A period in the shade
Patrick White, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973, has long been considered Australia’s finest novelist. And yet, the thirtieth anniversary of his death in 2020 passed by with barely a murmur. Was this merely a consequence of the pandemic, or are there larger cultural forces at play? In today's episode, historian and ABR Calibre prize-winning essayist Martin Thomas considers the posthumous neglect of the great Australian writer, who once described himself as a ‘Londoner at heart’ and who continues to challenge jingoistic and complacent forms of nationalism.
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Music credit: 'Moonrise' and 'Negentropy' by Chad Crouch is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
Comments (2)
I have written a presentation about him (bilingual: English and Romanian) last year for the Romanian literary magazine 'Leviathan', in Bucharest.
While researching material for the article, I was quite surprised by the indifference of the Australian literary establishment about this great writer.
I believe Thomas is broadly correct in his assessment(s). There might be one or two more points relating to why White is ignored.
But well done Martin Thomas for reminding us of Patrick White!!
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