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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'I told them to go into the scrub and disperse the tribe.
Disperse? That is a strange word. What do you mean by dispersing?
Firing at them.
'Two decades after a massacre of local Aboriginal people, the former residents of a Queensland town have reunited to celebrate the progress and prosperity of their community. Tom Dorahy, returning to his hometown, is having none of it: he wants those responsible to own up to their actions. A reckoning with oppression, guilt and the weight of the past, A Kindness Cup is one of Thea Astley’s greatest achievements.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
-
Adapted for the 1982 audio cassette A Kindness Cup published by Hear-a-Book. Narrated by Ken Waters.
Contents
- Introduction, single work criticism
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Braille.
Works about this Work
-
“One Should Never Go Back” : History Writing and Historical Justice in Thea Astley’s A Kindness Cup
2018
single work
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 3 no. 18 2018;'This essay situates Thea Astley’s 1975 novel of the Queensland frontier, A Kindness Cup in relation to the rise of projects of postcolonial revisionist history writing in Australia. I argue that we can read Astley’s novel as reflecting upon the political and affective uses and limits of history writing for the redress of violence at a moment when history writing was undergoing major shifts in Australia. Much Australian left wing revisionist history embodies the optimistic liberal political belief that uncovering and representing the unacknowledged violence of the frontier might act to redress violence and injustice. Astley’s novel, by contrast, offers a critique of what I call ‘the politics of exposure’—that is a politics that works from the assumption that violence, inequality and injustice are mostly the result of ignorance and that therefore better knowledge will help prevent them. The novel asks what fantasies and blind spots inhabit an uncritical investment in the politics of the exposé and suggests some of the ways that the desire to expose violence might itself be a form of violence.' (Publication abstract)
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Saying the Unsayable : A Kindness Cup by Thea Astley
2018
single work
essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , May 2018;'The first book of Thea Astley’s I read was A Kindness Cup, which was published in 1974. Rereading it in the early 2000s I was awed at how ahead of her time she was. Thirty years beforehand she had known what some of us were only just waking up to: that our own history provides a powerful engine for fiction, and that the voice of fiction can say the unspoken about that history.' (Introduction)
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What I’m Reading Susan McCreery
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2014; -
Historical Novels Challenging the National Story
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 8 no. 2 2011; 'Historical novels dealing with the colonial past have always played a key role in constructing popular understandings of the national story in Australia, whether by reinforcing its legends or challenging them. In recent debates historical fiction's claims to authority have been perceived as competing with the work of historical scholars. By considering two such novels of the 1970s, Jessica Anderson's The Commandant and Thea Astley's A Kindness Cup, this essay offers a historical perspective on some questions of the relationship between historical novels and historical scholarship.' (Editor's abstract) -
Thea Astley : Writing in Overpoweringly a Male Dominated Literary World
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Indian Review of World Literature in English , July vol. 6 no. 2 2010; This paper is an attempt to explore different themes in the novels of Thea Astley.(p. 1)
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Creative Writing : A Bleak Prospect
1976
single work
review
— Appears in: 24 Hours , February vol. 1 no. 1 1976; (p. 44-45)
— Review of The Mango Tree 1974 single work novel ; A Kindness Cup 1974 single work novel -
A Kindness Cup
1977-1978
single work
review
— Appears in: Womanspeak , December-January vol. 3 no. 4 1977-1978; (p. 28)
— Review of A Kindness Cup 1974 single work novel -
The Human Cost of the Pioneers' Progress
1974
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier Mail , 7 December 1974; (p. 17)
— Review of A Kindness Cup 1974 single work novel -
Steeped in the Blood of Nativity Not Violence
1975
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 1 March 1975; (p. 15)
— Review of A Kindness Cup 1974 single work novel -
Sleepy Town Awakes
1977
single work
review
criticism
— Appears in: The Brisbane Telegraph , 21 December 1977; (p. 49)
— Review of A Kindness Cup 1974 single work novel -
Thea Astley : Exploring the Centre
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Subverting the Empire : Explorers and Exploration in Australian Fiction 2004; (p. 97-144) -
Comment
2005
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 6 2005; (p. 16-18)Kate Grenville compares the language used by Watkin Tench with that used by Thea Astley when describing the murder of Aboriginal men by whites.
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Saying the Unsayable
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Making Waves : 10 Years of the Byron Bay Writers' Festival 2006; (p. 1-9) Thea Astley's Fictional Worlds 2006; (p. 176-181) Grenville puts the case that: 'The voice of debate might stimulate the grey cells, and the dry voice of "facts" might lull us into being comfortable, even relaxed. But it takes the voice of fiction to get the feet walking in a new direction.' She illuminates her discussion with references to Thea Astley's A Kindness Cup and to official reports of the punitive raid on the Aboriginal people of Botany Bay in December 1790. -
Thea Astley's Failed Eden
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Thea Astley's Fictional Worlds 2006; (p. 153-163) - y The Legend of the Leap Townsville : Foundation for Australian Literary Studies, James Cook University of North Queensland , 1986 Z23106 1986 single work criticism
Awards
- Mackay, Mackay - Sarina area, Marlborough - Mackay - Townsville area, Queensland,
- 1860s