Double Trouble: The Teacher/Satirist Duality in Thea Astley’s Critical Writings

Article


Cantrell, Kate and Hawkes, Lesley. 2019. "Double Trouble: The Teacher/Satirist Duality in Thea Astley’s Critical Writings." Queensland Review. 26 (2), pp. 218-231. https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2019.28
Article Title

Double Trouble: The Teacher/Satirist Duality in Thea Astley’s Critical Writings

ERA Journal ID36905
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsCantrell, Kate (Author) and Hawkes, Lesley (Author)
Journal TitleQueensland Review
Journal Citation26 (2), pp. 218-231
Number of Pages14
Year2019
PublisherEquinox Publishing
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
ISSN1321-8166
2049-7792
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2019.28
Web Address (URL)https://journal.equinoxpub.com/QRE/article/view/21622
Abstract

Over a fifty-year period, from 1944 to 1994, Thea Astley published a number of critical writings, including essays, newspaper articles and reviews, and short reflections and meditations on her craft. Despite a renewed interest in Astley’s work, however, most critical interrogations of her oeuvre focus on her novels, and more recently her poetry. As a result, Astley’s critical writing has not been afforded the same breadth and depth of investigation as her fiction. This lacuna is troubling, since Astley’s critical works are important not only for their insight, but for what they reveal about Astley’s self-representation, and in particular the dual identity that she embodied as both a teacher and a satirist. This article argues that these dual roles emerge clearly in Astley’s essays and in fact are inextricable from many of her works. Further, the tensions between these two personae — Astley as teacher and Astley as satirist — reveal natural overlaps with her imaginative writing, and reflect her changing ideas about fiction writing, literature, and education.

KeywordsAustralian writing, Australian Literature, Thea Astley, Queensland
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020360201. Creative writing (incl. scriptwriting)
470502. Australian literature (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature)
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Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions.

Byline AffiliationsSchool of Humanities and Communication
Queensland University of Technology
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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