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

Save to Bookshelf

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” (

AustralianLetters

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 his native land can assist recognition of its multi-layered complexity.

The novel

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2382 words

Citation: Kiernan, Brian. "Voss". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 September 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8655, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Patrick White, Voss

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback