Love on the Land

Australian Rural Romance in Place

Bibliographic Data

ID8865424
AuthorsKylie Mirmohamadi (corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume96
Issue2
Pages204-224
Publication date2015-01-19
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnglish Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-838X • E-ISSN: 1744-4217
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0013838x.2014.983786
OpenAlexW1967500002
LanguageEN
References cited11

This article examines the burgeoning genre of Australian rural romance novels. It argues that rural romance shares significant and defining generic features with romance fiction and other popular literary forms such as the Western and the colonial romance and adventure story, but also reworks conventional forms to address current socio-historical conditions in rural Australia. It does so in the cultural and political contexts of Australia's position as a post-colonial nation, grappling with ongoing issues of inheritance, belonging and authenticity. It includes case studies of a number of novels set in the Mallee eco-region of South Australia and Western Australia, exploring how the Mallee setting is used to make claims of uniqueness and legitimacy, drawing upon that region's specific place in Australian settler histories. Martin who read and commented on a draft of this article. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under Discovery Grant DP130102169, Changing Landscapes, Changing People: Australia's Southern Mallee Lands, 1830–2012.Notes1Treasure, Fifty Bales of Hay.2“Chook” is the Australian slang term for “chicken,” and also carries a double meaning of reference to women (Oxford Australia).3Clark.4For clarity of distinction and following general trends of usage in these novels, I use “Mallee” in this paper to refer to those areas of Western and South Australia which fall in the mallee eco-region, to denote the idea of these lands and “mallee” in reference to the vegetation.5Treasure, Jillaroo.6Authors include Nicole Alexander, Joy Dettman, Cathryn Hein, Loretta Hill, Rachael Johns, Karly Lane, Fleur McDonald, Anne McCullagh Rennie, Fiona McCallum, Kerry McGinnis, Mandy Magro, Margarita Osborn, Fiona Palmer, Bronwyn Parry, Jennifer Scoullar and Rachael Treasure.7For example, Fleur McDonald told Pip Courtney that “[my books are] not romance, just romance-based” and Treasure commented that, while she finds it “fine ... [if] people want to label my work romance,” she did not write Jillaroo “as a rural romance” (Courtney; Wright). See also Scoullar's comments (Scoullar, “Alumni Feature”).8Regis, 30.9Simmons Guntrum, 189–90.10Palmer, “Author Insight.”11Alexander.12Courtney.13Johnson-Woods, 154.14Cited in Jaffe. It is noted that this post was sponsored by Harlequin.15Little and Panelli, 180. The Channel 9 series The Farmer Wants a Wife and When Love Comes to Town also position Australian rural space as a site for romantic encounter.16Owen, 537.17Cuthbert, “Blurring the Online Line.”18Neill.19Australian Romance Readers Association.20The e-reading device has largely rendered unnecessary the book covers and step back covers provided by some romance fiction distributors (Pettigrew Brackett, 351–2). See e.g. Sourris on appeal of e-reading for romance readers.21Struve, 1294.22Black, xiv.23See, for example, Cuthbert, “Blurring the Online Line.”24See Susan K. Martin and Mirmohamadi; Mirmohamadi.25Australian Outback Romances and Mysteries.26“Rise of Rural Romance Books.”27Scoullar, “Alumni Feature.”28Cited in Clark. Oddly, the same sentence is attributed to Scoullar in Whitney K-E.29Cited in Whitney K-E.30Goodreads.31Weaver-Zercher, 10.32Matchar.33Fanny Blake “All the Way,” Independent, 11 January 1998, 10 cited in Gallagher, 398; ibid.34Walmsley.35Regis, 163.36Tompkins, 4.37See Regis, 163. See Tompkins for a detailed analysis of gender in Westerns; see also Cawelti, 91.38Tompkins, 55–7; Cawelti, 62.39Scoullar, “Alumni Feature.”40Australian Outback Romances and Mysteries.41Cuthbert, “Outback Appeal.”42Scoullar, “Alumni Feature.”43Mitchell, 1958–99.44Regis, 161.45Scoullar, “Jennifer Scoullar.”46Cuthbert, “Outback Appeal.”47Northover; McAlister.48Cited in Courtney.49McGinnis, 23, 231.50Catherine Martin, 60–1.51“The Australian Girl,” 52.52“Literature,” 49; “An Australian Girl,” 6; “Reviews,” 3; “Euphrosyne,” 45.53See Holmes, Martin, and Mirmohamadi.54McGinnis, 74.55Ibid., 270.56Cerwonka, 122. Allaine Cerwonka is here referring to native gardening enthusiasm, but her analysis can be applied to the contemporary discourse around broadscale farming as well.57Viljoen and Koenig-Visagie, 2.58Such images are exemplified by the work of the nature photographer Steve Parish, who has published a series of Australian photography books.59It is, in fact, an amalgam of two images, one of which is described as a “[t]ypical old homestead on the road into Beltana on the edge of the Flinders Ranges, South, Australia.” According to its website, this township presently has twelve permanent residents (Beltana).60While not in the scope of this paper, the novel also contains elements of the mystery genre. For crossover of readership see Allen.61McGinnis, 349.62Ibid., 144.63Ibid., 102, 40.64Ibid., 21.65Ibid., 11.66Ibid., 2.67Ibid., 44.68Ibid., 54.69Ibid., 23.70Ibid., 159.71Ibid., 317.72Ibid., 231.73For the case of the Victorian Mallee, see Holmes and Mirmohamadi.74These motifs can also be perceived in an article about Alexander's rural novels, in which she is described as a “fourth generation farmer-grazier” who has “returned to the land under which her great-grandfather lies buried” (Alexander).75McGinnis, (Harry) 159.76Ibid., (Kate) 32.77Ibid., (Ken) 33.78Ibid., 30.79Ibid., 41, 43.80Ibid., 313, 314.81Ibid., 89. Like much of the commentary on this issue in contemporary Australian discourse, Harry's reflection fails to accommodate calls for reparation for past crimes against indigenous Australians, or encompass their ongoing disadvantage as a result of colonisation.82Palmer, The Outback Heart.83This specific rural setting accords with, but extends far beyond, the “initial state of society” component proposed in Regis's definition of the romance novel.84Palmer, The Outback Heart, 149–50.85Ibid., 7.86Ibid., 27.87Ibid., 58.88Ibid.89Palmer, The Family Farm.90Ibid., 4.91Ibid., 404.92Ibid., 55.93Ibid., 306.94Ibid., 67.95Ibid., 116.96Ibid., 126.97Ibid., 4.98Ibid., 391.99Ibid., 369.100This image is borrowed from Calder

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