AustLit
Latest Issues
Contents
- Joseph Furphy : The Philosopher at the Foundry, single work biography
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'Double Line to the Terminus' : Marriage, Sex, Romance and Joseph Furphy,
single work
criticism
'This article reads Furphy's fiction in the context of his own failed marriage. It notes Furphy's interest in sex and romance, and his insistence on a degree of sexual realism despite the inhibitions of Victorian decorum. Referring to some of the unstated elements in the story of Alf Morris and Molly Cooper and the more ludicrous treatments of sex in Such is Life, and the rape story in Rigby's Romance, the article argues that Furphy contributes to our understanding of sexual behaviour in nineteenth century Australia.' (Author's abstract)
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The End of the Road : Joseph Furphy and Tom Collins in Western Australia,
single work
criticism
'Joseph Furphy spent the last seven years of his life in and around Fremantle and the suburbs of Perth in WA. When he died suddenly, aged 69, his literary reputation was unknown there. In fact, his death went unremarked apart from a mean-spirited paragraph in the Bulletin; his occupation on his death certificate was recorded as ‘Mechanic’, and the only possession of value he left was his typewriter.
'During those WA years Furphy was increasingly isolated from the few literary contacts he had made while Such Is Life was being published, and even his correspondence with Kate Baker dwindled. Increasingly frustrated with the little time he had for writing, he described his harsh and often unrewarding daily life in a letter to his mother (August 1906): ‘I have deteriorated. The change in conditions of life, with irregular hours, have broken me off literary work; and I have become a grafter, pure and simple’. (364 Barnes)
'Yet decades after his almost anonymous death Joseph Furphy’s reputation was recovered in the name of Tom Collins in the West, where it is of lasting influence. I want to trace that history, together with some illustrations of Tom Collins House as it is known, which has been preserved as the home of the West Australian branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers since 1949, and of the valuable collection of Australian paintings which make up part of the Tom Collins Bequest to the University of Western Australia.' (Author's abstract)
Note: illus., port. - The Mythical Sundowner, single work single work prose
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Jocoserious ‘Ignorance Shifting’ or ‘Aestho-Psycho-Eugenics’? : Interrogating Joseph Furphy’s Bulletin ‘Apprenticeship’,
single work
criticism
'Annotating Joseph Furphy’s first publication for the Bulletin raises some intriguing questions: to what extent was Furphy the product of the Bulletin writing academy, the late nineteenth century equivalent of a writing course, or to what extent was his talent sui generis? I intend to put this question to an extreme test, by reading closely his first published contribution to the Bulletin in 1889, ‘The Mythical Sundowner’.' (Author's abstract)
- Black Australia, single work column
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Furphy as (Metafictive) Aboriginal Ethnographer,
single work
criticism
'This paper investigates Furphy’s ethnographical writings on Aborigines in the short essays and paragraphs he wrote for the Bulletin and in one of his short stories. It also examines his representation of Toby', an 'Aboriginal stockman in Such is Life, and concludes by examining one of the most difficult passages in a colonial era novel, his account of a Palmer River Aboriginal attack, cannibalism, and settler murder in The Buln-buln and the Brolga. These Aboriginal-focused narratives are told as part of a suite of realistic tales by Barefooted Bob and Tom Collins, by way of counter-narrative to Fred Falkland Pritchard’s fantastical romance/action tales which belong to the ripping yarns/Boy’s Own tradition. The paper argues that, although the narrative method, in its refusal to editorialise, is uncharacteristically and unnervingly oblique, there is more than a little of Lilian Pritchard, the Lady Novelist, in Furphy himself and that the questions he puts into the mouth of the Lady Journalist about Aboriginal culture are probing and pungent.' (Author's abstract)
- A Vignette of Port Phillip, single work short story
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Reading the Three as One : Such is Life in 1897,
single work
criticism
'This paper is an attempt to read the original 1897 Such is Life from what remains in accessible printed form. It is argued that the 1897 version differs markedly from the 1903 version in three ways: location, argument, and the character of Tom Collins. The conclusion is that it was neither a ‘bush epic’ nor a ‘proto-modernist text’, but closer to a nineteenth-century urban comedy of manners.' (Author's abstract)
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‘Making the Archives Talk' : Towards an Electronic Edition of Joseph Furphy’s Such is Life,
single work
