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A Schoolie and a Ghost single work   short story  
  • Author:agent David Rowbotham http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/rowbotham-david
Issue Details: First known date: 1951... 1951 A Schoolie and a Ghost
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Bulletin vol. 72 no. 3707 28 February 1951 Z594299 1951 periodical issue 1951 pg. 20-22,32
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Short Stories of Australia : The Moderns Beatrice Davis (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1967 Z822981 1967 anthology short story Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1967 pg. 191-200
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Best Australian Short Stories Douglas Stewart (editor), Beatrice Davis (editor), Melbourne : Lloyd O'Neil , 1971 Z380931 1971 anthology short story Melbourne : Lloyd O'Neil , 1971 pg. 379-388
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Oxford Book of Australian Ghost Stories Ken Gelder (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1994 Z356827 1994 anthology short story crime young adult 'Did Australian ghosts suffer from a cultural cringe? Dr Ken Gelder indicates in the introduction to another fascinating OUP anthology that early ghost stories were essentially a "transported genre" that looked back to England as their source. Thus John Lang's well-known story "The Ghost upon the Rail" is based upon a case of murder for post-convict wealth. Gelder argues that Australian ghost stories possess their own ironical flavour, but the gothic tradition has to be resolved in outback locations or deserted mining towns, as in David Rowbotham's "A Schoolie and the Ghost".'

    'Gelder relies heavily on Victorian and Edwardian writers, such as Marcus Clarke, Barbara Baynton and Hume Nisbet, as if unsure as to the nature of contemporary ghosts. It is interesting to see that Australia's science fiction writers, such as Lucy Sussex and Terry Dowling, provide the link between the past and the present. Dowling's "The Daeman Street Ghost-Trap" effectively uses traditional settings to link ghosts with a current horror, namely cancer. Several bunyip stories remind us of a particular Antipodean creature to stand against the assorted European manifestations.'

    (Colin Steele, SF Commentary No 77, p.55).


    Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1994
    pg. 241-249
Last amended 4 Aug 2007 11:02:39
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