Place, history and story : Tony Birch and the Yarra River

Journal article


Masel, Carolyn and Ryan, Matthew. (2016). Place, history and story : Tony Birch and the Yarra River. Australian Literary Studies. 31(2), pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.20314/als.00776e89d0
AuthorsMasel, Carolyn and Ryan, Matthew
Abstract

This essay examines the three Yarra River stories in Tony Birch’s short fiction collections. ‘The Sea of Tranquillity’ ‘The Chocolate Empire’ and ‘The Toecutters’ all question the historical inscription of the Yarra that favours the culturally dominant account by placing it in relation to alternative stories. The torsion engendered by this questioning is apparent in the stories themselves. They are simultaneously discussions of class-based social exclusion and counter-stories of settlement; settled places are re-inscribed with meanings and histories obscured by the dominant account of ‘settlement’, which it thus critiques. The structure of the contemporary short story, to reveal a truth buried under the mundane details of life, aids Birch’s purpose. The form enacts a propensity to doubling, twinning and contrasting the familiar and the strange, or being at once in the dominant reality of the settler-colonial culture and, by social imposition, in the situation of the other. Hence, Birch’s stories open into narratives drawn from a number of socially marginalised groups, according to class, gender, geography or age. In Birch’s own account of his disillusionment with the institutionally-based academic writing of the post-history wars environment he speaks of embarking on an alternative project to ‘put meat on the bones of history’, a project which involves turning from the Historian’s history to ‘the way that fiction deals with the past and its role in documenting history’: to bring history and story together (‘Trouble’ 235, 241). This essay traces that process in the three Yarra stories.

Year2016
JournalAustralian Literary Studies
Journal citation31 (2), pp. 1-16
PublisherAustralian National University
ISSN1837-6479
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.20314/als.00776e89d0
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85049645812
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range1-16
Research GroupSchool of Arts
Publisher's version
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online05 May 2016
Permalink -

https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/88672/place-history-and-story-tony-birch-and-the-yarra-river

Restricted files

Publisher's version

  • 242
    total views
  • 1
    total downloads
  • 4
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month
These values are for the period from 19th October 2020, when this repository was created.

