More specifically than that, Chris, this particular narrative is probably
developed from C.J.Dennis's second book, _The Moods of Ginger Mick_.
But that's not even the *official narrative, it's the populist narrative.
Scholars like Sidney John Baker in _The Australian language_ and Graham Seal
in _The lingo_ wouldn't buy into that version (other than noting it
descriptively as part of the larger Larrikin narrative).
It's not impossible to get a bit further behind the variant stories spawned
by the original reality, just difficult. And the further off in time, the
more difficult. Try working out why the official narrative of George
Matsell [NY city, twenty years on either side of the 1850s] -- and I mean by
that, how he's characterised by pukka slang scholars, even, whom I've an
enormous respect for -- cheerfully accepts a description of him as "six
hundred pounds of blubber and malice." Well, yeah, bloody obviously that's
how Mike Walsh would describe him, given the split in the Dem political
machine in New York when the Locofocos were trying to get off the ground,
and a healthy slice of class antagonism between Walsh and Matsell. Then
there's the Astor Place Riot, and later how and why Matsell is airbrushed
from the anti-slavery narrative clustering around Frederick Douglass.
As I say, not impossible, though The Whole Truth will probably never be
known. *Did Captain Isaiah Rynders really arrange the murder of Walsh at
the instigation of Boss Tweed? Who knows. I think he did, but another
member of this list thinks I'm barking mad even to consider this.
As to the relation between the Rom in England in the early 16thC and the
rest of the native Vagabonds at that time, well ...
So yeah, there's an Official/Populist narrative around larrikins whereby the
establishment co-opts and neuters them. Big deal, so what else is new?
What I'm trying to get at, or as close to it as possible, is the actual
words of the Street in Melborne and Sydney in the middle to late nineteenth
century.
<sigh>
Best,
Robin
(Ouch -- I see what Chris says, "is also [sic] associated", so directing
this diatribe against Chris is wrong, unfair, and impermissible. I should
learn to read properly before I shoot from the hip. <g> R.)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Jones" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 10:04 PM
Subject: Re: Larrikin Poetry
> Larrikin is also associated with the anti-narrative of Australian
> history, thereby taking on a jingoistic line which makes Iraq and
> Afghanistan Aust military intervention okay (which it is not, of
> course.)
>
> On Sun, 2009-10-25 at 19:19 +0000, Alison Croggon wrote:
>> Larrikin isn't simply a dialect or accent, but an attitude. The 70s
>> nationalist renaissance in theatre characterised itself as "larrikin",
>> meaning anti-authoritarian, profane, loud, rambunctious, notably (at
>> the time, England still being the Home Country) anti-English.
>> Associated with a certain kind of physical theatre that actually
>> derives from commedia dell'arte, but these days is mostly seen in
>> Circus Oz.
>
