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y separately published work icon Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective selected work   poetry  
Issue Details: First known date: 2002... 2002 Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This is the first publication of Michael Dransfield selected poems, gathered from every book in his relatively considerable output. They were chosen by poet and critic John Kinsella, whose lively Introduction positions this indelible Australian poet at an international level.

'Always controversial, poet Michael Dransfield's life story has tended to obscure his talent and achievement. Tales of drugs, sexual ambiguity and mythical and ancestral kingdoms have become iconic in the story of Michael Dransfield. However, he was much more. Visionary, poet-ecologist, minstrel, a writer of remarkable dexterity and versatility, he published four collections in three years and another three appeared after his death at 24. While never simply a young poet of his age - the late 60s and early 70s - he was connected to the popular culture of his time and place. He intended to change the world, and believed in the power of his own voice. Linguistically innovative and ahead of his time in so many ways, he also looked back. He was undoubtedly one of the great poets writing in English in his era, whose resonances are increasingly pertinent. Dransfield links the innovations of late twentieth-century Australian poetry with that revolutionary implosion of Ern Malley.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Exhibitions

Notes

  • Epigraph: 'I'm the ghost haunting an old house, my poems are posthumous.' - Michael Dransfield, 1969

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 2002 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Chopin Balladei"Upon the yellow lattice of parchment", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 1)
On a Theme of Taktakishvilii"Glimpsed among the birches", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 2)
Pas de Deux for Loversi"Morning ought not", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 3)
Portrait of the Artist as an Old Mani"In my father's house are many cobwebs.", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 4)
Epidermi"Canopy of nerve ends", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 5)
Death of Salvatore Quasimodoi"Scattered symbols in the garden;", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 6)
Goliardi"Going south", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 7)
Overdosei"Inertia of a warm day: the", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 8)
Lamentationsi"Reduced to nerve-end symbols", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 9-10)
Parnassus Mad Wardi"First day she hid in bed", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 11)
Bum's Rushi"Becoming an eskimo isn't hard once you must.", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 12-13)
Note: Epigraph: 'Yea, is not even Apollo, with hair and harpstring of gold A bitter God to follow, a beautiful God to behold." - Swinburne
Fixi"It is waking in the night,", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 14)
Ground Zeroi"wake up", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 15)
Souvenir of Casinoi"Genesis, a riverbank under the sun, waking to time;", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 16)
Courland Penders : Going Homei"At the end of the road are stone posts, two either side of", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 17)
Tapestry at Courland Pendersi"Tentacles of rose scratch the sides of afternoon", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 18)
Minstreli"The road unravels as I go,", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 19)
Like This for Yearsi"In the cold weather", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 20)
Birthday Ballad, Courland Pendersi"walking through endless", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 21-22)
Hilaryi"you are sitting in a tree", Michael Dransfield , single work poetry (p. 23)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Rereadings VII : Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective, Edited by John Kinsella Martin Duwell , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , no. 18 2023;

— Review of Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective Michael Dransfield , 2002 selected work poetry

'In just over one hundred days it will be fifty years since Michael Dransfield’s death in 1973. A half a century, as I have observed elsewhere, is a very long time in literature, especially modern literature and especially modern poetry whose history – influenced at least partly by the accessibility of poetry from what were, in the past, unavailable cultures and languages – is inclined to develop at breakneck speed. With a nice harmony, it is twenty years since the publication of this retrospective edited by John Kinsella which, itself, appeared after the two major contributions to understanding Dransfield’s life and work: Livio Dobrez’s Parnassus Mad Ward: Michael Dransfield and the New Australian Poetry (1990) and Patricia Dobrez’s biography of 1999.' (Introduction)

An “Infinitely Flexible” Space : Reading Michael Dransfield’s “Courland Penders” Poems through the Neobaroque and Dobrez’s Theory of “The Pouch” Michael Farrell , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 73 no. 1 2013; (p. 138-154)

This essay 'seeks to find new ways to address Australian poetry, through the example of Michael Dransfield, a controversially significant poet.' (139)

Identity as Radical Alterity : Critiques of Eurocentrism, Coloniality, and Subjectivity in Contemporary Australian and Latin American Poetry Bridie McCarthy , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 24 no. 2 2010; (p. 189-197)

'How to 'abandon Europe'? The oxymoronic quest to semantically or ideologically discard the signs of that which signifies modern thought and historical rationality in Europe's colonies is dismissed by Rama as futile. However, when the postcolonial relations of 'peripheries' to the European 'center' are examined the engagements between t he colonies and Europe are not characterized by straightforwardness either. While complete abandonment may not be possible, neither is complete affiliation. As such, postcoloniality can still be seen as a luminal state in its ambivalent positioning between what might be seen as originary Europe and a derivative periphery.