'The first edition of Such is Life, published in 1903 by the Bulletin Publishing Company, was the last step in a protracted period of composition, revision, and correction that produced several legitimate versions that are visible among the fragments of extant manuscripts and typescripts. When Furphy died on 13 September 1912, the possibility of any further authorial changes to his published and unpublished work died with him. His death did not stop publishing initiatives abridging his works by commissioning editors to do the job, and it did not stop the loss of other unpublished material as family members dealt with the author’s papers in the best way they could. As recent theory has demonstrated, the compilation and interpretation of the archive is unavoidably subjective, and so the contingencies of historical and critical interpretation form a very unstable view of the past. It is the job of a scholarly editor to confront this instability and provide a representation of the work that is useful to future enquiry. In this article I describe one approach, among several legitimate options, that I believe is the best way to represent, for current and future readers of Australian literature, the complicated and fragmented condition of the work we know as Such is Life. Informed by recent arguments in editorial theory and inspired by the possibilities of delivery in digital formats, an electronic edition of Joseph Furphy’s Such is Life will provide greater access to the major elements of extant archival record, and provide an environment where readers can contribute to the edition with annotations and commentary. Unlike the closed format of print-based alternatives, the electronic edition will remain open to critique, correction and debate, providing an environment that better accommodates the contingencies of archival preservation and historical interpretation.' (Author's abstract)
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One Week in Each Opening' : Furphy and the Use of the Diary Form,
single work
criticism
'This paper discusses the uses and implications of the diary form in Such is Life considering the historical development of the diary across the nineteenth century, with particular reference to the Letts company. It considers the gender and imperial associations of the nineteenth-century diary and the temporal and spatial constraints imposed by the diary form and potentially used and parodied by Furphy in his selection of this format for the novel.' (Author's abstract)
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Interspecies Mateship : Tom Collins and Pup,
single work
criticism
'This essay examines the representation of dogs, especially Pup in the novels of Joseph Furphy.' (Author's abstract)
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'Riverina Rasped the Scales From My Eyes’ : Riverina Politics in Furphy’s Such is Life,
single work
criticism
'Joseph Furphy admitted that his politics changed radically after ‘the usages of Riverina rasped the scales from my eyes’. This article argues that the political importance of Such is Life is its observation of the conditions in the Riverina that led to Furphy’s political shift; it is based on practical experience rather than the more theoretical politics of Rigby’s Romance. The novel is set in the years before the 1884 Land Act divided Riverina squatting runs in half, and a series of droughts and depressions ended the Golden Age of Squatting. The main political issue in Such is Life—the alienation of the land by a privileged few—reflects the concerns of European migrants who saw land as the source of individual wealth and equality but Furphy’s treatment of the various squatters in the novel, and his sympathy for some of them, suggests that their individual morality can do little to change an unjust system. The paper argues that Such is Life marks a political transition not only for Furphy, but for Australian democrats, from the liberal belief that small landholdings under individual ownership would be the source of justice to a more socialist commitment to communal action.'
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‘The Secret of England’s Greatness’ : A Note on the Anti-Imperialism of Such is Life,
single work
criticism
'The article traces the phrase 'Secret of England's Greatness' through its currency in nineteenth-century British culture, including the title of the painting of Queen Victoria by Thomas Jones Barker (1863), and other references, to argue that it was a commonplace in Joseph Furphy's time. The paper traces Furphy's critique of British imperialism in the novel.' (Author's abstract)
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Finding Furphy Country: Such Is Life and Literary Tourism,
single work
criticism
'Joseph Furphy, considered to be "the father of the Australian novel" is best known for Such is Life which remains a classic that “nobody reads and even fewer comprehend”. In recent times, there has been a resurgence of interest in Furphy, as evidenced by the range of celebratory activities now associated with him. Fans may visit both “real” and “imaginary” geographies in their search for connection with Furphy’s legend. This paper will consider a range of sites within the nascent Furphy heritage industry, arguing that they offer tourists opportunities to emotionally re-engage with Australia’s frontier past.' (Author's abstract)
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Rigby's Romance,
single work
drama
'This script is an adaptation of the novel Rigby's Romance.
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[Untitled],
single work
review
— Review of Walter Lindesay Richardson MD : A Victorian Seeker 2013 single work biography ; -
[Untitled],
single work
review
— Review of Searching for the Man from Snowy River 2012 single work criticism ; - Centaurs, Bushmen and Fictitious Regnal Years : Serendipity in Annotating Furphy, single work criticism Section: Notes & Furphies
