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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In 1955, a year after our graduation from university, m y friend Robert Brain and I set out for Europe. It was the traditional pilgrimage, in that era, for young Australians. W e were returning to a home we had never seen, to the cultural Blessed Isles. The numbers who made this grand tour were very small, then. There was no economy jet travel; w e embarked on a cheap Italian ship that would take five weeks to reach Genoa. Nor had the general phenomenon of Australian and Western youth touring the world on the cheap really begun. The simplest way I can convey this is to say that when we reached Europe and began hitch-hiking we had no trouble in being picked up, because drivers found us a novelty. They also thought us adventurous; and as w e passed farm gates, walking the highways of Italy and Germany, people would ask us in for a glass of wine. That was still the era when Greek peasants, finding foreigners passing their fields, would come out bringing gifts of food — the traditional hospitality to the wayfarer. They don't do it now; the hippies came through in the 1960s like a plague of locusts, living off that hospitality.' (Introduction)
Notes
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Includes reference to the influence of Nirad Chauduri on Christopher Koch.
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Paper presented at the 'Australian Writing Turns to Asia' Seminar held in November 1980.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Defection and Dislocation: The Fiction of Christopher Koch
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , June vol. 35 no. 2 1990; (p. 47-55) -
Bridgework
1987
single work
review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , May no. 38 1987; (p. 13)
— Review of Crossing the Gap : Asia and the Australian Imagination 1981 single work criticism
-
Bridgework
1987
single work
review
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , May no. 38 1987; (p. 13)
— Review of Crossing the Gap : Asia and the Australian Imagination 1981 single work criticism -
Defection and Dislocation: The Fiction of Christopher Koch
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , June vol. 35 no. 2 1990; (p. 47-55)
Last amended 16 Jan 2020 13:32:12
13-25
Crossing the Gap : Asia and the Australian Imagination
Rajasthan University Studies in English
1-25
Crossing the Gap : Asia and the Australian Imagination
1-25
Crossing the Gap : Asia and the Australian Imagination
Subjects:
- Across the Sea Wall 1965 single work novel
- The Year of Living Dangerously 1978 single work novel
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cIndia,cSouth Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
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cIndonesia,cSoutheast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
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