AustLit logo
The Aborigine's Complaint single work   poetry   "As I strolled through the Bush on a fine Sunday evening,"
Issue Details: First known date: 1844... 1844 The Aborigine's Complaint
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.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Against the loss of their land; vows deep revenge, with ironical comments on Christianity' (Webby).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

The Aboriginal in Early Australian Literature Elizabeth Webby , 1980 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 40 no. 1 1980; (p. 45-63)

'The depiction of aboriginals in early Australian literature, i.e., that written before 1850, resembles in many respects their pictorial depiction as outlined by Bernard Smith in European Vision  and the South Pacific. Writers who attempted the longer literary forms on Australian themes — the epic poem or the novel — usually, like the landscape artists, placed the aboriginal to one side. He was part of the exotic background, representing for the post the old order which was rapidly giving way to the march of civilization, or, along with bushrangers, fire and Rood, providing the fiction writer with the necessary "adventures" to break up the drab monotony of outback life. Certain shorter pieces of prose and verse focused more directly on the aboriginal, In these he was often either refined and classicalized along the "noble savage" lines of Blake's engraving of an aboriginal family, or caricatured as a comic specimen of brute creation. During the eighteen—forties there are signs of a third, more realistic and anthropological, approach with the incorporation of aboriginal words into poems and attempts at detailed descriptions of their customs in prose, though still with traces of the old simplifications in the directions of refinement or comedy.'  (Publication abstract)

The Aboriginal in Early Australian Literature Elizabeth Webby , 1980 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , March vol. 40 no. 1 1980; (p. 45-63)

'The depiction of aboriginals in early Australian literature, i.e., that written before 1850, resembles in many respects their pictorial depiction as outlined by Bernard Smith in European Vision  and the South Pacific. Writers who attempted the longer literary forms on Australian themes — the epic poem or the novel — usually, like the landscape artists, placed the aboriginal to one side. He was part of the exotic background, representing for the post the old order which was rapidly giving way to the march of civilization, or, along with bushrangers, fire and Rood, providing the fiction writer with the necessary "adventures" to break up the drab monotony of outback life. Certain shorter pieces of prose and verse focused more directly on the aboriginal, In these he was often either refined and classicalized along the "noble savage" lines of Blake's engraving of an aboriginal family, or caricatured as a comic specimen of brute creation. During the eighteen—forties there are signs of a third, more realistic and anthropological, approach with the incorporation of aboriginal words into poems and attempts at detailed descriptions of their customs in prose, though still with traces of the old simplifications in the directions of refinement or comedy.'  (Publication abstract)

Last amended 18 Aug 2010 12:19:42
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X