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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Does a wife exist only when her husband is contemplating her?....A wife is called into being only by a husband: therefore does she cease to exist when he stops observing her, stops regarding her?
'Elinor leaves her husband suddenly and goes to France, to the village of Severac-le-Chateau. There she ponders the lives of other women. In the seventeenth century a wife is murdered for faithlessness: in the early twentieth century a woman embroiders sheets for a trousseau never needed; in the 1980's a successful pediatrician may or may not know what her husband is up to.
'Elinor's process of transformation - from a wife to a self - is written with subtlety and humour. The journey she undertakes is more than a journey of the flesh.'
Source: Publlisher's blurb (Minerva ed.).
Notes
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Dedication: For Graham
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Epigraph:
There may be in the cup
A spider steep'd and one may drink; depart,
And yet partake no venom, (for his knowledge
Is not infected): But if one present
Th'abhorr'd image to his eye, make known
How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides
With violent hefts: I have drunk, and seen the spider.
Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
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y
Texts and Textiles : Affect, Synaesthesia and Metaphor in Fiction
Newcastle upon Tyne
:
Cambridge Scholars Press
,
2017
11791282
2017
multi chapter work
criticism
'This study shows how fiction that makes use of textiles as an essential element utilizes synaesthetic writing and synaesthetic metaphor to create an affective link to, and response in, the reader. These links and responses are examined using affect theory from Silvan Tomkins and Brian Massumi and work on synaesthesia by Richard Cytowic, Lawrence Marks, and V.S. Ramachandran, among others. Synaesthetic writing, including synaesthetic metaphors, has been explored in poetry since the 1920s and, more recently, in fiction, but these studies have been general in nature. By narrowing the field of investigation to those novels that specifically employ three types of hand-crafted textiles (quilt-making, knitting and embroidery), the book isolates how these textiles are used in fiction. The combination of synaesthesia, memory, metaphor and, particularly, synaesthetic metaphor in fiction with textiles in the text of the case studies selected, shows how these are used to create affect in readers, enhancing their engagement in the story.
'The work is framed within the context of the history of textile production and the use of textiles in fiction internationally, but concentrates on Australian authors who have used textiles in their writing. The decision to focus on Australian authors was taken in light of the quality and depth of the writing of textile fiction produced in Australia between 1980 and 2005 in the three categories of hand-crafted textiles – quilt-making, knitting and embroidery. The texts chosen for intensive study are: Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection (1999, quilting); Marele Day’s Lambs of God (1997, knitting) and Anne Bartlett’s Knitting (2005, knitting); Jessica Anderson’s Tirra Lirra by the River (1978, embroidery) and Marion Halligan’s Spider Cup (1990, embroidery).' (Publication summary)
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Journeys and Pilgrimages : Marion Halligan's Fiction
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 24 no. 1 2010; (p. 19-23) -
French Kookaburras and Australian Nightingales : Looking to France and back to Australia in Works by Marion Halligan and Mary Moody
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: France and Australia Face to Face 2008; (p. 129-142) -
What About the Spider...
2001
single work
short story
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 60 no. 4 2001; (p. 18-25) Shooting the Fox 2011; (p. 96-106) -
Tales of Love, Lust, Jealousy and Revenge : Intertextuality in Marion Halligan's Spidercup
1996
single work
criticism
— Appears in: English Studies , vol. 77 no. 4 1996; (p. 367-374)
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Halligan's Web
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: The CRNLE Reviews Journal , no. 1 1990; (p. 86-88)
— Review of Spider Cup 1990 single work novel -
Spirit's Daring
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10 February 1990; (p. 75)
— Review of A Body of Water : A Year's Notebook 1990 selected work autobiography short story poetry diary ; Spider Cup 1990 single work novel -
In Short Form, the Writers' Promise Abounds
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 February 1990; (p. 9)
— Review of Max and Other Stories 1990 selected work short story ; Spider Cup 1990 single work novel -
Drawing the Line
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: Social Alternatives , July vol. 9 no. 2 1990; (p. 59)
— Review of Spider Cup 1990 single work novel ; Over the Top with Jim : Hugh Lunn's Tap-Dancing, Bugle-Blowing Memoir of a Well-Spent Boyhood 1989 single work autobiography ; Sisters : A Novel 1904 single work novel ; North of the Moonlight Sonata 1989 selected work short story ; Longhand : A Writer's Notebook 1989 single work autobiography novel ; Mo Burdekin 1941 single work novel -
It All Comes Back to the Power of Words
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 3 March 1990; (p. 15)
— Review of Spider Cup 1990 single work novel -
Tales of Love, Lust, Jealousy and Revenge : Intertextuality in Marion Halligan's Spidercup
1996
single work
criticism
— Appears in: English Studies , vol. 77 no. 4 1996; (p. 367-374) -
Subject Matters
1995
single work
criticism
essay
— Appears in: A Sense of Difference 1995; (p. 15-23) The author offers comments on the writing process in five Australian novels by women writers. She stresses that her comments are those of a practitioner reflecting on the work of friends. -
French Kookaburras and Australian Nightingales : Looking to France and back to Australia in Works by Marion Halligan and Mary Moody
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: France and Australia Face to Face 2008; (p. 129-142) -
Journeys and Pilgrimages : Marion Halligan's Fiction
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 24 no. 1 2010; (p. 19-23) -
Whodunits Will Never be the Same
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 25 March 1990; (p. 26)
Awards
- 1990 shortlisted NBC Banjo Awards — NBC Banjo Award for Fiction
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cFrance,cWestern Europe, Europe,