Assignment Code: MEG-19 / TMA / 2022-23

Course Code: MEG-19

Assignment Name: The Australian Novel

Year: 2022 -2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Answer all the questions in this assignment.

Q 1. “Nineteenth century Australian women novelists delineated life in the outback from a perspective quite different from that of the masculinist pioneer.” Discuss with suitable examples. (20)

Ans) The earliest attempts at writing were rather refined; they were written in the English style and intended for an English readership. An excellent illustration of this can be found in W. C. Wentworth's Australasia, an Ode (1823), which is both insignificant and imitative. Over the course of the subsequent few decades, Australian writers began to discover at the very least their subject, if not yet their voice. This discovery began with the interpretive nature poetry of Charles Harpur (1813–68) and Henry Kendall (1839–82), as well as the novels of Henry Kingsley (brother of Charles Kingsley), who wrote about pioneer life.

Adam Lindsay Gordon was the pioneer of the bush ballad, which flourished in the works of Henry Lawson (1867-1922) and A. B. (Banjo) Paterson (1864-1941). It was Paterson's collection Man from Snowy River and Other Verses (1895) that included the well-known song Waltzing Matilda. It wasn't until nearly a century later, in Marcus Clarke's classic account of life in a penal colony, For the Term of His Natural Life, that convicts got their due. Although Henry Savery's Quintus Servinton (1830) provided a depiction of convict life, it wasn't until then that they got their due.

The novels of Rolfe Boldrewood (pseud. of Thomas A. Browne) and James Tucker, whose Ralph Rashleigh was the first to focus on Australia's unique combination of prison life, aborigines, and bushrangers, were less powerful but truer to life in the bush. Tucker's Ralph Rashleigh was the first to focus on Australia's unique combination of prison life, aborigines, and bushrangers. Miles Franklin, whose My Brilliant Career is widely regarded as the first truly Australian novel, was another notable novelist who worked in the nineteenth century. Diarist-novelist Tom Collins (pseud.

Her letters, selected from a lifetime of devoted and energetic correspondence, show that she possesses an exceptional talent for epistolary writing. They not only provide a record of Franklin's extensive literary and cultural network, which spread throughout Australia and overseas, but they also stand as an important literary document in a mode that feminist criticism has recovered and recognised as having cultural significance as well as importance to both writers and readers.

In addition, they provide a record of Franklin's extensive literary and cultural network, which spread throughout Australia and overseas. In addition, they provide a record of Franklin's extensive literary and cultural network, The release of the critically acclaimed film adaptation of Franklin's first novel in 1979 also contributed to the enhancement of her reputation. Gillian Armstrong, who is from Australia, is the director of the film that has the same name as the novel and has been credited with generating widespread public interest in both the novel and its author.

As a result of her endowment of Australia's most prestigious and, until recently, wealthiest national literary prize, the annual Miles Franklin Award, Franklin's name has a central and lasting place in the history of Australian literature. Franklin envisioned the award having the status of the Pulitzer Prize, and she wanted it to be as prestigious as the Pulitzer Prize. She had always lived a frugal lifestyle and had to make do with difficult circumstances, particularly in her later adult life, in order to establish and fund such an award. When she passed away, she left her estate to be used for this purpose.

The terms of the prize, which state that it is awarded "for the novel of the year with the highest literary merit and must present Australian life in any of its phases," have been the subject of public debate on multiple occasions. This has occurred as judging panels have struggled with the question of the relative Australianness of the works that are being evaluated for the prize. On the other hand, the requirements demonstrate Franklin's fervent patriotism and his unwavering support throughout his life for Australian literary works and authors. In 1957, the novel "Voss" written by Patrick White was the first to be given this award.

