Explorations – No 47 Dec 2009

JANA VERHOEVEN, Foreword

FABRICE DAUCHEZ & JACQUELINE DUTTON, Ambiguous Australian Stereotypes in French Literature: The Case of Nullarbor by David Fauquemberg

The authors investigate the use and significance of stereotypes in David Fauquemberg’s Nullarbor. Dauchez and Dutton situate this recently published book in the tradition of French travel writing about the antipodes and examine how Fauquemberg negotiates the conflicting tendencies between exotic stereotypes on the one hand and authentic, original observation and narration on the other in his representations of Australia and its people.

Keywords: travel writing, Percy G. Adams, Travelers and Travel Liars, indigenous Australians, exoticism, stereotyping, landscape

CHLOE PATTON, ‘New Piety’ and Women’s Agency: A Critique of Bronwyn Winter’s Atheist Feminism

An exploration of the issue of the religiosity of young Muslim women in Western societies and their capacity to make free and autonomous choices. The article discusses Hijab and the Republic: Uncovering the French Headscarf by Australian feminist Bronwyn Winter. Placing Winter’s book in the context of recent scholarship on the topic, particularly of anthropological studies on the so-called ‘new piety’, Patton argues that feminist scholars need to pay closer attention to the agency of young women who wear the hijab.

Keywords: human rights, racism, secularism, hijab, freedom of conscience, oppression of women, women’s agency

WILLIAM LAND, Correcting the Record: The Founding of the Lapérouse Museum in Sydney

The author is President of the Friends of the Lapérouse Museum Association. He argues that the recent NSW government publication Challenges in the Landscape overlooks the role played by the French government, the French-Australian business and artistic community and the Lapérouse Association for the Australian Bicentenary in the creation of the Lapérouse Museum in Sydney.

Keywords: Lapérouse Museum, Sydney, Pierre Roussel, Dr Anne-Marie Nisbet

LAURENCE MOREUX, Discourse at the ‘LC Salon’: French and Australian Conversational Styles—A Study in Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings

The author gives an account of a recent meeting organised by the ‘LC Salons Association’ in Sydney where the language researcher Kerry Mullan and the author of Almost French Sarah Turnbull led a discussion on the cultural differences between Australian and French ways of communicating.

Keywords: Lycée Condorcet International French School in Sydney, Sophie Boland, Kerry MUllan, Sarah Tunrbull, Christophe Hoareau

LIA HILLS, Marie Darrieussecq in Melbourne

Lia Hills is the translator of Marie Darrieussecq’s latest novel, Breathing Underwater. She gives a brief account of Darrieussecq’s participation in the 2009 Melbourne Writers’ Festival.

Keywords: Marie Darrieussecq, Melbourne Writers’ Festival 2009

BOOK REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTES

Jean-François Vernay, Panorama du roman australien des origines à nos jours, reviewed by Maurice Blackman

Xavier Pons Messengers of Eros: Representations of Sex in Australian Writing, reviewed by Hélène Jaccomard

La cuisinière républicaine, Paris, Mérigot jeune, An III [1794-1795]. Reprinted Luzarches, Morcrette, with a short historical essay by Daniel Morcrette, 1976, reviewed by Juliet Flesch

Colin Dyer, The French Explorers and Sydney, reviewed by Margaret Sankey

Charles Sowerwine, France since 1870: Culture, Society and the Making of the Republic, reviewed by Robert Aldrich

Ann Galbally, A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent Van Gogh and John Peter Russell, reviewed by Patricia Clancy

Book Notes, by Elaine Lewis
Aileen La Tourette, Late Connections
Pierre Grundmann, L’instinct de la tueuse

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

Explorations No 3 – Jul 1986

WALLACE KIRSOP, Foreword

ROBERT TRUMBLE, Vincent d’Indy – musicien français – an account of a significant French/Australian link

This article sketches the career of composer Vincent d’Indy, a pupil of César Franck, and his undeserved eclipse since his death in 1931. The Australian connection was first established by Bernard Heinze, later Sir Bernard, when, at the end of the first World War, he enrolled in Vincent d’Indy’s Schola Cantorum in Paris, and it was nurtured by Louise Dyer, the founder of Éditions l’Oiseau-Lyre. The author describes his own efforts to promote Vincent d’Indy’s music and memory, and his association with Guy de Lioncourt, d’Indy’s nephew and successor at Schola Cantorum.

Keywords: Vincent d’Indy, César Franck, Sir Bernard Heinze, Louise, Dyer, Schola Cantorum, Guy de Lioncourt

DIANNE REILLY, Melbourne through French Eyes: Antoine Fauchery

The author describes Fauchery’s early life in Paris, his vocation as a writer and friendships with other writers and celebrities, and then his first period in Victoria from 1852-1856. It draws on his account of his time in Australia, Lettres d’un mineur en Australie, which was published in serial form in a Paris newspaper in 1857. It refers also to his unsuccessful commercial venture, the establishment of a Café Estaminet Français in Melbourne.

Keywords: Antoine Fauchery, 1850s gold rush, Ballarat, Nadar, Banville, Baudelaire, A.R. Chisholm, Eureka Stockade

JACQUES H. POLLET DE SAINT-FERJEUX, Paul Merruau’s Les convicts en Australie (Paris, Hachette, 1853)

This “fictional travel book” written for the Bibliothèque des Chemins de fer by an author who never visited Australia alternates between philosophical reflections on punishment and second-hand descriptions of the country. The author of the article claims that, despite these contradictions and flaws, Merruau’s talent as a journalist, his ability to evoke an atmosphere and the quality of his mind make this book worth reading.

Keywords: convicts, Sydney, travel writing, Paul Merruau, Les convicts en Australie

MILES LEWIS, The French Disconnection

In this detailed study of French influences in pre-World War 1 Australian architecture, the author distinguishes between stylistic features of French origin and building techniques and materials originating in France. Examples of both are given.

Keywords: pise de terre, Marseilles tiles, reinforced concrete, mansard roof, wallpapers, Viollet-le-Duc

CAROL SANDERS, France in Australia and the Pacific

A brief presentation of an Australian National University project aimed at developing teaching and more specifically reading comprehension materials focussed on France in the Pacific and in Australia.

Keywords: Australian National University, production of language-teaching units, France in Australia and the Pacific

COLIN NETTELBECK, In and out tune: an Improvisation

This is the text of a talk with musical illustrations delivered at the colloquium on the “France –Victoria Connection” held in 1985. The author tells the story of his discovery of France and French culture, and, more broadly, of the world and of ideas, through French songs. The written version of these light-hearted and ironic reminiscences requires readers to be familiar with the songs cited.

B. LEDUN, Closing Remarks