AustLit logo

AustLit

Belinda Burns Belinda Burns i(A97335 works by)
Born: Established: 1974 Brisbane, Queensland, ;
Gender: Female
Departed from Australia: ca. 1998
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 Made in Suburbia : Intra-suburban Narratives in Contemporary Australian Women’s Fiction Belinda Burns , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Claiming Space for Australian Women's Writing 2017; (p. 163-179)

'Within twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia has long been trivialised, satirised, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation, a location from which to flee. However, little critical attention has been directed on contemporary realist tales of the female protagonist located within the confines of suburbia—an increasingly contested yet arguably still feminine/feminised zone. This chapter examines contemporary representations and narrative trajectories of the suburban female protagonist in twenty-first-century fiction. Drawing on “postfeminist” literary theory and emerging reappraisals of the “everyday” and “home”, the chapter presents evidence of intra-suburban narratives of feminine transformation, which contradict second-wave feminist flight trajectories, thereby reclaiming and elevating fictional suburbia as a critical space in which Australian women writers may locate their stories.'

Source: Abstract.
1 Jena Woodhouse , Dreams of Flight Belinda Burns , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Queensland Review , vol. 23 no. 2 2016; (p. 278-280) '‘Flight’ as a narrative of escape pervades Australian literature. In his article ‘Decomposing suburbia: Patrick White’s perversity’ (1998: 56), Andrew McCann argues that its prevalence establishes the trajectory as a prerequisite to self-actualisation, whereby a protagonist can only be fully developed (in the narratalogical and psychological sense) via acts of corporeal relocation. Moreover, the ubiquity of flight implies states of restlessness and discontentment, of unresolved yearning, as recurrent characteristics of Australian fiction.' (Introduction)
1 Mother to Other: Feminine Becoming in Fiona McGregor’s Indelible Ink Belinda Burns , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 30 no. 1 2016; (p. 71-85) 'In the tradition of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857), Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879), and Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899), feminine desire for self-transformation, or "becoming," features as a recurrent theme across several twenty-first-century "suburbia" novels by Generation X Australian women writers. Joanna Murray-Smith's Sunnyside (2005), Georgia Blain's Too Close to Home (2011), Peggy Frew's House of Sticks (2011), and Anita Heiss's Tiddas (2014) all share the character of a "suburban mother" desperate for some kind of metamorphosis—or, as one of the characters in Sunnyside quips, "a radical shift in her life map" (Murray-Smith 305). Although flight from suburbia dominates as a mode of becoming in Australian fiction (McCann 56), these novels explore alternative conduits to feminine reinvention. ' (Introduction)
1 Less Than Feminine Zones : Postfeminist Cession in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks Belinda Burns , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Contemporary Women's Writing , March vol. 10 no. 1 2016; (p. 56-66) 'Throughout twentieth-century Australian fiction, suburbia is generally depicted as a feminine domain, set in opposition to the masculine city or bush landscapes. The suburban, domestic setting is trivialized, satirized, or ignored as a site incompatible with a narrative of transformation – a location from which to flee. Traditionally, the male protagonist embarks upon these flight narratives, leaving the female characters to endure dull lives of “domesticated conformity” in the suburbs. Not until second-wave feminism of the 1970s and 1980s is the female protagonist liberated from her suburban “cage” by women writers, many of whom identify as feminist. More recently, “postfeminist” scholars such as Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, Mary Vavrus, and Susan J. Douglas observe the rise of a “retreatist” narrative in popular media such as “chick-lit,” television drama, and film. This overtly restorative narrative typically features a female protagonist rejecting the public (assumed masculine) sphere and returning to a more domestic (assumed feminine) domain as the ultimate solution to a problematized state of “incompleteness.” This essay explores contemporary representations and narratives of the female protagonist in domestic, suburban settings in Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks, both published in 2011. Of particular interest is evidence supporting rejection, interrogation, or subversion of the retreatist narrative as a viable postfeminist solution, or, alternatively, more creative reimaginings of the suburban setting, which permit “new” narratives of feminine transformation.' (Publication abstract)
1 Not All Bushy Testicles and War Belinda Burns , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , August 2016;
1 Untitled Belinda Burns , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 316 2009; (p. 33)
— Review of Paradise Updated Mic Looby , 2009 single work novel
1 [Review] The Unscratchables Belinda Burns , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July-August no. 313 2009; (p. 13)
— Review of The Unscratchables Anthony O'Neill , 2009 single work novel
1 How it Begins Belinda Burns , 2006 extract novel (The Dark Part of Me)
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 12 - 13 August 2006; (p. 19)
1 10 y separately published work icon The Dark Part of Me Belinda Burns , Pymble : Fourth Estate , 2006 Z1291080 2006 single work novel A 'burban BrisVegas summer - too hot for cappuccinos at Temptations cafe bar, where Rosie is sick of serving stubbies to the workmen. Too hot for old Slob the boss having a perv at her boobs. Too bloody hot for Scott, the guy who dumped her long-distance, to suddenly phone and start calling her 'babe'. In some ways, Scott's always treated Rosie like dirt and yet every time she sees him she is gripped with a desire to get right inside him, deep in his blood. Rosie's best friend, Hollie, can't stand Scott, but then she's been acting weird since her brother got out of jail. The one person Rosie can rely on is Trish, who always has a joint to share, or a pill to take. Through it all, Rosie tries to stay in control, but the lure of darkness is only just under the surface ...(Backcover)
X