Patrick White, Voss

Brian Kiernan (University of Sydney)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 9.1.1: Australian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Susan Kossew (Monash University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1957

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Set in colonial Australia during the 1840s, and invoking narratives of exploration from that time, Voss encompasses an extensive range of references: historical (but also, by implication, contemporary), stylistic and, covertly, autobiographical. Although the novel’s narration is distanced by irony throughout, White’s attribution of its conception to his experiences of the Middle-Eastern deserts during the second World War—the war he later described in his autobiographical essay “The Prodigal Son” ( Australian Letters 1,1958. p. 39) as being against the “arch megalomaniac” Hitler—and also to his reading the journals and accounts of early Australian explorers after his disappointed return to …

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2382 words

Citation: Kiernan, Brian. "Voss". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 September 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8655, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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