There's also a great book more expansive on post-colonial literature,
specifically english as opposed to English: 'The Empire Writes Back' by Bill
Ashcroft and someone else. It's from an Australian university press, I
think - If you can't find it anywhere and want to see it, ask and I'll hunt
up more details.
Good luck with it all. I just put in my thesis, so I know how it is :-)
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Irvine" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 11:08 AM
Subject: Re: Opinions info etc on Jindyworobaks
> Many thanks Andrew RE: Jindies. Will be useful.
>
> regards
> Ian
> >
> >There's a bundle of stuff on them on the Net, Ian. In fact one of them
> >still
> >lives in Perth, although he is an old man now - Alec Choate. He was
> >published in their Anthologies ...
> >
> >Here's a file I still have hanging around from some study I was doing
into
> >Australian english. If I find more I'll send it on. (Some of the file
seems
> >messy, but you'll just have to tidy any bits up you want or go to the
> >website.)
> >
> >Andrew
> >
> >
> >From Rex Ingamells Unknown Land (Adelaide, 1934)
> >
> >Australia's long, lone coast of capes and bays,
> >vast gulfs and pebbled inlets, steep arrays
> >of salt-ribbed seaweed, shelly beaches, scarred
> >cliff-granite, rock-jut, creamy sand-shelves, marred
> >of smooth perfection only by rain-runnels
> >or. at low tide, by tiny sea-worm tunnels . . .
> >Australia's long, lone coastline will preserve
> >an unassailable. secret soul, observe
> >its own communion ... into which will enter
> >no whisper of strange empires where they centre:
> >Australia will rebut a hundred races
> >if such envision only alien places
> >as source of truth . . .
> >
> >
> >
> >collected from http://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/pdf/b000071.pdf 24
November
> >2005
> >
> >1V: NEW THOLIGHTS FOR OLD.
> >A new culture must be possessed of a new idiom. The
> >thought-forms of the past are no longer applicable, and a new
> >language must arise to fill the void. The uew literature must
> >reflect the song of galahs at nightfall, catch the rhyth~ri of
> >sun-filled rocks, echo the quiet sound of billabongs at night.
> >jt ~nust capture that spirit t h r o q h which
> >"The barest hills in arid sand
> >burn beauty into sight
> >when evening, with a savage hand.
> >sets a11 their scarps dight."
> >It is not enough merely to think ot gumtrees; the thoughtidmm
> >through which we convey our pictures must he adapted
> >to them. Cattle tracks are no longer "long dusky aisles." 111
> >I I I C plxe of such Gothic visions arise pictures of
> >"Stern-hearted freemen, felling tall trees,
> >building
> >rough homesteads amid far, unfamiliar places."
> >rugged pictures of hard days that fade into other pictures OF
> >"klerds of cattle, lowing by the fertile hanks of
> >eastcrn rivers; drowsing under redgums, where the blackand-
> >whitt. magpie sits calling ecstatically."
> >The Australian poet must cry with Mudie:
> >"Let us, oh sun, take fire
> >from your bright heat, let bushfires rage
> >about the scrub and ranges of our hearts."
> >He must paint the truly Australian in a way that is itself trdy
> >reflective of the scene it paints. He must learn, as R. Kate
> >learnt in The Waratah. to express himself through his ageless
> >0 traditions:
> >"How many dawns and sunset came
> >Across the valley of the years
> >Before your heart of sculptured flame
> >Blazed through its galaxy of spears?
> >Green spears that lift with one desire '
> >To shield your heart of chiselled fire!"
> >IHis verse forms must probe the dim caverns of the Nullarbor,
> >must wander through the mid-day quiet of the b ~ h a,n d
> >reflect triumphantly the electric colour of sundown burning
> >on the purple hills. His song of liyht must be a sun-corroboree,
> >his song of night a painting of the quiet of the nightwalks
> >of the earth the sun must travel to regain the morning.
> >Sr~prernely, this spirit is manifest in Ingamclls' Dark Cry:
> >"Dark cry, claim the dark-shored Ialcc.
> >Quicken your echoes round the hills. Dwell
> >in, possessing, earth and sky. Take
> >farewell.
> >Engined with knowledge, as fast
> >that very way the confident mind must push
> >cry of a winging wild duck cast
> >to the insatiable hush of the bush."
> >17: EYES TO THE FUTURE.
> >For one hundred and thirty years Australian poets have
> >fought against the shackles of misconception. The story ol
> >their fight is the story of the development of Australian literature
> >(a story that must be told elsewhere). For one hundred
> >
> >Towards an Australian Culture by Kevin Gifford (Jindyworobak Publication,
> >Melbourne 1944)
> >
> >Collected from http://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/pdf/b000070.pdf on 24
Nov
> >2005
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