(issued April 2006)
IVAN BARKO, Foreword
KENNETH R. DUTTON, The Wreck of the Adolphe
This article recounts the shipwreck in Newcastle Harbour of the Adolphe, that occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century, and its aftermath. Beyond the intrinsic interest of the event itself, the paper analyses the nature of the interaction between, on the one hand, the French group, victims of a regrettable accident brought about by a sudden change in the weather, and, on the other, the Newcastle community and the local authorities. The shipwreck of the Adolphe sheds new light on the dynamics of the relationship between the two nationalities, in this instance the “saved” and the “savers”.
Keywords: Adolphe, Newcastle Harbour shipwreck, Dennis Ruddell
JENNIFER GENION, The Classroom on the Other Side of the World: The Redemption Narrative in Nineteenth-Century French Popular Literature Set in Australia
Genion offers readers a foretaste of her thesis on aspects of nineteenth-century French fiction set in a half-real, half-imaginary Australia. The article focuses mainly on early nineteenth century popular novels and short stories with a moral lesson. These generally feature convicts and Aborigines. The penal-colony experience, representations of the Australian landscape (or rather the authors’ idea of the Australian landscape) and the missionary activity of the Catholic Church in the Pacific provide the backdrop to what Genion calls the “redemption narrative”. The travel account is always accompanied by a spiritual journey and the story ends with the moral rebirth and social rehabilitation of the fallen hero.
Keywords: Nineteenth century French fiction, Australian setting, redemption narrative, missionary, Catholic Church in the Pacific