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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

183923

Australianness in M. L. Skinner's exilic novels

Ipsita Sengupta

pp. 309-321

Abstract

M. L. Skinner (1876–1955), the almost anonymous Australian nurse and midwife who was serving at the Hindu Rao hospital in New Delhi when the First World War broke out, had her only brush with fame as writer in Antipodean literary circles when she accomplished a collaboration with D. H. Lawrence in the novel The Boy in the Bush (1924). In this chapter, Sengupta explores Skinner's alternative models of Australianness moored in intersections, cross-fertilizations, travel and translations, as explored in her novels Tucker Sees India (1937) and W. X. Corporal Smith (1941). Exile from successive homes and anchors had shaped Skinner's margins and texts. She transforms exile into a transformative exi(s)tential category that engages with plural possibilities of Australianness and exposes black holes in imagining the nation in Australian Literature.

Publication details

Published in:

Das Devaleena, Dasgupta Sanjukta (2017) Claiming space for Australian women's writing. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 309-321

Full citation:

Sengupta Ipsita (2017) „Australianness in M. L. Skinner's exilic novels“, In: D. Das & S. Dasgupta (eds.), Claiming space for Australian women's writing, Dordrecht, Springer, 309–321.