Q 2. Discuss Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career as an early feminist text. (20)

Ans) Miles Franklin's semi-autobiographical and feminist text My Brilliant Career is a portrait of the artist as a young woman. It is a well-known early feminist novel that is still widely read today. Its central thematic concern is shared by many early feminist texts: the intellectual repression of female writers in a patriarchal world. Miles Franklin's debut novel is particularly influential due to her ability to combine didacticism with an engaging style. The novel follows the life of Sybylla Melvyn, an almost unfathomably impulsive and stubborn heroine who is adamant that in the battle between individual and society, the individual must win. In many classic nineteenth-century coming-of-age novels, the heroine learns to moderate their desires and make some kind of peace with the world.

The main character Sybylla Melvyn is a perfect early feminist heroine who fails to forge her brilliant career while facing adversities due to her gender, class, and ambition throughout the novel. Sybylla, the daughter of a sheep station owner in Bruggabrong, is born into a comfortable life and grows up in a relatively egalitarian environment where she meets a variety of people and animals. This assists her in developing a fearless personality and the ability to evaluate ideas. The father switches stations, relocates to Possum Gully, and begins drinking, relegating the family to the working class. Sybylla suffers in this situation because she is temperamentally unsuited to the hardscrabble life of a dairy farmer.

She finds solace in writing, improves her writing skills, and her first attempt at writing even receives positive feedback from a publisher. She is given a reprieve when she relocates to Caddagat, her mother's ancestral home. However, she is unable to establish a career here due to the romance plot that is introduced. She declines numerous proposals, including one from the kind and handsome Harold Beecham. When she is seventeen, she promises to marry Harry when she is twenty-one if he still wants her. As fate would have it, she is forced to work as a governess at Barney's Gap, the M'Swat residence. She returns to Possum Gully after her health deteriorates, with little hope of resuming her career.

Harry reappears and expresses his desire to marry her, seemingly unaffected by her eccentricities, even offering to fund her writing career. Sybylla declines him because she believes she would be unable to meet the social expectations of a wife at the time. She realises that while Harry can protect her writing ambitions, he cannot protect her from motherhood, and she fears that motherhood will take over all other aspects of her life at that time. Sybylla comes to terms with her status as a single, working-class woman in rural Australia in the novel's final pages, and she expresses solidarity with other single working women. She is a classic feminist figure. My Brilliant Career shares many themes with other early feminist works, such as the impact of poverty on women's writing ability.

The notion that only the middle class has the leisure and means to write was famously stated much later by Virginia Woolf in her essay 'A Room of One's Own.' Another parallel is Miles Franklin's use of the looking glass metaphor; while her father lowers the family's social status due to his dual sins of drinking and poor financial management, Sybylla blames her mother equally for their predicament. She muses on society's proclivity to make women serve as reflections of and mirror images of their husbands, and her refusal to marry may be interpreted as her refusal to participate in this patriarchal dictate. My Brilliant Career's continued prominence reflects its contemporary relevance as well as its significance as an early feminist work.

Q 3. “Patrick White’s novel The Tree of Man reflects White’s anxiety about the rootlessness and alienation of men and women in the modern age.” Do you agree with this statement? (20)

Ans) The earliest attempts at writing were rather refined; they were written in the English style and intended for an English readership. An excellent illustration of this can be found in W. C. Wentworth's Australasia, an Ode (1823), which is both insignificant and imitative. Over the course of the subsequent few decades, Australian writers began to discover at the very least their subject, if not yet their voice. This discovery began with the interpretive nature poetry of Charles Harpur (1813–68) and Henry Kendall (1839–82), as well as the novels of Henry Kingsley (brother of Charles Kingsley), who wrote about pioneer life. Adam Lindsay Gordon was the pioneer of the bush ballad, which flourished in the works of Henry Lawson (1867-1922) and A. B. (Banjo) Paterson (1864-1941). It was Paterson's collection Man from Snowy River and Other Verses (1895) that included the well-known song Waltzing Matilda.

