AustLit logo
Paul Genoni Paul Genoni i(A34510 works by)
Gender: Male
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.

Works By

Preview all
1 The Charismatic, Enigmatic Charmian Clift: a Writer Who Lived the Dream and Confronted Its Consequences Tanya Dalziell , Paul Genoni , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 30 August 2023;
1 Brendan McNamee. Grounded Visionary: The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane. Paul Genoni , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 22 no. 1 2022;

— Review of Grounded Visionary : The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane Brendan McNamee , 2019 multi chapter work criticism
'A rare task more difficult than reviewing a book by Gerald Murnane, might be reviewing a critical account encompassing most of Murnane’s oeuvre. Not that I subscribe to the regularly expressed view that Murnane is ‘difficult.’ Indeed, overall, his novels—while being admittedly daunting when encountered for the first time—are quite straightforward once the reader finds the measure of the writer’s style, tenor and range. But reviewers and critics have often struck trouble in trying to fulfil their role of describing the key elements of Murnane’s fiction to unfamiliar readers. This is because there is an undeniable intricacy to his fiction, which demands to be addressed, and in so far as possible explained or described. That ‘intricacy’ is present in the stylistic surface of Murnane’s conspicuously polished prose; in the constant flux between his fictional bedrock and the metafictional superstructure; and in the substantive content provided by his tangled thematic and imagistic obsessions. Indeed, it is the remarkable degree to which style, method and substance are interwoven that occasionally results in Murnane’s fiction perplexing even his most dedicated readers. As Brendan McNamee concedes at one point in Grounded Visionary, there is a notoriously challenging section of Murnane’s Inland that leaves him lamenting, ‘The point of which, if there is any, escapes me entirely’ (92).' 

(Introduction)

1 Juliana de Nooy. What’s France Got to Do with It?: Contemporary Memoirs of Australians in France. Paul Genoni , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 22 no. 1 2022;

— Review of What's France Got to Do with It? : Contemporary Memoirs of Australians in France Juliana De Nooy , 2020 multi chapter work criticism
'Scholars of literature and related disciplines should feel at least a frisson of interest when a colleague signposts a ‘new’ area of writing, publishing and academic interest. Not that an emerging genre may have gone entirely unnoticed, but others have perhaps passed it by with only a backward glance, or even a thought that it may be unworthy of their professional interest.' 

(Introduction)

1 From the Origins of Gallipoli to an Orange Head : Incidents in the Friendship between Sidney Nolan and George Johnston Paul Genoni , Tanya Dalziell , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 45 no. 1 2021; (p. 76-93)

'This article presents results of research using the diaries of Sidney Nolan, recently made available by the National Library of Australia. In particular, it focuses on two matters relating to Nolan’s lengthy friendship with Australian journalist and novelist George Johnston: clarifying the origin of Nolan’s Gallipoli series, which is strongly associated with a period in 1955 and 1956 that Nolan spent with Johnston on the Greek island of Hydra; and secondly, providing evidence regarding a curiosity with the series of portraits known as the Adelaide Ladies, which Nolan painted after spending time with Johnston at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1964. With regard to the Gallipoli series, Nolan’s diaries establish that the origin of this series is considerably later than has previously been believed; likewise, our research suggests that the diaries support the contention that a portrait that has long been included among the Adelaide Ladies is in fact a portrait of Johnston.' (Publication abstract)

1 The Concept of Conscience : Paul Genoni Launches ‘A Thousand Tongues’ by Ian Reid Paul Genoni , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Rochford Street Review , September no. 27 2019;
1 Charmian Clift, Brenda Chamberlain, and the Dichotomous Freedom of Hydra Paul Genoni , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 19 no. 1 2019;

'This essay draws a comparison between two published memoirs of participants, both of them women writers, in the Hydra expatriate community of the 1950s and ’60s: Australian Charmian Clift’s Peel Me a Lotus, and Welsh artist and writer Brenda Chamberlain’s A Rope of Vines. As memoirs of female experience on Hydra the two texts have elements in common, but the contrasts are also stark. Whereas Clift focused on family life, the bucolic harbourside agora and the boisterous life of the taverns and kafenia, Chamberlain represented herself as being alone and declared, ‘the port and the people on it do not interest me.’ For Chamberlain, the dockside was a place of ‘unreal glamour’ that deadened her creative spirit as surely as it deflected Hydra’s international visitors from understanding the true nature of the island they superficially embraced.

