Shirley Hazzard

Shirley Hazzard: New Critical Essays is the first collection of scholarly essays on the work of the acclaimed Australian-born, New York-based author. In the course of the last half century, Hazzard’s writing has crossed and re-crossed the terrain of love, war, beauty, politics and ethics.

Hazzard’s oeuvre effortlessly reflects and represents the author's life and times, encapsulating the prominent feelings, anxieties and questions of the second half of the 20th century. It is these qualities, along with Hazzard’s lyrical style that place her among the most noteworthy Australian writers of the 20th century.

Hazzard’s work has been duly praised and admired by many including the critic Bryan Appleyard who describes her as ‘the greatest living writer on goodness and love’. In 2011, novelist Richard Ford observed: ‘If there has to be one best writer working in English today it’s Shirley Hazzard.’

Brigitta Olubas is an associate professor of English at the University of New South Wales.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Brigitta Olubas

Part 1: between short fiction and the novel
1. Future anterior: The Evening of the Holiday by John Frow
2. ‘This intricate lasting nature’: passage, pastoral elegy and the pedagogy of loss in The Evening of the Holiday by Fiona Morrison

Part 2: Naples and The Bay of Noon
3. Another journey to Italy: The Bay of Noon by Lucy Dougan
4. ‘No-one had thought of looking close to home’: reading the province in The Bay of Noon by Bridget Rooney
5. ‘Naples is a leap’: time, space and consciousness in Shirley Hazzard’s Naples by Sharon Ouditt

Part 3: The Transit of Venus
6. Glasses and speculations: on Hazzard’s transits by Gail Jones
7. Returning to the scene of the crime: on re-reading The Transit of Venus by Robert Dixon

Part 4: writing at the mid-century
8. The mid-century method of The Great Fire by Claire Seiler
9. Does idealism preclude heroism? Shirley Hazzard’s United Nations writings by Nicholas Birns

Part 5: biography
10. The transit of Shirley Hazzard by Jan McGuinness
11. Meeting Shirley Hazzard by Martin Stannard

Index

“Olubas has brought together a number of critical essays on Hazzard’s fiction with two biographical pieces. Her intention is to expand the critical conversation on this important writer … invaluable for readers and critics who want to explore the power and subtlety of Hazzard’s fiction.”
Susan Sheridan   Transnational Literature

‘the uniqueness of this collection is made all the more surprising by the depth and richness each essay finds in Hazzard’s writing. There is, as Olubas makes clear in her introduction, much to be considered in the wide-reaching body of work Hazzard has given us.’
Catherine Noske   JASAL

‘a vibrant gathering of critics, discussing Hazzard’s writing with infectious engagement. This book is a great professional achievement for the publisher at a time when we need to consolidate our understanding of established writers, who risk slipping from critical view as we attend to the new.’
Brenda Walker   Australian Book Review

Format: paperback
Size: 250 × 176 × 12 mm
166 pages
3 b&w illustrations
Copyright: © 2014
ISBN: 9781743324103
Publication: 29 Oct 2014
Series: Sydney Studies in Australian Literature