Export as

Related outputs

Uses for ruins : Anne Enright’s The Green Road
Ryan, Matthew. (2021). Uses for ruins : Anne Enright’s The Green Road. Textual Practice. 35(1), pp. 23-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2019.1652678
Moorings
Masel, Carolyn. (2019). Moorings Ginninderra Press.
Students' perspectives of early assessment tasks in their first year at university
Thomas, Theda, Jacobs, Diane, Hurley, Laurine, Martin, Jenny, Maslyuk, Svetlana, Lyall, Mark and Ryan, Matthew. (2019). Students' perspectives of early assessment tasks in their first year at university. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. 44(3), pp. 398-414. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1513992
Ingredients for a hero: warrior daughter
Masel, Carolyn. (2018). Ingredients for a hero: warrior daughter. In In L. Jackson (Ed.). Janet Paisley: Growing and Dying pp. 41 - 48 Sea Horse Publications.
A book of hours
Masel, Carolyn. (2017). A book of hours.
Popular culture: Pessimism and hope
Ryan, Matthew David. (2016). Popular culture: Pessimism and hope. In In J. Hinkson, P. James and A. Cadick, M. Hinkson, S. Cooper & D. Tout (Ed.). Cold War to Hot Planet: Fifty Years of Arena pp. 120 - 136 Arena Publications Association.
W.B. Yeats's poetry of violence
Masel, Carolyn. (2016). W.B. Yeats's poetry of violence. In In D. J. Foley (Ed.). Yeats 150: William Butler Yeats 1865-1939 pp. 290 - 300 The Lilliput Press.
Closure, completion and memory in Harland's half acre : Phil's story
Masel, Carolyn. (2014). Closure, completion and memory in Harland's half acre : Phil's story. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. 14(2), pp. 1 - 10.
Want to go down and see if the Lake's still there?': Custom and Resistance in Alice Munro's Dance of the Happy Shades
Masel, Carolyn. (2014). Want to go down and see if the Lake's still there?': Custom and Resistance in Alice Munro's Dance of the Happy Shades. Etudes Canadiennes / Canadian Studies.
"Aphasia, Exile, Outlawry", "Spring in Melbourne with Doves", "Aerial Footage"
Masel, Carolyn. (2013). "Aphasia, Exile, Outlawry", "Spring in Melbourne with Doves", "Aerial Footage"
Art, utopia and the aestheticized self
Ryan, Matthew. (2013). Art, utopia and the aestheticized self. Arena. 39/40, pp. 253 - 270.
What am I like? Writing the body and the self
Ryan, Matthew. (2011). What am I like? Writing the body and the self. In In C.Bracken and S.Cahill (Ed.). pp. 165 - 184 Irish Academic Press.
Five seasons (Melbourne)
Masel, Carolyn. (2011). Five seasons (Melbourne)
Five seasons (Melbourne)
Masel, Carolyn. (2011). Five seasons (Melbourne)
Wandering the dream city: Memory, self and the world in golden builders and other poems
Masel, Carolyn. (2010). Wandering the dream city: Memory, self and the world in golden builders and other poems. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature.
Teaching 'Dorothy's Skin'
Masel, Carolyn. (2010). Teaching 'Dorothy's Skin'. In In N. Riseman, S. Rechter and E. Warne (Ed.). Learning, teaching and social justice in higher education pp. 161 - 176 University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre....
Hope is critical : Cormac McCarthy's The Road
Ryan, Matthew. (2008). Hope is critical : Cormac McCarthy's The Road. In Demanding the Impossible: Utopia and Dystopia pp. 151-162 Arena Publications Association.
Abstract homes : Deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation in the work of Colm Toibin
Ryan, Matthew. (2008). Abstract homes : Deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation in the work of Colm Toibin. Irish Studies Review. 16, pp. 19 - 32.
Solipsism as cultural condition : Some recent Irish Examples
Ryan, Matthew. (2006). Solipsism as cultural condition : Some recent Irish Examples. Arena Journal. 27, pp. 159 - 191.
Keener sounds: Stevens, intimacy, and gender politics
Masel, Carolyn. (2006). Keener sounds: Stevens, intimacy, and gender politics. Wallace Stevens Journal. 30(2), pp. 159 - 170.
Vanguards and avant-gardes : The reason in revolt online project on political and cultural radicalism
Booth, Simon, Burgmann, Verity, Macintyre, Stuart, Milner, Andrew and Ryan, Matthew. (2005). Vanguards and avant-gardes : The reason in revolt online project on political and cultural radicalism. Annual Labour History Conference. Australia: Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and the Business and Labour History Group, University of Sydney. pp. 29 - 36
Melting moments: The empathic self in 'the trick is to keep breathing'
Masel, Carolyn. (2004). Melting moments: The empathic self in 'the trick is to keep breathing'. In In L. Jackson (Ed.). Exchanges: Reading Janice Galloway's Fictions pp. 21 - 41 Edinburgh University Press.
Horace Traubel and J.W. Wallace: Beyond absence
Masel, Carolyn. (2004). Horace Traubel and J.W. Wallace: Beyond absence. The Mickle Street Review: An Electronic Journal of Whitman and American Studies. 16, pp. 1 - 13.
Poet of comrades: Walt Whitman and the Bolton Whitman Fellowship
Masel, Carolyn. (2002). Poet of comrades: Walt Whitman and the Bolton Whitman Fellowship. In In J. Beer and B. Bennett (Ed.). pp. 110 - 138 Manchester United Press.
Receding shores that never touch with inarticulate pang': Stevens and the language of touch
Masel, Carolyn. (2002). Receding shores that never touch with inarticulate pang': Stevens and the language of touch. Wallace Stevens Journal. 26(1), pp. 22 - 40.
Introduction to the Walt Whitman Collection in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester
Masel, Carolyn. (2002). Introduction to the Walt Whitman Collection in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. In British Association of American Studies(BAAS)/Microform Academic Publishers.