‘Country’ in Australian Contemporary Verse Novels

Authors

  • Linda Weste UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Keywords:

verse novels, poetic narratives, narrative poems

Abstract

Research is yet to describe the stylistic preferences that shape contemporary Australian verse novels which provide political and social critique. This article examines Lisa Jacobson’s The Sunlit Zone (2011), Judy Johnson’s Jack (2006), and Geoff Page’s Freehold (2005), texts which share a stylistic preference for representations of speech and thought that are closer to ‘naturally’ occurring oral communication, and which maximise use of vernacular, regional idiom, and colloquial diction. A close reading of these texts identifies the expressivity markers by which they depict attitudes, beliefs, and values pertaining to ‘country’, with particular focus on analysing the interplay of poetic and narrative elements that is instrumental to foreground the ‘natural’, and to correlate their narratives with mimetic, real-world representation.

Author Biography

Linda Weste, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Dr Linda Weste |  narrAUS  
narratology network of Australia and Asia Pacific | www.narraus.org
http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/study/english
School of Culture and Communication
Room 216, West Tower |John Medley (Building 191)
The University of Melbourne | 3010  |Victoria |Australia
[email protected]

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