“Deep Hanging Out”: Native Species Images and Affective Labour

Authors

  • Michael Farrell Melbourne University

Keywords:

Judith Wright, affect theory, cultural capital, David Campbell, Robert Gray, Gig Ryan, animal studies

Abstract

This paper investigates the affective labour done by, specifically, native species images in Australian poetry, using Judith Wright's bird poems, and various poems about kangaroos as example. It uses the anthropological term, "deep hanging out", borrowed from an article about fashion models, to extend the idea of affective labour, and to measure poems' attentions to birds and animals, and their relation to iconising as the work of nationalism. It is concerned with cultural capital, and Canberra, and the human empire.

Author Biography

  • Michael Farrell, Melbourne University
    Michael Farrell is a poet. His scholarly book Writing Australian Unsettlement:Modes of Poetic Invention 1796-1945 was shortlisted for the Walter McRae Russell prize in 2017. Cocky's Joy was shortlisted for the Prime Ministers Award for poetry in 2016.

References

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Published

2017-12-21