AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'His elder son, James, was haunted by the murder and rape of his young wife.
'Daughter Helga felt herself marooned on the plantation as she dreamed of fame and fortune in the opera houses of Europe.
'While across the blue Pacific dipped the blackbirding schooners with their human cargo, skippered by captains who'd sail to Hell and back for the sake of a profit. ' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
The Legend of the ‘Gentlemen of the Flashing Blade’ : The Canecutter in the Australian Imagination
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 11 no. 1-2 2022; (p. 45-61)'The ‘gentlemen of the flashing blade’ laboured in an occupation that no longer exists in Australia: canecutting. It was a hard job done by hard men, and its iconic figure – the canecutter – survives as a Queensland legend, so extensively romanticized in the popular culture of the time as to constitute a subgenre characterized by subject matter and motifs particular to the pre-mechanization sugar country culture. Yet, it may seem like the only canecutters immortalized in the arts are Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’s Roo and Barney. To show the breadth and diversity of this subgenre, and the legend of the canecutter and sugar country culture, this article reviews a selection of novels, memoirs, plays, short stories, cartoons, verse, song, film, television, radio and children’s books. These works address the racial, cultural and industrial politics of the sugar industry and its influence on the economic and social development of Queensland. The parts played by the nineteenth-century communities of indentured South Sea Islanders and the European immigrants who followed are represented along with those of the itinerant Anglos. These works depict, and celebrate, a colourful, often brutal, part of Queensland’s past and an Australian icon comparable with the swaggie or the shearer.' (Publication abstract)
-
A ‘National Beverage’ : The ‘Sugary’ Tea-ritual in Nancy Cato’s Brown Sugar
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 16 no. 2 2016; 'In this paper I will deal with the re-interpretation of the tea-ritual and the sugar metaphors in Nancy Cato’s Brown Sugar from a symbol of exclusion and purity to one of hybridity. In the same way the vehicle speaks of the tenor, so the past in the novel enlightens the present. Moreover, I will start by focusing on Cato’s literary works underlying two of the many important themes unfolded in them; then, I will analyse these themes in Brown Sugar and focus on the situation of South Pacific Islanders and women to unveil the cracks in the myth of the nation or, in other words, what was believed to be a pluralistic and egalitarian society at the time of her writing Brown Sugar. ' (Publication abstract) -
Noosaphile Nancy Puts Oar into Development Debate
1995
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30 May 1995; (p. 10) -
Nancy Cato... Author - Historian - Conserverationist
Marjorie Wilke
(interviewer),
1990
single work
interview
biography
— Appears in: Imago , April vol. 2 no. 1 1990; (p. 62-67) -
Australian in Black and White
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 63 1976; (p. 56-59)
— Review of Brown Sugar 1974 single work novel
-
Untitled
1974
single work
review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 8 November 1974; (p. 1249)
— Review of Brown Sugar 1974 single work novel -
Australian in Black and White
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 63 1976; (p. 56-59)
— Review of Brown Sugar 1974 single work novel -
Nancy Cato... Author - Historian - Conserverationist
Marjorie Wilke
(interviewer),
1990
single work
interview
biography
— Appears in: Imago , April vol. 2 no. 1 1990; (p. 62-67) -
Noosaphile Nancy Puts Oar into Development Debate
1995
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30 May 1995; (p. 10) -
A ‘National Beverage’ : The ‘Sugary’ Tea-ritual in Nancy Cato’s Brown Sugar
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 16 no. 2 2016; 'In this paper I will deal with the re-interpretation of the tea-ritual and the sugar metaphors in Nancy Cato’s Brown Sugar from a symbol of exclusion and purity to one of hybridity. In the same way the vehicle speaks of the tenor, so the past in the novel enlightens the present. Moreover, I will start by focusing on Cato’s literary works underlying two of the many important themes unfolded in them; then, I will analyse these themes in Brown Sugar and focus on the situation of South Pacific Islanders and women to unveil the cracks in the myth of the nation or, in other words, what was believed to be a pluralistic and egalitarian society at the time of her writing Brown Sugar. ' (Publication abstract) -
The Legend of the ‘Gentlemen of the Flashing Blade’ : The Canecutter in the Australian Imagination
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 11 no. 1-2 2022; (p. 45-61)'The ‘gentlemen of the flashing blade’ laboured in an occupation that no longer exists in Australia: canecutting. It was a hard job done by hard men, and its iconic figure – the canecutter – survives as a Queensland legend, so extensively romanticized in the popular culture of the time as to constitute a subgenre characterized by subject matter and motifs particular to the pre-mechanization sugar country culture. Yet, it may seem like the only canecutters immortalized in the arts are Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’s Roo and Barney. To show the breadth and diversity of this subgenre, and the legend of the canecutter and sugar country culture, this article reviews a selection of novels, memoirs, plays, short stories, cartoons, verse, song, film, television, radio and children’s books. These works address the racial, cultural and industrial politics of the sugar industry and its influence on the economic and social development of Queensland. The parts played by the nineteenth-century communities of indentured South Sea Islanders and the European immigrants who followed are represented along with those of the itinerant Anglos. These works depict, and celebrate, a colourful, often brutal, part of Queensland’s past and an Australian icon comparable with the swaggie or the shearer.' (Publication abstract)
- Queensland,
- ca. 1891-1900