'This essay discusses both Clift’s and Chamberlain’s responses to Hydra, examining how despite the differences in their memoirs, both writers can be seen to be working at a resolution of the conflicting aspects of Hydra the town and Hydra the island, as each woman struggles in her own way to realise the promise of ‘freedom.' (Publication abstract)

1 'A Woman Ahead of Her Time' : Remembering the Australian Writer Charmian Clift, 50 Years On Tanya Dalziell , Paul Genoni , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 8 July 2019;
1 8 y separately published work icon Half the Perfect World : Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964 Paul Genoni , Tanya Dalziell , Clayton : Monash University Publishing , 2018 14983146 2018 multi chapter work biography

''Their years in the Aegean may have been half perfect at best, but it was on Hydra that they connected to a place, a lifestyle and a community that allowed them to live and express themselves intensely, and as they wished. They refused to believe their dreams were an illusion, or that boldness, ambition and a leap-of-faith might not allow them to reach beyond the constraints of their birthright'.

'Half the Perfect World tells the story of the post-war international artist community that formed on the Greek island of Hydra. Most famously, it included renowned singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and his partner Marianne Ihlen, as well as many other artists and writers including the Australian literary couple, Charmian Clift and George Johnston, who fostered this fabled colony.

'Drawing on many previously unseen letters, manuscripts and diaries, and richly illustrated by the eyewitness photographs of LIFE magazine photo-journalist James Burke, Half the Perfect World reveals the private lives and relationships of the Hydra expatriates. It charts the promise of a creative life that drew many of them to the island, and documents the fracturing of the community as it came under pressure from personal ambitions and wider social changes. For all the unrealised youthful ambitions, internal strife and personal tragedy that attends this story, the authors nonetheless find that the example of these writers, dreamers and drifters continues to resonate and inspire.' (Publication summary)

1 Transformations Paul Genoni , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 399 2018; (p. 52)

'In this collection of more than thirty pieces of fiction, journalism, criticism, academic papers, and ephemera (acceptance speeches, parliamentary questions, university course outlines), Frank Moorhouse gives evidence of, and attempts to explain, the durability of Henry Lawson’s classic short story ‘The Drover’s Wife’ in Australian cultural life. Moorhouse’s interest encompasses not only the persistence of Lawson’s story, but also the many ways in which it has lingered by being constantly reinvented – both reverently and otherwise – to the point where he declares that it has become ‘a phenomenon unique in the Australian artistic imagination’.' (Introduction)

1 The Case of a Very Loose Canon: The Shane Martin ‘Pot-boilers’ of George Johnston Paul Genoni , Tanya Dalziell , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 77 no. 1 2017; (p. 50-76)

' We are first introduced to the character of Professor Ronald Challis in Shane Martin's detective fiction Twelve Girls in the Garden (1957) as he walks idly beside the River Thames, which "on this particular evening" the third person narration informs us, "was the of Turner rather than Whistler" (3). As Challis strolls from Pimlico to Chelsea, he muses on the circumstances that have recently led him from an archaeological dig in Greece to London. For "no reason at all" he then begins to think about past friends and he dwelling they once inhabited in Tite Street (4). (It was in this street in Chelsea, and in the same house once owned by James McNeill Whistler, that the Australian artist Colin Colahan and his wife Ursua lived during World War Two. Twelve Girls in the Garden is dedicated to them both "for fun.") (Introduction)

1 [Review] Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather Paul Genoni , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 16 no. 1 2016;

— Review of Thea Astley : Inventing Her Own Weather Karen Lamb , 2015 single work biography
1 Hydra as Intimate Theatre Paul Genoni , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 387 2016; (p. 36,38)

'In late 1963, Rodney Hall – an aspiring but unpublished poet and novelist – travelled through Greece’s Saronic islands with his wife and their infant daughter. Shortly after Christmas they found themselves on the island of Hydra, where they fell into the company of expatriate Australian writers George Johnston and his wife Charmian Clift, whose time on the island was drawing to a close after nearly a decade. The Johnstons, their marriage precariously holding together amid a ruinous trail of alcohol, infidelity, and public brawling, did as they had done so often before – cast aside their personal troubles and embraced their fellow Australians with immense personal warmth, hospitality, and charisma. As Hall remembers, ‘they were lovely, they were so warm, and welcoming, and funny and clever, and it was just instant friendship, we just loved them.’' (Introduction)

