Singing it anew: David Malouf's Ransom

Authors

  • Bernadette Brennan University of Sydney

Keywords:

beauty, language, epic, story

Abstract

In 2009 David Malouf's Ransom was published to great critical and popular acclaim. Ransom presents itself very simply as a beautiful story about (among other things) loss, love, vulnerability and storytelling. But what does it mean to talk about the beautiful in writing? Etienne Gilson argues that writing is a making before it is a knowing or willing, so its primary concern is not a truth to be known or a good to be willed. Its primary concern is beauty. This paper explores how the beautiful operates in, and structures, Ransom.

Author Biography

  • Bernadette Brennan, University of Sydney
    Senior Lecturer, Australian Literature Department of English

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Published

2011-09-23

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2011): Special Issue: Archive Madness

Section

Articles

License

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