The Wild Reciter

Poetry and Popular Culture in Australia 1890-2020

Peter Kirkpatrick
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The Wild Reciter

Published

3 December 2024

ISBN

9780522880298

Pages

256

Imprint

Melbourne University Press

The Wild Reciter

Poetry and Popular Culture in Australia 1890-2020

Peter Kirkpatrick
How Australian poetry has evolved throughout time
Just over a century ago poetry was all the rage in Australia. Newspapers and magazines published it, entertainers and elocutionists performed it on stages across the country, and ordinary Australians recited it in schools, local halls and suburban parlours. Yet this communal experience of poetry has now largely disappeared. In The Wild Reciter Peter Kirkpatrick examines how this change occurred by exploring the shifting relationships between poetry and popular culture, and in particular the arrival of new media, taking the reader from 'penny readings' and vaudeville to slam and Instapoetry Many extraordinary yet wholly forgotten works are brought to light, while some well-known poems and their authors receive a critical makeover. 'The Man from Snowy River' encounters the Wild West; Lesbia Harford turns singer-songwriter; Kenneth Slessor finds his groove; Yevgeny Yevtushenko blows up the Adelaide Festival; rock music inspires both John Laws and the Generation of '68; Dorothy Porter resorts…
Just over a century ago poetry was all the rage in Australia. Newspapers and magazines published it, entertainers and elocutionists performed it on stages across the country, and ordinary Australians recited it in schools, local halls and suburban parlours. Yet this communal experience of poetry has now largely disappeared. In The Wild Reciter Peter Kirkpatrick examines how this change occurred by exploring the shifting relationships between poetry and popular culture, and in particular the arrival of new media, taking the reader from 'penny readings' and vaudeville to slam and Instapoetry. Many extraordinary yet wholly forgotten works are brought to light, while some well-known poems and their authors receive a critical makeover. 'The Man from Snowy River' encounters the Wild West; Lesbia Harford turns singer-songwriter; Kenneth Slessor finds his groove; Yevgeny Yevtushenko blows up the Adelaide Festival; rock music inspires both John Laws and the Generation of '68; Dorothy Porter resorts to crime fiction; and Clive James abandons media fame for poetic glory. This pioneering study reimagines the history of Australian verse to arrive at a more expansive notion of poetry.

Kirkpatrick is robust in his research, detailing the form’s many transformations alongside colonial Australia’s maturation with clarity and inquisitiveness. The Wild Reciter is an expansive exploration of both Australian poetry and recent history and should appeal to a broad audience.”
Books+Publishing

Kirkpatrick wears his learning lightly. This is an accessible book, not weighed down by esoteric pretensions or academic posturings...Despite all the progress and inroads to the contrary, poetry on the whole, still carries page-bound, elite connotations, but this book breaks open this conceit and explores its intermingling with popular culture.”
ArtsHub

Peter Kirkpatrick

Peter Kirkpatrick

Peter Kirkpatrick has published widely in Australian literary studies and cultural history, and is an honorary associate professor in the discipline of English and Writing at the University of Sydney. He is the author of three poetry collections.

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Paperback
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Other formats available