Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Indigenous texts and narratives
- 2 Colonial writers and readers
- 3 Poetry from the 1890s to 1970
- 4 Fiction from 1900 to 1970
- 5 Theatre from 1788 to the 1960s
- 6 Contemporary poetry
- 7 New narrations
- 8 New stages
- 9 From biography to autobiography
- 10 Critics, writers, intellectuals
- Further reading
- Index
6 - Contemporary poetry
across party lines
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Indigenous texts and narratives
- 2 Colonial writers and readers
- 3 Poetry from the 1890s to 1970
- 4 Fiction from 1900 to 1970
- 5 Theatre from 1788 to the 1960s
- 6 Contemporary poetry
- 7 New narrations
- 8 New stages
- 9 From biography to autobiography
- 10 Critics, writers, intellectuals
- Further reading
- Index
Summary
Contemporary Australian poetry has often been viewed in terms of factionalism (in which revolutionary forces opposed reactionary ones), followed by a period of pluralism. This model relies on secondary oppositions: internationalist/nationalist; experimental/traditional; urban/rural; modernist/ anti-modernist; anti-formalist/formalist; political/non-political. The opposing positions are occupied by the young poets who appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, known as the “Generation of '68” (or, more generally, the New Australian Poetry), and an “establishment” or “humanist” wing made up of older figures (such as A.D. Hope) and younger writers (such as Les Murray and Robert Gray).
This literary history is relatively convincing, and poets have employed it themselves, but it does not always reflect the actual state of affairs. Oppositional models can also mask anxieties, such as whether contemporary poetry could be said to have a history, whether Australian poets fully engage in contemporary practices, and what constitutes Australian poetry. The '68ers were often the most vocal, but not the only, poets to question matters of style, subject matter, influence, audience and a national poetry, in response to the changing status of writing, technologies and markets with(in) which poets worked.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature , pp. 158 - 182Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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