This article takes the periphery as a transnational, multilingual space, and it takes postcoloniality beyond the Anglosphere. It tests the hypothesis that there are postcolonial legacies shared across the Global South. Of central importance here is how postcoloniality is understood in Australia and Latin America, and how this is communicated in contemporary poetry pensamiento latinoamericano ['Latin American thought'].' (p. 189)

Jack Lindsay, Patrick White, and Postcolonial Medievalism Nicholas Birns , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Issues in Australian Literature 2010; (p. 41-54)
Posthumous Poet Philip Harvey , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 249 2003; (p. 54)

— Review of Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective Michael Dransfield , 2002 selected work poetry
[Review] Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective Tim Metcalf , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , no. 73 2002; (p. 194-195) JAS Review of Books , August no. 8 2002;

— Review of Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective Michael Dransfield , 2002 selected work poetry
Fair Selection of Michael Dransfield's Poems Geoff Page , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 8 February 2003; (p. 17)

— Review of Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective Michael Dransfield , 2002 selected work poetry
Posthumous Poet Philip Harvey , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 249 2003; (p. 54)

— Review of Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective Michael Dransfield , 2002 selected work poetry
Words and Human Heads : New Poetry Kerry Leves , 2002 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 169 2002; (p. 156-160)

— Review of Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective Michael Dransfield , 2002 selected work poetry ; Wild about the Roof : Wollongong Poetry Workshop Anthology 2001 2001 anthology poetry ; Book David Kelly , 2000 selected work poetry ; Isabella Winifred Weir , 2000 single work novel ; Darkness Disguised Greg McLaren , 2002 selected work poetry ; Attempts at Being Alison Croggon , 2002 selected work poetry
Rereadings VII : Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective, Edited by John Kinsella Martin Duwell , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Poetry Review , no. 18 2023;

— Review of Michael Dransfield : A Retrospective Michael Dransfield , 2002 selected work poetry

'In just over one hundred days it will be fifty years since Michael Dransfield’s death in 1973. A half a century, as I have observed elsewhere, is a very long time in literature, especially modern literature and especially modern poetry whose history – influenced at least partly by the accessibility of poetry from what were, in the past, unavailable cultures and languages – is inclined to develop at breakneck speed. With a nice harmony, it is twenty years since the publication of this retrospective edited by John Kinsella which, itself, appeared after the two major contributions to understanding Dransfield’s life and work: Livio Dobrez’s Parnassus Mad Ward: Michael Dransfield and the New Australian Poetry (1990) and Patricia Dobrez’s biography of 1999.' (Introduction)

Jack Lindsay, Patrick White, and Postcolonial Medievalism Nicholas Birns , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Issues in Australian Literature 2010; (p. 41-54)
Identity as Radical Alterity : Critiques of Eurocentrism, Coloniality, and Subjectivity in Contemporary Australian and Latin American Poetry Bridie McCarthy , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 24 no. 2 2010; (p. 189-197)

'How to 'abandon Europe'? The oxymoronic quest to semantically or ideologically discard the signs of that which signifies modern thought and historical rationality in Europe's colonies is dismissed by Rama as futile. However, when the postcolonial relations of 'peripheries' to the European 'center' are examined the engagements between t he colonies and Europe are not characterized by straightforwardness either. While complete abandonment may not be possible, neither is complete affiliation. As such, postcoloniality can still be seen as a luminal state in its ambivalent positioning between what might be seen as originary Europe and a derivative periphery.

This article takes the periphery as a transnational, multilingual space, and it takes postcoloniality beyond the Anglosphere. It tests the hypothesis that there are postcolonial legacies shared across the Global South. Of central importance here is how postcoloniality is understood in Australia and Latin America, and how this is communicated in contemporary poetry pensamiento latinoamericano ['Latin American thought'].' (p. 189)

An “Infinitely Flexible” Space : Reading Michael Dransfield’s “Courland Penders” Poems through the Neobaroque and Dobrez’s Theory of “The Pouch” Michael Farrell , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 73 no. 1 2013; (p. 138-154)

This essay 'seeks to find new ways to address Australian poetry, through the example of Michael Dransfield, a controversially significant poet.' (139)

Last amended 15 May 2024 11:38:08
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