1 'Taking the Flowery Bed Back to Australia' : The Repatriation of Charmian Clift and George Johnston Tanya Dalziell , Paul Genoni , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 1 June vol. 31 no. 3 2016;
'Since coming to national attention in the immediate post-World War II years Charmian Clift and George Johnston have remained an enigmatic and almost ‘mythical’ Australian literary couple. At the heart of their shared biographies is the near-decade they spent on the Aegean island of Hydra between 1955 and 1964 where they were at the centre of an international community of writers and artists, and their eventual repatriation to Australia when their years abroad culminated in the triumphant publication of Johnston’s classic novel My Brother Jack. This paper examines aspects of these years on Hydra, exploring the co-dependent but often difficult relationship the Clift and Johnston shared with other expatriates at the same time as their own marriage endured many crises amid the struggle to write fiction of lasting importance.'
1 Review : An Unsentimental Bloke: The Life and Work of C.J. Dennis Paul Genoni , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , August vol. 76 no. 1 2016; (p. 225-228)

— Review of An Unsentimental Bloke : The Life and Works of C.J. Dennis Philip Butterss , 2014 single work biography
1 Australians in Aspic : Picturing Charmian Clift's and George Johnston's Expatriation Tanya Dalziell , Paul Genoni , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 15 no. 3 2015;
'This paper considers how the expatriation of Australian authors Charmian Clift and George Johnston on the Greek island of Hydra has been represented photographically in a recently uncovered archive of over 1500 images. The photographs were taken by Life Magazine staff photographer James Burke in the summer of 1960. The analysis of the photographs is juxtaposed at key points with text from Clift's memoir Peel Me a Lotus, and the discussion focuses on the way the interplay between image and text produces supportive and/or contested representations of this particular experience of Australian literary expatriation.' (Publication abstract)
1 Desperately Seeking Suzanne : Photographs in Suzanne Chick's Adoptee-narrative Searching for Charmian Tanya Dalziell , Paul Genoni , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 12 no. 4 2015; (p. 385-399)

'In 1994, Suzanne Chick published Searching for Charmian, an adoptee autobiography that relates Chick's discovery of her birth-mother's identity. Chick had been aware from a young age that she was adopted, but only discovered in middle age that her birth-mother was well-known Australian author and journalist, Charmian Clift.

'Unlike the reconciliation trajectory that many adoption autobiographies take, a physical reunion between Clift and Chick was impossible as Clift committed suicide in 1969. In the absence of any prospect of physical reunion, Searching for Charmian relies upon other narrative structures. Resemblance as a marker of familial relationship becomes the text's organising principle, one that is thrown into relief with the numerous photographs Chick encounters in the course of her search, and a number of which are reproduced in the text. Significantly, the photographs of Clift are not only, or merely, the person they represent; Chick's narrative insists on the specific context of her adoption in order to create and read these photographs anew. The photographs are integral components of the life-narrative that turns around the importance of resemblance and difference in establishing this adoptee's identity. They are also potent markers of the ways in which visual media can transform ideas of family, of social relations and of the self.' (Publication abstract)

1 [Review] Alex Miller : The Ruin of Time Paul Genoni , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , September vol. 39 no. 3 2015; (p. 425-426)

— Review of Alex Miller : The Ruin of Time Robert Dixon , 2014 single work criticism
1 From the Nineties to the Noughties : 1996-2005 Paul Genoni , 2014 single work essay
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 59 no. 2 2014; (p. 188-196)
1 Charmain Clift and George Johnston, Hydra 1960 : The 'Lost' Photographs of James Burke Paul Genoni , Tanya Dalziell , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 73 no. 1 2014; (p. 18-37)

'In one of her many essays, Charmian Clift writes of the melancholic experience of feeling like a photograph. She has been asked to address a group of students at Wollongong High School, a school she had attended, and in preparing her speech she turns to a photograph that appears in the school's fiftieth-anniversary commemorative booklet. The photograph depicts a class from Clift's time at the school, 'formally posed with the boys lined up behind the girls and their hands resting on the girls' shoulders' ('On Turning slightly Sepia', p. 48 (see References below)), and as photographs do it evokes in Clift's memory small details that are not evidenced in the image itself: 'I can still see one of those girls arched in a perfect swallow dive, and remember precisely a collar of little pearl buttons on a blue crepe dress that another of them wore to an end-of-term dance that year'(48). The photograph also prompts Clift to consider how different her teenage circumstances were from those of the students she is to speak to, their faces shining with the confidence that faith in the goodness of the future affords. Before those faces now momentarily turned to her, she thinks of herself as the past, and wonders, 'if they realized that standing up before them I knew myself to be curling at the edges and turning slightly sepia' (51).' (Publication abstract)

1 Grey Skies over Melbourne : Grand Final Week 2012 Paul Genoni , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 594-600)
X