from a space of individual exploration and interiority to a more communal space of exploration. This paper examines the intersections between literary animal studies and research into themed book clubs through revisiting data from a small regional project conducted on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, Ethics Approval HREC: A/ 13/439. We do so to investigate the impact of group reading on values and beliefs about nonhuman animals. This paper considers book clubs' power to facilitate and articulate pro-animal sentiment, thus contributing to more recent research establishing the cultural and psychological mechanisms behind the power of fiction to make us care for animals (Malecki et al. 2019) as well as that on book clubs as method. Here we reflect on how sociable reading of works that centralise the lives of animals, facilitates the articulation of past inter-species connections and shifts subsequent engagements with other species.' (Publication abstract)
- Haiku and Senryu, single work poetry (p. 65)
