The Past, Present and Future in Contemporary Australian
Eco-memoir

k 2022

The Past, Present and Future in Contemporary Australian Eco-memoir

HORÁKOVÁ, Martina

Basic information

Original name

The Past, Present and Future in Contemporary Australian Eco-memoir

Authors

HORÁKOVÁ, Martina (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Life-Writing : Imagining the Past, Present and Future, 14–17 June 2022, University of Turku, Finland, 2022

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60206 Specific literatures

Country of publisher

Finland

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

URL

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/22:00129109

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

Australian eco-memoir; Mark Tredennick; Angela Rockel; settler belonging

Abstract

V originále

In modern Australian memoir, the narratives of the self are often framed with narratives of specific landscapes, places, regions. This interweaving of place- and self-narration has a long tradition which goes back to the late 19th century formation of a distinct national identity for settler Australians. In this tradition, settler belonging (both national and personal) is inseparably tied to the process of place-making, which is, however, heavily marked by the history of European colonization and dispossession of Indigenous people. Thus, life writing in Australia is also inescapably political. My presentation will examine recent Australian landscape and eco-memoir, making references particularly to Mark Tredinnick’s The Blue Plateau: An Australian Pastoral (2009), Tim Winton’s Island Home: A Landscape Memoir (2015), Kim Mahood’s Position Doubtful: Mapping Landscapes and Memories (2016) and Angela Rockel, Rogue Intensities (2019) as representative examples of a range of strategies adopted by settler authors to articulate their sense of belonging which in Australia remains contested. Tredinnick makes a collective tribute to a place and its people, celebrating the symbiosis through minute, staged histories of forgotten families, while inscribing his self in the larger history of Australian settlement. Mahood’s multimodal landscape memoir interweaves narratives of the self, the process of representing quintessential Australian landscape—the Outback—in her own artwork, while framing all of that with a commentary on current politics of Indigenous-settler relationships. Finally, Rockel wrote a highly poetic, experimental journal documenting five years of her life spent in rural Tasmania and recording her observations of nature, farming, family and community, history, mythology, and literature. I will argue that these eco-memoirs capture Australian settlers’ strategy of securing a legitimate sense of belonging through an intimate knowledge of their environments, while often tiptoeing around, if not evading, the continuing, and still largely unmet, calls for the sovereignty of Indigenous Country.

Links

GA19-11234S, research and development project

Name: Topos sounáležitosti s místem v memoárech australských osadníků

Investor: Czech Science Foundation

Citovat

HORÁKOVÁ, Martina. The Past, Present and Future in Contemporary Australian Eco-memoir. In Life-Writing : Imagining the Past, Present and Future, 14–17 June 2022, University of Turku, Finland. 2022.

@proceedings{1874346,
   author = {Horáková, Martina},
   booktitle = {Life-Writing : Imagining the Past, Present and Future, 14–17 June 2022, University of Turku, Finland},
   keywords = {Australian eco-memoir; Mark Tredennick; Angela Rockel; settler belonging},
   language = {eng},
   title = {The Past, Present and Future in Contemporary Australian Eco-memoir},
   url = {https://iabaturku2022.net/programme/},
   year = {2022}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1874346
AU  - Horáková, Martina
PY  - 2022
TI  - The Past, Present and Future in Contemporary Australian Eco-memoir
KW  - Australian eco-memoir
KW  - Mark Tredennick
KW  - Angela Rockel
KW  - settler belonging
UR  - https://iabaturku2022.net/programme/
N2  - In modern Australian memoir, the narratives of the self are often framed with narratives of specific landscapes, places, regions. This interweaving of place- and self-narration has a long tradition which goes back to the late 19th century formation of a distinct national identity for settler Australians. In this tradition, settler belonging (both national and personal) is inseparably tied to the process of place-making, which is, however, heavily marked by the history of European colonization and dispossession of Indigenous people. Thus, life writing in Australia is also inescapably political. My presentation will examine recent Australian landscape and eco-memoir, making references particularly to Mark Tredinnick’s The Blue Plateau: An Australian Pastoral (2009), Tim Winton’s Island Home: A Landscape Memoir (2015), Kim Mahood’s Position Doubtful: Mapping Landscapes and Memories (2016) and Angela Rockel, Rogue Intensities (2019) as representative examples of a range of strategies adopted by settler authors to articulate their sense of belonging which in Australia remains contested. Tredinnick makes a collective tribute to a place and its people, celebrating the symbiosis through minute, staged histories of forgotten families, while inscribing his self in the larger history of Australian settlement. Mahood’s multimodal landscape memoir interweaves narratives of the self, the process of representing quintessential Australian landscape—the Outback—in her own artwork, while framing all of that with a commentary on current politics of Indigenous-settler relationships. Finally, Rockel wrote a highly poetic, experimental journal documenting five years of her life spent in rural Tasmania and recording her observations of nature, farming, family and community, history, mythology, and literature. I will argue that these eco-memoirs capture Australian settlers’ strategy of securing a legitimate sense of belonging through an intimate knowledge of their environments, while often tiptoeing around, if not evading, the continuing, and still largely unmet, calls for the sovereignty of Indigenous Country.
ER  -

HORÁKOVÁ, Martina. The Past, Present and Future in Contemporary Australian Eco-memoir. In \textit{Life-Writing : Imagining the Past, Present and Future, 14–17 June 2022, University of Turku, Finland}. 2022.

Detailed Information on Publication Record