A Companion to Australian Aboriginal Literature

Description

Australian Aboriginal literature, once relegated to the margins of Australian literary studies, now receives both national and international attention. Not only has the number of published texts by contemporary Australian Aboriginals risen sharply, but scholars and publishers have also recently begun recovering earlier published and unpublished Indigenous works. Writing by Australian Aboriginals is making a decisive impression in fiction, autobiography, biography, poetry, film, drama, and music, and has recently been anthologized in Oceania and North America. Until now, however, there has been no comprehensive critical companion that contextualizes the Aboriginal canon for scholars, researchers, students, and general readers. This international collection of eleven original essays fills this gap by discussing crucial aspects of Australian Aboriginal literature and tracing the development of Aboriginalliteracy from the oral tradition up until today, contextualizing the work of Aboriginal artists and writers and exploring aspects of Aboriginal life writing such as obstacles toward publishing, questions of editorial control (orthe lack thereof), intergenerational and interracial collaborations combining oral history and life writing, and the pros and cons of translation into European languages. Contributors: Katrin Althans, Maryrose Casey, Danica Cerce, Stuart Cooke, Paula Anca Farca, Michael R. Griffiths, Oliver Haag, Martina Horakova, Jennifer Jones, Nicholas Jose, Andrew King, Jeanine Leane, Theodore F. Sheckels, Belinda Wheeler. Belinda Wheeler is Associate Professor of English at Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC. Contributors: Belinda Wheeler, Nichola Jose, Andrew King, Danica Cerce, Jeanine Leane, Jennifer Jones, Katrin Althans, Martina Horakova, Maryrose Casey, and Michael R. Griffiths Frontcover Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Chronology Introduction: The Emerging Canon 1: Indigenous Life Writing: Rethinking Poetics and Practice 2: Australian Aboriginal Life Writers and Their Editors: Cross-Cultural Collaboration, Authorial Intention, and the Impact of Editorial Choices 3: Contemporary Life Writing: Inscribing Double Voice in Intergenerational Collaborative Life-Writing Projects 4: European Translations of Australian Aboriginal Texts 5: Tracing a Trajectory from Songpoetry to Contemporary Aboriginal Poetry 6: Rites/Rights/Writes of Passage: Identity Construction in Australian Aboriginal Young Adult Fiction 7: Humor in Contemporary Aboriginal Adult Fiction 8: White Shadows: The Gothic Tradition in Australian Aboriginal Literature 9: Bold, Black, and Brilliant: Aboriginal Australian Drama 10: The Stolen Generations in Feature Film: The Approach of Aboriginal Director Rachel Perkins and Others 11: A History of Popular Indigenous Music Notes on the Contributors Index Backcover