AustLit

'A dark verse novel full of the humanity of its author who also works in violence prevention programs and has a keen ear for the complexities of living without safety nets and certainty.

Set in Melbourne’s underbelly, Shilton uses her expert grasp on the verse novel format to tell the story of Malcolm — a seventeen-year-old boy — whose mother is killed at the hand of his father. His childhood has been marred by this violence. After his mother’s death, Malcolm leaves the safety of his grandfather’s home to live on the streets, choosing to make his own family. He lives in a Melbourne squat with a group of friends. Together, they face the daily struggle of life on the streets and the edge of society.

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Leni Shilton offers us a woman’s exploration of loss and survival in the unforgiving and beautiful landscape of central Australia. Bertha Strehlow, overshadowed by her anthropologist husband’s achievements, was a woman of integrity and a brilliant observer and connector of people in settings such as the Great Sandy Desert over many years of endurance. In this volume, Leni Shilton restores to her a voice.'  (Publication summary)

Giving voice to silence: Uncovering Bertha Strehlow’s voice through poetry’ documents and explores issues of feminism, race relations and marriage in the postcolonial experience of Central Australia in the years between the first and second world wars. The thesis consists of an original creative work and accompanying exegesis. Giving voice to silence is a verse novel exploring the story of the historical figure Bertha Strehlow, who lived in Central Australia from 1936–1942. The novel focuses particular attention on the camel trek she took with her husband in 1936 when she came close to death following a miscarriage.

The exegesis ‘Uncovering Bertha Strehlow’s voice through poetry’, is presented in two parts: History and background explores Bertha Strehlow’s story by providing an insight into her marriage and her role in the development of her husband’s career, set against the political, historical and cultural backdrop of Central Australia. Drawing on Deleuze’s concept of the ‘two books’ (1997, p. 72), these chapters also explore the complexities of fictionalising the story of an historical figure. Bertha’s story and my own story are intertwined in place. This is examined in a chapter on the creative practice of journalling.

Poetry, poetics and the verse novel interrogates the poetry of the verse novel as a genre with reference to the success of the genre in providing biographical and historical accounts. By drawing on biographical verse novels such as The Darwin Poems (Ballou, 2010), Jane, Lady Franklin (Eberhard, 2004) and What a piece of work (Porter,1999), this section examines the development of narrative, character and voice in poetry, providing an in-depth critique of the genre to reveal its effectiveness as a vehicle for providing voice to Bertha Strehlow.

Though based on historical events, the use of fiction in the poetry of Giving voice to silence provides a mediated voice for Bertha, around whom there has been a significant silence in the historical dialogue. This is despite the profound contribution she made to the work of her husband, prominent linguist and anthropologist, TGH (Ted) Strehlow.

[Source: Southern Cross University]