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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Non-fiction account of the prosecution of Michael and Lindy Chamberlain for the alleged murder of their daughter Azaria at Uluru in 1980.
Adaptations
-
form
y
Evil Angels
A Cry in the Dark
( dir. Fred Schepisi
)
Australia
United States of America (USA)
:
Cannon Entertainment
Warner Brothers
,
1988
Z1439960
1988
single work
film/TV
Based on the real events surrounding the trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, who were accused of murdering their daughter Azaria at Uluru in Central Australia.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Trial by Jury and Newspaper Reportage : Re-writing Women’s Stories from Legal Transcripts and Contemporaneous Journalism
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 37 2016; 'High-profile criminal cases often pique intense public interest at the time they are being acted out in the courts, and some cases maintain a place in the popular imagination. A few cases will result in narratives that successfully re-narrate the protagonists’ stories in what could be described as fully fleshed, satisfying biographical studies. This article examines the high profile cases of Mary Dean (poisoned by her husband in 1895) and Mary Jane Hicks (sexually assaulted by a gang of men in 1886) and how their stories, reduced to the facts distilled from copious legal documentation and newspaper reportage, have seen these women fade; their stories, though repeatedly re-told, contain both Dean and Hicks as unimagined and obscure.' (Publication abstract) -
The Case for John Bryson’s Evil Angels
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 5 March 2014; -
Lost in the Media : Evil Angels and Late Twentieth-Century Australian True Crime
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 418-423) -
Witnessing Innocence : Fred Schepisi's Evil Angels
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Making Film and Television Histories : Australia and New Zealand 2011; (p. 184-188) -
Sacred Violence in the Chamberlain Case
2008
single work
essay
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 22 no. 2 2008; (p. 117-121) In the early 1980s, many Australians demanded their say about 'Lindy Chamberlain'. On radio, in letters to the media, over coffee and on television, we exposed our wisdoms about mothering, matricide, inappropriate family holiday destinations, religious sects, the dressing of children in black, the desert, the law, and the requirements of justice. Australians - not for the first time - eagerly devoured tales of uncanny happenings in the desert. In the heart of the county, at Ayres Rock as it was still called, a sacrifice of some kind had occurred. 'Why would you take a child out there?' 'As if a dingo could do that!'
-
Categorical Infringement : Australian Prose in the Eighties
1991
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Narrative Technique , Winter vol. 21 no. 1 1991; (p. 43-51) -
The Prose and the Passion
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , vol. 66 no. 3 2007; (p. 43-48) Penny Pether searches for an Australian 'Constitutional Epic" in our recent literature and cinema. -
Dark Places: True Crime Writing in Australia
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , no. 8 2008; (p. 17-30) 'The international genre of true crime writing has been adapted and reinvented in specific ways in an Australian context, where true crime has a particular cultural resonance in rhetorics of nation. The settlement of Australia as a penal colony, the violent and unresolved history of relations between settler and Indigenous cultures, and our national mythmaking surrounding criminal figures highlight the centrality of true crime and its narration to formations of national identity. True crime is a popular and growing contemporary genre, typically concentrating upon certain events and figures as kinds of cultural flashpoints, and it also has a long history, from colonial narratives to early twentieth-century pulp fiction. Yet it has been critically neglected in almost all its Australian forms. This article begins to explore what constitutes true crime writing in Australia, and the ramifications that examining this genre has for changing constructions of nation, culture and history. It is particularly interested in the way in which the genre exploits a narrative tension between story and discourse to mobilise the power of myth, superstition and affect. This fuels the genre's exploration of cultural anxieties surrounding particular figures and events, and the paper uses the seminal text of Evil Angels to exemplify the narrative strategies at work in the genre and their effect on the terms and certainties of national formations.' (Author's abstract) -
Sacred Violence in the Chamberlain Case
2008
single work
essay
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 22 no. 2 2008; (p. 117-121) In the early 1980s, many Australians demanded their say about 'Lindy Chamberlain'. On radio, in letters to the media, over coffee and on television, we exposed our wisdoms about mothering, matricide, inappropriate family holiday destinations, religious sects, the dressing of children in black, the desert, the law, and the requirements of justice. Australians - not for the first time - eagerly devoured tales of uncanny happenings in the desert. In the heart of the county, at Ayres Rock as it was still called, a sacrifice of some kind had occurred. 'Why would you take a child out there?' 'As if a dingo could do that!' -
'Stepmother Earth' : Representations of the Land as the Female Other in Australian Film
2000
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Writing in Australia : Perceptions of Australian Literature in Its Historical and Cultural Context 2000; (p. 209-224)
Awards
- 1986 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Award for Non-Fiction
- 1986 winner Crime Writers' Association (UK) — The CWA Gold Dagger — Non-fiction
Last amended 12 May 2020 09:10:06
Settings:
- Uluru, South West Northern Territory, Southern Northern Territory, Northern Territory,
- 1980
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