Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Australian Poetry
- The Cambridge History of Australian Poetry
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Language, Text and Colony
- 2 British Speculations on Terra Australis and Romantic-Period Poetry
- 3 Poetry in the Penal Colony
- 4 Becoming Distinct
- 5 The Many-Voiced Charles Harpur
- 6 Anonymity and the Popular
- 7 Settler Labour Poetics and the National Imaginary at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
- 8 Children’s Poetry from 1840 to 1950
- 9 Australian Poetries of War and Conflict
- 10 ‘Poetry Is Its Own Advertisement’
- 11 The New Woman and Poetry (1885–1935)
- 12 Women Poets, Mobility and Being ‘In Between’
- 13 Fin-de-Siècle Symbolism and After
- 14 Kenneth Slessor’s Visualism
- 15 Surrealism and Australian Poetry
- 16 Gum Tears Which Are Also Real
- 17 The Mid Century Canon
- 18 Judith Wright
- 19 Oodgeroo Noonuccal
- 20 Aboriginal Song as Australian Poetry
- 21 Re-Imagining Place (1940–1990)
- 22 Australian Poetry and the Rise of a Suburban Quotidian (1950–2000)
- 23 The Three Ontologies of Regional Poetry
- 24 The Poetry of Antarctica
- 25 Poetry and the State (1945 to the Present)
- 26 Australian Expatriate Poets
- 27 Les Murray
- 28 Religion and Poetry in Australia
- 29 Francis Webb
- 30 Australian Poetry and Post-War Immigration from Europe
- 31 The Long 1970s and Print Culture
- 32 Australian Poets of the 1980s
- 33 Activism and the Eruption of Aboriginal Writing
- 34 Reading the Archive of Australian Feminist Poetry since 1970
- 35 Queer Poetry in Australia
- 36 Between Identity and Form
- 37 Poetry of the South West Asian and North African Diasporas
- 38 Transcultural Relations with Latin America
- 39 Performance Poetries
- 40 Long Form Poetry from the 1980s to the Present
- 41 From Conceptual to Concrete (1960–2020)
- 42 The Digital Era
- 43 The Earth Has Been Done
- 44 Contemporary Anthologies and the Question of Canonicity
- 45 New Dynamics in Twenty-First-Century Anthologies
- Index
- References
31 - The Long 1970s and Print Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2025
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Australian Poetry
- The Cambridge History of Australian Poetry
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Language, Text and Colony
- 2 British Speculations on Terra Australis and Romantic-Period Poetry
- 3 Poetry in the Penal Colony
- 4 Becoming Distinct
- 5 The Many-Voiced Charles Harpur
- 6 Anonymity and the Popular
- 7 Settler Labour Poetics and the National Imaginary at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
- 8 Children’s Poetry from 1840 to 1950
- 9 Australian Poetries of War and Conflict
- 10 ‘Poetry Is Its Own Advertisement’
- 11 The New Woman and Poetry (1885–1935)
- 12 Women Poets, Mobility and Being ‘In Between’
- 13 Fin-de-Siècle Symbolism and After
- 14 Kenneth Slessor’s Visualism
- 15 Surrealism and Australian Poetry
- 16 Gum Tears Which Are Also Real
- 17 The Mid Century Canon
- 18 Judith Wright
- 19 Oodgeroo Noonuccal
- 20 Aboriginal Song as Australian Poetry
- 21 Re-Imagining Place (1940–1990)
- 22 Australian Poetry and the Rise of a Suburban Quotidian (1950–2000)
- 23 The Three Ontologies of Regional Poetry
- 24 The Poetry of Antarctica
- 25 Poetry and the State (1945 to the Present)
- 26 Australian Expatriate Poets
- 27 Les Murray
- 28 Religion and Poetry in Australia
- 29 Francis Webb
- 30 Australian Poetry and Post-War Immigration from Europe
- 31 The Long 1970s and Print Culture
- 32 Australian Poets of the 1980s
- 33 Activism and the Eruption of Aboriginal Writing
- 34 Reading the Archive of Australian Feminist Poetry since 1970
- 35 Queer Poetry in Australia
- 36 Between Identity and Form
- 37 Poetry of the South West Asian and North African Diasporas
- 38 Transcultural Relations with Latin America
- 39 Performance Poetries
- 40 Long Form Poetry from the 1980s to the Present
- 41 From Conceptual to Concrete (1960–2020)
- 42 The Digital Era
- 43 The Earth Has Been Done
- 44 Contemporary Anthologies and the Question of Canonicity
- 45 New Dynamics in Twenty-First-Century Anthologies
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter considers how Australian poetry of the 1970s participated in major social changes that were fuelled by a range of factors, including greater access to higher education, the sexual liberation movement, a drug subculture and Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. It traces how Australian writers turned to America for influence and were able to utilise new technologies to generate a vibrant small press culture. The chapter outlines the surge in collaboration, collectives and overlapping literary circles. It also examines a series of anthologies that sought to feature new energies and voices, with some seeking to demarcate such poetry from earlier or more traditional forms. Lastly, it analyses the significance of the poetry workshops based at Melbourne’s La Mama Theatre, little magazines, and the development of small presses that produced poetry collections during the decade of the 1970s.
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- The Cambridge History of Australian Poetry , pp. 578 - 595Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Select Bibliography
Denholm, Michael, Small Press Publishing in Australia: The Early 1970s, Sydney: Second Back Row, 1979.Google Scholar
Small Press Publishing in Australia. Vol 2: The Late 1970s to the Mid to Late 1980s, Footscray: Footprint, 1991.Google Scholar
Dobrez, Livio, Parnassus Mad Ward: Michael Dransfield and the New Australian Poetry, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Duwell, Martin, A Possible Contemporary Poetry: Interviews with Thirteen Poets from the New Australian Poetry, St Lucia: Makar Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Lilley, Kate, ‘Between Anthologies: Feminism and Genealogies of Australian Women’s Poetry’, Australian Feminist Studies 12, 1997, pp. 265–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCooey, David, ‘Contemporary Poetry across Party Lines’, in Webby, Elizabeth (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 158–82.Google Scholar
Tranter, John, ‘Four Notes on the Practice of Revolution’, Australian Literary Studies 8.2, 1977, pp. 127–35.Google Scholar
Tulip, James, ‘Poetry Since 1965’, Australian Literary Studies, 13.4, 1987–88, pp. 475–92.Google Scholar
Vickery, Ann, ‘The Rise of “Women’s Poetry” in the 1970s’, Australian Feminist Studies, 22.53, 2007, pp. 265–85.Google Scholar
Wakeling, Corey, ‘Generation of ’68 and a Culture of Revolution’, in Vickery, Ann (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Australian Poetry, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2024, pp. 134–50.Google Scholar
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