Australian literature

More than 200 years of the history of Australian literature is usually divided into three periods of its development:

• Colonial, or Anglo-Australian era ( 1788 - 1880 );
• National era ( 1880 - 1920 );
• The modern era ( 1920 - present).

Colonial era (1788-1880)

The first literary monuments in Australia were the memoirs and travel notes of John White ( 1756 - 1832 ), Watkin Tench ( 1758 - 1833 ) and David Collins ( 1756 - 1810 ), who were officers of the first convoy of ships, which founded the colony of convicts Sydney in 1788 . John Tucker in his novels depicted the hard life of convicts: the novels Quintus Servinton, Henry Svery, The Adventures of Ralph Reschle.

The first poetic works written on the Australian continent were ballad genres. They developed the tradition of English and Irish ballads of the time. The main theme of the first ballads was the rapture of the free life of fugitive convicts and the so-called bush rangers (noble robbers). The black humor and sarcasm of these works shook the moral foundations of colonial society. The colonial lyrics of the first 50 years almost invariably focused on the themes and styles of the classic era of England . The first lyrics were Charles Thompson ( 1806 - 1883 ) and Charles Wentworth ( 1790 - 1872 ). Subsequently, themes of strict, dangerous to humans nature and its exotic appeared.

The prominent poet of this period was Charles Harper ( 1813 - 1868 ). The poetry of Garpur, a descendant of Irish convicts, is full of tyrannibor motifs close to the works of John Milton and the early Wordsword . Of particular importance is his landscape lyrics. During his lifetime, Harpur published only a small fraction of his legacy.

The poetry of another prominent poet, Henry Kendall ( 1839 - 1882 ), is characterized by an interpretation of the topographic and geological phenomena of the outside world as a symbolic reflection of his mental moods. Kendall's landscapes are endowed with a philosophical, sometimes mystical meaning. He tried to express in this way a certain disharmony of his inner world, the bitterness of disappointment, which he knew in search of a beautiful utopia. His most interesting collections: “Mountains”, “To Peru”, “Leichgardt”.

National Era (1880-1920)

The national epoch of Australian literature was opened by The Bulletin weekly, which was founded by Jules Francois Archibald and John Hines. The program principles of this magazine were social engagement, a radical democratic direction, interest in the lives of ordinary workers, and rejection of English influence on Australian literature. Typical topics of the magazine were life in the Australian bush , rural ideals, as well as the chanting of male friendship and masculinity, the equality of ordinary people. Thanks to the Bulletin, poets such as Andrew Barton Patterson , the pseudonym Banjo ( 1864 - 1941 ) with their ballads about the Australian bush, Charles Brennan and J. Nilson, who were more oriented to English and French aesthetics and symbolism , gained popularity.

An example of civilian poetry is the poetry of Henry Lawson ( 1867 - 1922 ). Poems are written in the rhythm of marching songs with a characteristic revolutionary pathos and social optimism. A certain declarative nature of his poems is combined with revolutionary spirit and national-patriotic motives.

Modern era (1920 - present)

Since the early 1920s, Australian literature has become increasingly open to European and American literary movements. The literary magazines of Australia, such as Vision (English Vision, since 1923 ), Meanjin Papers (since 1940 ), Angry Penguins ( 1940 - 1946 ), played a particularly large role in adopting new trends and trends.

With Rex Ingamells, a movement began to re-evaluate the culture of Australian Aborigines and to seek an independent voice for Australian literature.

In the lyrics, the desire for openness affected the work of poets such as K. Mackenzie, James Mackoli, Alec Derwent Hope, who are characterized by specific, sensual poems about the phenomena of the real world. Judith Wright, Francis Webb and Bruce Dave gravitated towards landscape-symbolic lyrics and personal poetry. Rosemary Dobson and R. D. Fitzgerald turned to historical subjects in poetry.

In the 50s, the so-called poetry school of the University of Melbourne ( English Melbourne University Poets ) appeared, the main representatives of which were Vincent Buckley, Ronald Simpson, Chris Wallace-Crabb, Ivan Jones, Noel McEins, Andrew Taylor. Representatives of this school preferred complex forms and intellectual allusions . Australian poetry at the beginning of the 21st century is represented by the work of Leslie Lebkowitz .

An Australian novel of the 20th century was influenced by the philosophical and literary movements of Europe and the USA. Important topics of the novels were a psychological description of the inner world of man, a study of the origins of Australian society. Typical of the 1920s was the novel by G. Richardson, “The Fate of Richard Mahoney,” in which interest in the past was combined with the theme of mental loneliness. Similar trends are noticeable in the works of other prose writers: M. Boyd, Brian Penton, Marjorie Bernard, Flora Aldershaw.

Socio-critical topics, in particular the topic of life in the suburbs , interested such novelists as Katharina Pritchard , Frank Dalby Davidson, Leonard Mann, Frank Hardy. Satirical coverage of social problems is characteristic of the works of H. Herbert, Sumner Lock Elliott, C. Mackenzie.

In 1973, the prose writer Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature . Close to him in the Australian context and style were the works of R. Shaw, Christopher Koch, Gail Porter.

Australian stories underwent a new heyday in the 40s of the 20th century. The Australian narrative of this period is characterized by the influence of the styles of James Joyce , Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos . Important to the development of the story genre were the annual anthologies From Coast to Coast , published by Waynes Palmer. The most important authors of the stories: Tia Astley, Murray Bale, Marjorie Bernard, Gavin Cassie, Peter Cowan, Frank Morgause, Waynes Palmer, Gail Porter, Christina Stead and others.

Independent Australian drama developed only in the modern era. Important theoretical and practical impulses to the development of drama were given by Louis Esson ( 1879 - 1943 ). Significant dramatists in Australia: Katharina Pritchard (formerly political drama), Wayne Palmer (Black Horse, 1924 ), Betty Roland, Henrietta Drake-Brockman, David Williams, Alexander Buzo, John Romeril, Dorothy Hewitt, Alain Seymour, Peter Kenna, Tom Hungerford, Thomas Shepcott.

On January 17, 2013, Google published a doodle celebrating the 136th birthday of the famous Australian children's writer May Gibbs (Cecilia May Gibbs, Jan 17, 1877–27 Nov. 1969). In the tales of Gibbs, the story is about the inhabitants of the Australian bush. https://www.svoboda.org/a/29308280.html

• Australian art

• The Australian Novel. A hictorical antology, Sidney, 1945.
• The Oxford Antology of Australian Literature / L. Kramer, A. Mitchell, Melbourne, 1985.
• Elliott BR The landscapr of Australian poetry, Melbourne, 1967.
• The Literature of Australia / G. Button, Ringwood, 1976.
• Green HM A history of Australian Literature, Sidney, 1984 (two volumes)
• The Oxford companion to Australian Literature, Melbourne, 1991.

• Australian Bush Poets Association
• Australian bush poetry
• Library of Australiana project page Project Gutenberg of Australia
• Bibliography of Australian Literature to 1954 - A History of Australian Literature until 1954 on Freeread
• Creative Lives: Personal Papers of Australian Writers and Artists (2009) - private archives of Australian writers
• «AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource» (2000) - - Site about the pro of Australian literature