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y separately published work icon Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 1983... 1983 Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The young Wooreddy recognised the omen immediately, accidentally stepping on it while bounding along the beach: something slimy, something eerily cold and not from the earth. Since it had come from the sea, it was an evil omen.

Soon after, many people died mysteriously, others disappeared without a trace, and once-friendly families became bitter enemies. The islanders muttered, 'It's the times', but Wooreddy alone knew more: the world was coming to an end.

In Mudrooroo's unforgettable novel, considered by many to be his masterpiece, the author evokes with fullest irony the bewilderment and frailty of the last native Tasmanians, as they come face to face with the clumsy but inexorable power of their white destroyers. ...' (Source: Goodreads website)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Hyland House , 1983 .
      image of person or book cover 1001691536887989362.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 207p.
      ISBN: 0908090544
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Ballantine Books ,
      1986 .
      image of person or book cover 2080907627157603567.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 213p.
      ISBN: 0345339673
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Hyland House , 1987 .
      image of person or book cover 3658325413559504291.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Goodreads website
      Extent: 207p.
      Reprinted: 1992 , 1998 Pbk. ed.
      ISBN: 0947062025
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Ballantine Books ,
      1989 .
      image of person or book cover 1725399153014711923.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 214p.
      ISBN: 0345363426
    • Exile Bay, Drummoyne - Concord area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,: ETT Imprint , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 5147984487929599278.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 196p.
      Description: facsim.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 November 2013
      ISBN: 9781925706826
Alternative title: Hoe het einde van de wereld te verdragen : een recept van doktor Wooreddy
Language: Dutch
    • Amsterdam,
      c
      Netherlands,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Bridges Books ,
      1992 .
      image of person or book cover 1127144459497625790.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 255p.
      ISBN: 9070306204

Other Formats

  • Also braille and sound recording.

Works about this Work

Refuse/Refuge : Castaways on Islands of Exception Chris Prentice , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Interventions : International Journal of Postcolonial Studies , vol. 25 no. 1 2023; (p. 11-29)

'At various points in their (post)colonial histories, the border-protective politics of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have mobilized off-shore islands as spaces of “inclusive exclusion”. Yet, even as spaces of exception and/or exclusion, off-shore islands dismantle inside/outside distinctions. I discuss a selection of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand novels featuring both literal and metaphorical islands used for removal, internment or containment of Indigenous peoples and wartime “enemy aliens”. Through their attention to the poetics of island form, and coasts as more-than-human spaces, the novels underscore how islands bring the relation between inside and outside into question, complicating the articulation of borders.'  (Publication abstract) 

The Outcast Geordie Williamson , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20 June 2020; (p. 17)
Dr Power's Prescription for the Fabrication of a Tasmanian Imagination Carmel Bird , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Island , no. 158 2019; (p. 36-41)
'Carmel Bird revisits Dr Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the End of the World.'
Anthropocene and the End of the World : Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Other Disasters Kylie Crane , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Anglophone Literature and Culture in the Anthropocene 2019; (p. 158-175)
Analyses a series of Australian novels in terms of their dystopian approach to climate change.
Utopia and Utopian Studies in Australia Andrew Milner , Verity Burgmann , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Utopian Studies , vol. 27 no. 2 2016; (p. 200-209)
'There are no independently Australian translations of Thomas More’s Utopia. Nor is there any equivalent in Australia to the Society for Utopian Studies in North America or the Utopian Studies Society in Europe. Nor are there any extant formal research groups or undergraduate or graduate courses in utopian studies. There are, however, distinctively Australian traditions of utopian writing, both eutopian and dystopian, and also a limited field of Australian utopian studies, essentially the work of individual scholars. This article attempts a brief description of both.' (Publication summary)
How Do You Like Your History Done? Gerard Windsor , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , September no. 96 1984; (p. 66-68)

— Review of A Change for the Better : short stories Peter Mathers , 1984 selected work short story ; The Cut-Rate Kingdom Thomas Keneally , 1980 single work novel ; White Stag of Exile Thomas Shapcott , 1984 single work novel ; Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World Colin Johnson , 1983 single work novel
Sympathy Subtly Woven Judy Duffy , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February-March no. 58 1984; (p. 23-24)

— Review of Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World Colin Johnson , 1983 single work novel
When Whites Collide in the Dreamtime Billy Marshall-Stoneking , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18-19 February 1984; (p. 14)

— Review of Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World Colin Johnson , 1983 single work novel
Tasmania Before White People Invaded Leonard Teale , 1987 single work review
— Appears in: The Mercury , 23 May 1987;

— Review of Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World Colin Johnson , 1983 single work novel
The Book Magazine Danny Gardner , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: The Book Magazine , Autumn vol. 1 no. 4 1988; (p. 8)

— Review of Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World Colin Johnson , 1983 single work novel
Dominionisation or Infiltration : Religion and the Territorial Imperative in Post-Colonial Writing Dorothy Lane , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Resistance and Reconciliation : Writing in the Commonwealth 2003; (p. 114-129)
Clio and Calliope : Documentation and Narration in 'Third-World' Historical Writing Eckhard Breitinger , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: Aratjara : Aboriginal Culture and Literature in Australia 1997; (p. 97-108)
Mudrooroo's Encounters with Missionaries Eva Rask Knudsen , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Mongrel Signatures : Reflections on the Work of Mudrooroo 2003; (p. 167-184)
Identity Crises and Orphaned Rewritings Maggie Nolan , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Mongrel Signatures : Reflections on the Work of Mudrooroo 2003; (p. 107-128)
Doctor Wooreddy's War against Time Annalisa Oboe , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Mongrel Signatures : Reflections on the Work of Mudrooroo 2003; (p. 83-105)
Last amended 29 Aug 2022 15:45:11
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