It wasn't until nearly a century later, in Marcus Clarke's classic account of life in a penal colony, For the Term of His Natural Life, which convicts finally got their due. Although Henry Savery's Quintus Servinton (1830) provided a depiction of convict life, it wasn't until then that they got their due (1874). The novels of Rolfe Boldrewood (pseud. of Thomas A. Browne) and James Tucker, whose Ralph Rashleigh (1844) was the first to focus on Australia's unique combination of prison life, aborigines, and bushrangers, were less powerful but truer to life in the bush. Tucker's novel was the first to focus on Australia's unique combination of prison life, aborigines, and bushrangers. Miles Franklin (1879-1954), whose novel My Brilliant Career (1901) is widely regarded as the first authentically Australian novel, and the diarist-novelist Tom Collins (pseud. of Miles Franklin) are two of the most notable authors to emerge from Australia in the early 20th century.

Her letters, selected from a lifetime of devoted and energetic correspondence, show that she possesses an exceptional talent for epistolary writing. They not only provide a record of Franklin's extensive literary and cultural network, which spread throughout Australia and overseas, but they also stand as an important literary document in a mode that feminist criticism has recovered and recognised as having cultural significance as well as importance to both writers and readers. In addition, they provide a record of Franklin's extensive literary and cultural network, which spread throughout Australia and overseas. In addition, they provide a record of Franklin's extensive literary and cultural network, The release of the critically acclaimed film adaptation of Franklin's first novel in 1979 also contributed to the enhancement of her reputation. Gillian Armstrong, who is from Australia, is the director of the film that has the same name as the novel and has been credited with generating widespread public interest in both the novel and its author.

As a result of her endowment of Australia's most prestigious and, until recently, wealthiest national literary prize, the annual Miles Franklin Award, Franklin's name has a central and lasting place in the history of Australian literature. Franklin envisioned the award having the status of the Pulitzer Prize, and she wanted it to be as prestigious as the Pulitzer Prize. She had always lived a frugal lifestyle and had to make do with difficult circumstances, particularly in her later adult life, in order to establish and fund such an award. When she passed away, she left her estate to be used for this purpose. The terms of the prize, which state that it is awarded "for the novel of the year with the highest literary merit and must present Australian life in any of its phases," have been the subject of public debate on multiple occasions. This has occurred as judging panels have struggled with the question of the relative Australianness of the works that are being evaluated for the prize. On the other hand, the requirements demonstrate Franklin's fervent patriotism and his unwavering support throughout his life for Australian literary works and authors. In 1957, the novel "Voss" written by Patrick White was the first to be given this award.

Q 4. “Thomas Keneally’s novel Schindler’s Ark is a story of the triumph of humanity.” Comment on this statement. (20)

Ans) Thomas Keneally, an Australian novelist, penned the historical novel "Schindler's List" in 1982. Both the Booker Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction were bestowed upon the work of fiction in the year 1983. Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party, is the protagonist of this storey. During the Holocaust, he is credited with preventing the deaths of 1,200 Jews, making him an unlikeable hero. It is based on real people and events, but the author has embellished it with fictional scenes and dialogue to fill in the gaps where specific details are lacking. Schindler's Ark has since become Keneally's most well-known and celebrated work, thanks to the highly successful film adaptation that was directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 1993. Keneally wrote a number of well-received novels before and after Schindler's Ark, but it has since become his most well-known and celebrated work.

In this book, the life storey of Oskar Schindler is recounted. Schindler was a self-made businessman and bon viveur who found himself in the position of rescuing Polish Jews from the hands of the Nazi death machine. According to the testimonies of a large number of eyewitnesses, Keneally's storey takes place during Hitler's campaigns to free Europe of its Jewish population (free of Jews). Schindler is portrayed as a hero with many flaws, including the fact that he was a womaniser, a drinker, and, initially, a profiteer. After the war, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem recognised him as a Righteous Among the Nations, despite the fact that he was never thought of as a character who adhered to the standards of traditional virtue. It is not only Schindler's storey that is told, but also the storey of the ghetto in Kraków, the forced labour camp outside of town called Paszów, as well as the storey of Amon Goth, who was the commandant of Paszów.

