Bradshaw, Wayne (2024) Misapprehensions of a Caustic Eye: A. D. Hope, Max Harris, and the Angry Penguins. In: [Australasian Modernism Studies Network Conference]. From: AMSN6: Modernism and modernity at the edge, 11-13 Dec 2024, Hobart, Australia.

Preview

PDF (Abstract Only) - Published Version Download (8MB) | Preview

Abstract

This presentation reconsiders A.D. Hope’s cutting appraisal of the group of young poets and artists from the University of Adelaide who have come to be known colloquially as “the Angry Penguins.” Setting aside the influence of the Ern Malley affair on the Penguins’ perceived importance, the paper proposes that Hope has contributed fundamental misrepresentations about both the identities of the Penguins cohort and their aspirations for Australian literary identity. While he was not directly responsible for the hoax in 1943, Hope emerged as an early and extreme opponent of Max Harris and the other contributors to Angry Penguins, and his vitriolic commentary about the group serves as an archetypal example of his capacity for cruelty in the field of literary criticism:

An arrogant and stupid literary magazine was jointly produced by Max Harris and John Reid [sic] under the title of Angry Penguins. It aimed to be more avant-garde than most progressive theories of the day and among these Surrealism, for some time established in Europe and America, had just hit Darkest Australia. Angry Penguins had summarily dismissed all contemporary poetry in this country, especially that practised by McAuley, Stewart, Hope and so on as academic, out-of-date and entirely contemptible. (Chance Encounters 91–2)

Hope’s claims that the Penguins were the mouthpiece of an ill-conceived Australian brand of surrealism were rife with misrepresentation about the range of poetry that was produced by the group. Furthermore, Hope’s depiction of the Penguins ignores the possibility that the group’s cosmopolitan approach to literature might have provided a viable model for Australian modernism had not many of the groups founding members left due to the Second World War. Contrary to Hope’s opinion, the Angry Penguins—at least in the initial phase of their development—were not purveyors of an impenetrable brand of Australian surrealism, but were, rather, a group of diverse young poets advocating for the internationalisation of Australian cultural identity.

Item ID:	84347
Item Type:	Conference Item (Abstract / Summary)
Copyright Information:	© 2024 Australasian Modernist Studies Network.
Date Deposited:	15 Dec 2024 23:28
FoR Codes:	47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4705 Literary studies > 470502 Australian literature (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature) @ 100%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1302 Communication > 130203 Literature @ 100%
Downloads:	Total: 1 Last 12 Months: 1
	More Statistics