Volume 7, Issue 2
Theorizing Rewriting through "The Drover's Wife"
- Vol. 7, Issue 2, Pages: 76-88(2023)
Published: 30 December 2023
DOI:10.47297/wspctWSP2515-470207.20230702
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Volume 7, Issue 2
Visiting fellow at the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Published: 30 December 2023 ,
Full txt
Xiang Li.Theorizing Rewriting through "The Drover's Wife"[J].Critical Theory,2023,07(02):76-88.
Xiang Li.Theorizing Rewriting through "The Drover's Wife"[J].Critical Theory,2023,07(02):76-88. DOI: 10.47297/wspctWSP2515-470207.20230702.
This article delves into the practice of rewriting as a literary and cultural phenomenon by using "The Drover's Wife" rewritings as an example. One of the best-known short stories in Australian literature
Henry Lawson's story has inspired or
in some cases
provoked many Australian artists to create their versions of the drover's wife. By tracing the fascinating history of "The Drover's Wife" and the intertextual connections between various reworkings
this article considers how the practice of rewriting transforms a story into a cultural object and the complex phenomenon surrounding it. The article looks at the definition
history
functions and theoretical discussions of rewriting and argues that existing models tend to focus on linear connections between rewritings and their "source texts"
which fall short of examining reworkings in "The Drover's Wife"
due to the intricate interconnectedness between different versions as well as their political
cultural or ideological interventions. Incorporating previous studies on rewriting with Julie Sanders's "signifying fields'" and John Frow's concept of genre
it provides a new interpretative model to read similar phenomena of rewriting.
Rewriting"The Drover's Wife"Intertextuality(re)InterpretationReception
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