An intriguing storey about the trials and triumphs of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved many Jews from the gas chambers in concentration camps, as well as the trials and tribulations of those who survived the Holocaust, Schindler's List is a film that was written and directed by Steven Spielberg. During one of the most difficult times in human history, this book reveals humanism in surprising places. Keneally was struck by the moral ambiguity of Schindler after reading the documents and listening to the narrations and interviews of Schindler's survivors. Keneally's research included reviewing and listening to these sources. He was of the opinion that the novel was the most appropriate form of expression and method for depicting a figure of such importance.

In his preface, he states that Schindler's Ark should not be read as a novel but rather as a historical account based on eyewitness reports, documents, and visits to the locations described in the novel. He also states that the reader should not read the book as if it were a work of fiction. In addition, he acknowledges that he did everything in his power to relay the storey in an accurate manner, just as it took place. The author portrays himself as a historian in order to report in an engaging manner the true stories of victims, survivor testimonies, interviews, and people's personal accounts. What starts out as a business endeavour with the goal of achieving personal gain eventually transforms into an unusual form of paternalism. This worthless, immorally questionable war profiteer and hedonist with expensive taste becomes one of the most admired and celebrated heroes of the Holocaust, sacrificing his entire fortune and risking his own life to save hundreds of Jews from the jaws of the death camps. He is celebrated as one of the most admired and celebrated heroes of the Holocaust.

Q 5. Write short notes of around 200 words each on the following: (10+10)

a. The multicultural novel in Australia.

Ans) The concept of multiculturalism is deeply ingrained in the fabric of Australian society. Every day, in our cities and suburbs, in our educational institutions and places of employment, and on our public transportation systems, we are exposed to it. All of these locations feature interactions between people from Australia and residents of other nations. The topic of multiculturalism has given rise to a significant amount of discussion in Australia. The reception of Australia's robust but continually developing multicultural writing tradition has captured and reflected this tension beautifully.

At the core of the discussion are questions regarding who can speak for whom, allegations of appropriation and commodification of multicultural writing by publishers and academic institutions, and the multicultural novel's relationship to and place within Australian literature. The development of multicultural and contemporary transnational literature in Australia is taking place since the 1950s, as well as the relationship between these forms of writing and various cultural and political ideologies. It focuses on how autobiographical reflections or fictional accounts of migration experiences have influenced public discourse on issues of citizenship and belonging in various communities. The works "The Island" (1984) by Antigone Kefala, "Loaded" (1995) by Christos Tsiolkas, and "Spiral Road" (1984) by Adib Khan are some of the ones that are mentioned (2007).

b. Intermingling of historical accounts with fiction in Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang

Ans) Carey's historical fiction echoes the Ned Kelly legend. Ned is a kind and brave man coerced into violence by a cruel colonial system. This version of Ned appeared in The Story of the Kelly Gang, the first feature-length narrative film, in 1906. Later movies were political. Mick Jagger played Ned Kelly in Tony Richardson's 1970 film calling for an Irish Republic in Australia, and Heath Ledger played him in Gregor Jordan's 2003 film. In the latest Ned Kelly movie, Dad Kelly and Joe Byrne were in love. Ned's wife and child were conceived by Carey. These fictional characters show the bushranger-hero as a husband and father.

Like any good book, historical fiction entertains. Carey won the 2001 Man Booker Prize for The True History of the Kelly Gang. Carey's novel was also political. Ned Kelly seeks to redeem a penal colony. Long ago, convict-era Australians were ashamed of their heritage. Irish Australians accepted their forcibly transported ancestors because of the honest bushranger myth. Carey's True History revitalises the legend. Carey's depiction of colonial police stupidity and brutality can be read as an attempt to revive Australia's Republican movement. Carey's novel could only have been written by a Commonwealth-skeptic. It implies that historical fiction offers a more interesting or convenient version of history.