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Radical nationalism and socialist realism in Alan Marshall's autobiographical writing

2012; Routledge; Volume: 36; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14443058.2012.673501

1835-6419

John McLaren,

Commonwealth, Australian Politics and Federalism

Abstract Alan Marshall's work has either been neglected or has been discussed in the context of its contribution to the Australian identity or as an example of Australian autobiography. This essay examines his early novel and his three directly autobiographical works to argue that he uses his studies of popular Australian values to develop a basis for an inclusive Australian democracy. The argument of the essay is that the socialist realist doctrines of the Realist Writers Group and his bush background influence his choice of voice and form, but that the politics of his work has been overlooked. This, as well as his reputation as a popular author, accounts for the unjust critical neglect of his work. Keywords: Alan Marshallradical nationalismpoliticsAustralialiterature Notes 1. Alan Marshall, How Beautiful Are Thy Feet (Melbourne: Gold Star 1972 [1949]) 1. 2. Russel Ward, The Australian Legend (Melbourne: OUP, 1958); Arthur Phillips, The Australian Tradition: Studies in a Colonial Culture (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1958). 3. John McLaren, Writing in Hope and Fear: Literature as Politics in Postwar Australia (Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: CUP, 1996); Free Radicals: of the Left in Postwar Melbourne (Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 1993). For a discussion of the confusion about defining socialist realism in Australia, see the essays in Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment, Paul Adams and Christopher Lee, eds. (Carlton North, Vic.: Vulgar Press, 2003). 4. See for example essays in Something Rich & Strange: Sea Changes, Beaches and the Littoral in the Antipodes, eds. Susan Hosking, Rick Hosking, Rebecca Pannel and Nena Bierbaum (Kent Town, SA: Wakefield Press, 2000). 5. Humphrey McQueen, A New Britannia, An Argument Concerning the Social Origins of Australian Radicalism and Nationalism (Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, 1970); Kay Schaffer, Women and the Bush: Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition (Cambridge: CUP. 1988). 6. Marshall, I Can Jump Puddles (Melbourne: FW Cheshire, 1955); This Is the Grass (Melbourne: FW Cheshire, 1962); In Mine Own Heart, (Melbourne: FW Cheshire, 1963). 7. McLaren, “Marshall, Alan,” in Australian Dictionary of Biography, forthcoming. 8. Marshall, in a talk attended by the author in Wangaratta, 1963. 9. Joanne McPherson, “Alan Marshall,” in Australian Writers 1915–1950, Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 260, ed. Selina Samuels (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson/Gale, 2002). 204–11. 10. John Colmer, Australian Autobiography: The Personal Quest (Melbourne: OUP, 1989), 16–31. 11. Bruce Bennett, Australian Short Fiction: A History (St Lucia, Q: UQP, 2002), 142. 12. Adrian Mitchell, “Fiction”, in The Oxford History of Australian Literature, ed. Leonie Kramer, (Melbourne: OUP, 1981), 129. 13. Stephen Torre, The Cambridge History of Australian Literature, ed. Peter Pierce (Melbourne: CUP, 2009), 423–4; see also 157, 178, 234, 364, 504, 523; The Oxford Literary History of Australia, eds. Bruce Bennett and Jennifer Strauss (Melbourne: OUP, 1998), 178. 14. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, 2nd edition, eds. William H. Wilde, Joy Hooton and Barry Andrews, (Melbourne: OUP 1994), 513. 15. John Morrison, “The Happy Warrior” in The Happy Warrior (Fairfield, Vic.: Pascoe Publishing), 47. 16. Morrison, “Happy Warrior,” 50. 17. Marshall, Hammers over the Anvil (West Melbourne: Nelson, 1975). 18. Morrison, “Happy Warrior,” 46–7. 19. Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narrative, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010), 20. 20. McLaren, “Marshall, Alan,” Australian Dictionary of Biography. 21. See for example “Editorial,” Overland, 14 (1959), 19–20; Frank Hardy, “My Problems of Writing,” republished in Authority and Influence: Australian Literary Criticism 1950–2000, eds. Delys Bird, Robert Dixon and Christopher Lee, (St Lucia, Q.: UQP, 2001), 15–17; initial rejection of Patrick White, discussed by McLaren in Writing in Hope and Fear, 172–77. 22. Frank Hardy, Power Without Glory (Melbourne, the author, 1950). 23. John Morrison discusses the factual origins of his fictions in Australian by Choice (Adelaide: Rigby, 1973) 157–63. 24. Marshall, I Can Jump Puddles, 1, 17. 25. Marshall, I Can Jump Puddles, 137. 26. Marshall, I Can Jump Puddles, 184–5. 27. Marcus Clarke, “Adam Lindsay Gordon”, in Marcus Clarke, ed. Michael Wilding (St Lucia, Q: Portable Australian Authors, UQP, 1976), 645. 28. Marshall, This is the Grass, 154. 29. Smith and Watson, Appendix A, 183–207. 30. Marshall, How Beautiful Are Thy Feet, 11–13. 31. Marshall, How Beautiful Are Thy Feet, 105–6. 32. Marshall, I Can Jump Puddles, opposite Reverse Title Page, no pagination. 33. Marshall, I Can Jump Puddles, 5, 157–8, 187–8, 40–7. 34. Marshall, I Can Jump Puddles, 152, 168, 187–8, 191–2, 126, 35. Marshall, This Is the Grass, 5. 36. Marshall, This is the Grass, 95, 114, 122–3. 37. Marshall, This Is the Grass, 139–49; special constables, 143. 38. Marshall, This Is the Grass, 143. 39. Marshall, This Is the Grass, 139. 40. Marshall, In Mine Own Heart, 4. 41. Marshall, In Mine Own Heart, 15. 42. Marshall, In Mine Own Heart, 86–87. 43. Marshall, In Mine Own Heart, 48 44. Marshall, In Mine Own Heart, 49. 45. Marshall, This Is the Grass, 213. 46. Marshall, Heart, p. 97. Compare his remark in the same book that as a writer he has to “play the game,” not watch from the grandstand: 4, and in This Is the Grass, 213. 47. Marshall, In Mine Own Heart, 92–9. 48. David Potts, The Myth of the Great Depression (Melbourne: Scribe, 2006), 47–8. 49. Julie Kimber, “‘They didn't want you to work, you see’: Inequality and blame in the Great Depression”, in Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past Since 1788, eds. Deborah Gare and David Ritter (Melbourne: Thompson, 2008), 367–74. 50. Roland Barthes, “Myth Today”, Selected Writings, ed. Susan Sontag, (London, Fontana/Collins, 1983) 116–17. 51. Marshall, This Is the Grass, 155. 52. Vincent Buckley, Collected Poems (Elwood, Vic: John Leonard Press, 2009), 152–218. 53. Marshall, This Is the Grass, 160–1. 54. Marshall, This Is the Grass, 160–1, 209. 55. Marshall, In Mine Own Heart, 242. 56. Donald Sassoon, One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century (London: Fontana/Collins, 1996), 6.