AustLit logo

AustLit

y separately published work icon Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 1983... 1983 Unnatural Lives : Studies in Australian Fiction about the Convicts, from James Tucker to Patrick White
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.

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 1993 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction to the 1993 Edition, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. xi-xviii)
Note:
  • Dated September 1992.
  • Includes endnotes.
Introduction to the 1983 Edition, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 1-15)
Note: Dated September 1981.
A Convict Dream : James Tucker's Ralph Rashleigh, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 16-30)
A Woman 'Lifer' : Caroline Leakey's The Broad Arrow, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 31-46)
'Poet of Our Desolation' : Marcus Clarke's His Natural Life, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism
Hergenhan argues that Clarke identified with the convicts because of the 'painful dislocations of his colonial experience'. Clarke's earlier articles on the destitute of Melbourne prepared him to write about convicts, but situating the tale in the wilderness enabled him to dramatise Darwin's theories of evolution in a social context. Hergenhan concludes that 'there is a genuine impulse in the novel to grant the need for love and communality, even if society can be inimical to them and if human nature makes them precarious'. This can be seen, Hergenhan argues, as Clarke's struggle 'to come to terms with the loss and trials of colonial dispossession'.
 (p. 47-61)
Price Warung and the Convicts : A View from (and of) the Nineties, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism
Hergenhan discusses Warung's 1890s treatment of Australia's convict past. Warung was the first writer to link the convict system with Australia's development beyond a colonial status. Hergenhan argues that Warung's fiction successfully connects this sense of the past with the political milieu of the 1890s, producing entertaining stories that make the past reverberate for later readers.
 (p. 62-74)
The Strange World of Sir William Heans (and the Mystery of William Hay), Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism biography (p. 75-90)
Brian Penton's Thirties Novels : The 'Roots of the New Psyche', Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 91-107)
The 'Precarious Present' and the Future : Eleanor Dark's The Timeless Land, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 108-121)
Convict Legends, Australian Legends : Price Warung and the Palmers Convict Legends, Australian Legends : Price Warung, the Palmers and Others, 1927-1970, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 122-129)
The 'Duties of Innocence' : Hal Porter's The Tilted Cross, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 130-138)
'The Present Rendered Fabulous' : Thomas Keneally's Bring Larks and Heroes, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 139-150)
The City or the Desert : Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 151-166)
Unnatural Lives : Conclusion, Laurie Hergenhan , single work criticism (p. 167-173)
X