AustLit
Latest Issues
Notes
-
From the Introduction to Issue 1 of Ambitious Friends: "The inspiration for the creation of a multilingual, multicultural women's magazine occurred in 1993 after a succession of writing projects that were and continue to take place across Western Sydney. Namely, the Indo-Chinese writing and Cabramatta book project, the Spanish speaking women's writing workshops and Spanish bilingual playwriting workshops in Fairfield; 'Her stories' - a Macquarie Fields' women's oral history writing project and the Bilingual community writing workshops (Spanish/Arabic) in the Campbelltown area; Blacktown with its 'Mosaics' writing project and Liverpool with its women's community writing workshops and Spanish community writing project - just to name a few' (p. 3).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Islands of Multilingual Literature : Community Magazines and Australia's Many Languages
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 72 no. 3 2012; (p. 129-142)As a researcher for AustLit, I have tried to identify and locate points of entry through which even a monolingual researcher might access and build awareness of Australia’s multilingual literatures. Community language newspapers, which have existed in Australian since the nineteenth century, and which continue with substantial circulations in the twenty-first century, are excellent resources if one is fluent in the respective language. Bilingual or multilingual magazines or newspapers are not as common, but can provide an English reading researcher with documentation of community literary activities that would otherwise remain inaccessible. These magazines are like islands – multilingual islands in the midst of the dominant monolingual literary culture. In the Australian literary context it may be appropriate to think of the production of literature in other languages as islands of literary activity where multiple languages are maintained amidst the surrounding English writing. In this essay I’ll discuss a number of literary journals that provide access to Australia’s multilingual literary activities. Two of these are indeed multilingual, carrying articles and creative writing in a number of languages. The third is bilingual, publishing content in English and Vietnamese only, but will be included it here as an indication of the breadth and significance of writing in Australia in languages other than English, writing that is diasporic and transnational as well as multilingual. (Author's abstract)
-
Islands of Multilingual Literature : Community Magazines and Australia's Many Languages
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 72 no. 3 2012; (p. 129-142)As a researcher for AustLit, I have tried to identify and locate points of entry through which even a monolingual researcher might access and build awareness of Australia’s multilingual literatures. Community language newspapers, which have existed in Australian since the nineteenth century, and which continue with substantial circulations in the twenty-first century, are excellent resources if one is fluent in the respective language. Bilingual or multilingual magazines or newspapers are not as common, but can provide an English reading researcher with documentation of community literary activities that would otherwise remain inaccessible. These magazines are like islands – multilingual islands in the midst of the dominant monolingual literary culture. In the Australian literary context it may be appropriate to think of the production of literature in other languages as islands of literary activity where multiple languages are maintained amidst the surrounding English writing. In this essay I’ll discuss a number of literary journals that provide access to Australia’s multilingual literary activities. Two of these are indeed multilingual, carrying articles and creative writing in a number of languages. The third is bilingual, publishing content in English and Vietnamese only, but will be included it here as an indication of the breadth and significance of writing in Australia in languages other than English, writing that is diasporic and transnational as well as multilingual. (Author's abstract)
