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y separately published work icon Bitin' Back single work   novel  
Alternative title: Just Call Me Jean
Issue Details: First known date: 2001... 2001 Bitin' Back
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'When the Blackout's star player Nevil Dooley wakes one morning to don a frock and 'eyeshada', his mother's idle days at the bingo hall are gone forever. Mystified and clueless, single parent Mavis takes bush-cunning and fast footwork to unravel the mystery behind this sudden change of face... Hilarity prevails while desperation builds in the race to save Nevil from the savage consequences of discovery in a town where a career in footy is a young black man's only escape. Neither pig shoots, bust-ups at the Two Dogs, bare-knuckle sessions in the shed or even a police siege can slow the countdown on this human time bomb.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)

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Works about this Work

Indigenous Stories Told Collectively BlackWords : Indigenous Stories Told Collectively Anita Heiss , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: The BlackWords Essays 2015; (p. 5) The BlackWords Essays 2019;

In this essay Heiss discusses and explains the important role of anthologies in the creation of communities of writers and in acknowledging, consolidating and launching writing careers.

‘Ropes of Stories’ : Jean Rhys, Vivienne Cleven and Melissa Lucashenko Jessica Gildersleeve , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Queensland Review , June vol. 22 no. 1 2015; (p. 75-84)

'Cultural narratives also function as lifelines in the work of another Queensland Indigenous woman writer, Vivienne Cleven. Cleven's novel, Bitin’ Back (2001), begins when Mavis Dooley's son, Nevil, announces that he is no longer Nevil, but the writer Jean Rhys. Although Nevil eventually reveals that he has simply been acting as a woman in order to understand the protagonist of the novel he is writing, his choice of Rhys in particular is significant. Nevil selected Jean Rhys as a signifier of his female role because, he explains:

She's my favourite author; she wrote Wide Sargasso Sea [1966]. She was ahead of her time; she wrote about society's underdogs; about rejection and the madness of isolation. I know it sounds all crazy to you, Ma, but this is about who I am . . . [A] lot of people would never understand me and they wouldn't want to. (2001: 184)' (Publication abstract)

Journey of a Lifetime : From the Sticks to the State Library—An Aboriginal Editor’s Story Linda McBride-Yuke , 2014 single work autobiography
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 3 2014;
'This paper is a multi-layered sharing of personal, cultural and professional journeys that has led me to becoming an Aboriginal Editor with the black&write! program with the State Library of Queensland. There are a lot of firsts and many significant events that have happened to me, most of which I would never have dreamt about, let alone actually experienced. ' (Author's introduction)
The Aboriginal Sovereign Woman Tracey Bunda , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sovereign Subjects : Indigenous Sovereignty Matters 2007;
Untitled Jeannie Herbert Nungarrayi , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: JAS Review of Books , February no. 21 2004;

— Review of Bitin' Back Vivienne Cleven , 2001 single work novel
Not Just Racial but Sexual Elizabeth Hodgson , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 62 no. 2 2002; (p. 174-176)

— Review of Bitin' Back Vivienne Cleven , 2001 single work novel
Untitled Jeannie Herbert Nungarrayi , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: JAS Review of Books , February no. 21 2004;

— Review of Bitin' Back Vivienne Cleven , 2001 single work novel
'Bitin' Back' Richard Pascal , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Aboriginal History , vol. 26 no. 2002; (p. 262-265)

— Review of Bitin' Back Vivienne Cleven , 2001 single work novel
Mavis-Speak is Spot-on Anita Heiss , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 20 October 2001; (p. 5)

— Review of Bitin' Back Vivienne Cleven , 2001 single work novel
Paperbacks Ian McFarlane , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 11 November 2001; (p. 46)

— Review of Bitin' Back Vivienne Cleven , 2001 single work novel ; The Bone Flute N. A. Bourke , 2001 single work novel ; The God in the Ink Kathryn Lomer , 2001 single work novel
Awards Nicholas Birns , 2002 single work column
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 16 no. 1 2002; (p. 74-75)
'Curled Up Like a Skinny Black Question Mark' : The Irreducibility of Gender and Race in Vivienne Cleven's Bitin' Back Alison Ravenscroft , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Feminist Studies , July vol. 18 no. 41 2003; (p. 187-198)
The Aboriginal Sovereign Woman Tracey Bunda , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Sovereign Subjects : Indigenous Sovereignty Matters 2007;
The Wow Factor Margaret Wenham , 2000 single work biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 21 October 2000; (p. 8)
Six of the Best 2002 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 14 September 2002; (p. 7)
Last amended 8 Mar 2024 14:21:22
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