AustLit logo

AustLit

person or book cover
y separately published work icon An Ordinary Lunacy single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1963... 1963 An Ordinary Lunacy
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.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Macmillan ,       1963 .
      person or book cover
      Note/s:
      • Other imprints: New York: Scribner, 1963

      Holdings

      Held at: Monash University Monash University Library
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.
Find library holdings on Trove

Works about this Work

The Queerness of Jessica Anderson's Fiction Damien Barlow , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 72 no. 1 2012; (p. 136-152) 'Gay men have a significant presence in Jessica Anderson's novels. From the first, An Ordinary Lunacy (1963), to her final work One of the Wattlebirds (1994), gay men appear as friends, assistants, confidants, "comrades", family members and in one instance as a fiance, of her central women characters. An Ordinary Lunacy presents arguably the first modern gay man in Australian literature, while Taking Shelter (1989), Anderson's most sexually ambiguous work, is the first Australian novel to concern itself with HIV/AIDS. In the award-winning and best-selling Tirra Lirra by the River (1978) gay men play pivotal roles. Unlike some of Anderson's contemporaries whose queerness has been explored by literary scholars - such as Patrick White or David Malouf - the rich array of queer representations in Anderson's oeuvre has been largely ignored. In light of this critical neglect this essay examines Anderson's representations of gay men and more generally non-normative sexualities. In particular, I argue that the queerness of Anderson's fiction offers the reader a nuanced and astute critique of the ways in which heterosexuality is privileged, fashioned and maintained as "natural" within late-twentieth-century Australian culture.' (Author's abstract)
The Tales of Strangers Carmen Callil , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , July no. 10 2012; (p. 61-66) 'Frances O'Beirne, the young heroine of The Commandant (1975), offers a key to the genius of Jessica Anderson: 'I am made up of hundreds of persons, and I never know which will come out.' Open Anderson's eight published works of fiction and you'll be presented with different worlds, all-encompassing, entirely absorbing, real.' (Author's introduction)
Sex and the City : New Novels by Women and Middlebrow Culture at Mid-Century Susan Sheridan , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October-November vol. 27 no. 3/4 2012; (p. 1-12) 'Central to developments in Australian literature during the period from the end of Second World War until the mid-1960s - what might be called the 'long 1950s' - was the emergence of the kind of modernist novel written by Patrick White as the benchmark of modern fiction. This was the outcome of a struggle among opinion-makers in the literary field, which during this period came to be dominated for the first time by academic critics. They, by and large, favoured the new forms of postwar modernism and rejected that literary nationalism which had drawn the loyalty of most influential writers during the 1930s and 940s.' (Author's introduction)
"Only the houses on the point ..." : Deciphering Houses as Carriers of Social Meaning in the Novels of Jessica Anderson Catherine Staveley , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: A Spanish Sampler of Australian Studies 1996; (p. 53-60)
y separately published work icon Fabricating the Self : The Fictions of Jessica Anderson Elaine Barry , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1996 Z509037 1996 single work criticism
Three New Novels Nancy Cato , 1963 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October vol. 2 no. 12 1963; (p. 199)
— Review of That Men Should Fear John Naish , 1963 single work novel ; An Ordinary Lunacy Jessica Anderson , 1963 single work novel
Circus R. G. Howard , 1963 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 12 October vol. 85 no. 4365 1963; (p. 51)
— Review of An Ordinary Lunacy Jessica Anderson , 1963 single work novel
Untitled Alan Davies , 1963 single work review
— Appears in: Nation , 2 November 1963; (p. 22-23)
— Review of An Ordinary Lunacy Jessica Anderson , 1963 single work novel
Immoderate Lives : Four New Novels Harry Payne Heseltine , 1963 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , December vol. 22 no. 4 1963; (p. 422-426)
— Review of An Ordinary Lunacy Jessica Anderson , 1963 single work novel
An Ordinary Lunacy Hope Hewitt , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 7 August 1988; (p. 8)
— Review of An Ordinary Lunacy Jessica Anderson , 1963 single work novel
Of Rhinos and Caryatids : The Dialogic Imperative in Jessica Anderson Barbara Garlick , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Narrative Technique , Winter vol. 21 no. 1 1991; (p. 72-78)
The Tales of Strangers Carmen Callil , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , July no. 10 2012; (p. 61-66) 'Frances O'Beirne, the young heroine of The Commandant (1975), offers a key to the genius of Jessica Anderson: 'I am made up of hundreds of persons, and I never know which will come out.' Open Anderson's eight published works of fiction and you'll be presented with different worlds, all-encompassing, entirely absorbing, real.' (Author's introduction)
The Queerness of Jessica Anderson's Fiction Damien Barlow , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 72 no. 1 2012; (p. 136-152) 'Gay men have a significant presence in Jessica Anderson's novels. From the first, An Ordinary Lunacy (1963), to her final work One of the Wattlebirds (1994), gay men appear as friends, assistants, confidants, "comrades", family members and in one instance as a fiance, of her central women characters. An Ordinary Lunacy presents arguably the first modern gay man in Australian literature, while Taking Shelter (1989), Anderson's most sexually ambiguous work, is the first Australian novel to concern itself with HIV/AIDS. In the award-winning and best-selling Tirra Lirra by the River (1978) gay men play pivotal roles. Unlike some of Anderson's contemporaries whose queerness has been explored by literary scholars - such as Patrick White or David Malouf - the rich array of queer representations in Anderson's oeuvre has been largely ignored. In light of this critical neglect this essay examines Anderson's representations of gay men and more generally non-normative sexualities. In particular, I argue that the queerness of Anderson's fiction offers the reader a nuanced and astute critique of the ways in which heterosexuality is privileged, fashioned and maintained as "natural" within late-twentieth-century Australian culture.' (Author's abstract)
Jessica Anderson : Interview Daniel R. Willbanks (interviewer), 1992 single work interview
— Appears in: Speaking Volumes : Australian Writers and Their Work 1992; (p. 15-25)
Jessica Anderson : Arrivals and Places Alrene Sykes , 1986 single work
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 46 no. 1 1986; (p. 57-71)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (17)
Last amended 29 Sep 2016 08:32:16
Subjects:
  • Urban,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
Settings:
  • 1960s
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X