3A/B Literature

A Selection of Gwen Harwood's poems

language of "protection of women" could slip from a demand for more freedom into a retreat from freedom, to a kind of neo-Victorianism.

The language is feminist, but the result can be deeply patriarchal, as in this novel

Without some sense of the varying agendas of mid-20th-century feminists and the debates among those agendas this novel will not make much sense. Women who participated in the movement from the late sixties and early seventies responded to this novel strongly, often finding it extremely alarming. Younger women lacking the same background often found it baffling. Ask yourself as you read not whether events such as it depict s are likely to take place, but whether the attitudes and values it conveys are present in today's society.

the majority of her poems are written in tetrameter or trimeter as she saw iambic pentameter as monotonous.

She began writing poetry in 1950. In this time, Australia was predominantly white and middle class

How does Gwen Harwood define the female subject of "Suburban Sonnet: Boxing Day?" Can you suggest any reasons for the choice of the sonnet form?

The patriarchy of the society within the context of which poet Gwen Harwood constructed her poetry, is observed, sometimes criticized and often challenged in the collection of poems found in the text 'Gwen Harwood, Selected Poems'. The representation of the images of men, women and gender differences to which a society consciously or unconsciously subscribes are captured through her writings.

Androgyny

Student Blogs Aidan Craig Dale Deven Evan Josh M Joshua P JoshuaB Liam Mitchell Ryan Sam H Sam P Travis Trent

In essence, white Australians attempted to deal with the “Native Question” by systematically destroying the cultural identity of the Nyoongah peoples, first by using violent action to subdue Aboriginal rebellion and then by absorbing Aboriginal children into white culture or marginalizing Aboriginal families on isolated settlements.

It is also clear that A. O. Neville, the Chief Protector of Aborigines, does not protect the Nyoongah peoples, but rather encourages their absorption and marginalization.

Joe Millimurra reads aloud an article from an Anglo-Australian newspaper, which recounts a celebration for the first white settlers in Australia who faced dangers “in the shape of three lorries…carrying Aborigines.”