Microsoft Word - Final Anne  Holden


Coolabah, No.9, 2012, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians, 

Australian Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 

 

 

19 

 

Bruce Bennett: An Appreciation 
 

Anne Holden Rønning 
President EASA 2001-2005 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With his characteristic and warm smile Bruce was nearly always part of the Australian 

contingent attending EASA (European Association for Studies on Australia) 

conferences, most recently at Palma in 2009. He was a kind man sharing his knowledge 

and encouraging other scholars, especially younger ones. 

 

I should like to pay tribute to him by some words on Australian Short Fiction: A 

History, one of the many scholarly works written by Bruce, yet one that to the best of 

my knowledge is unique. He illustrates the breadth of short fiction in Australia using an 

encyclopaedic approach and introducing us to many writers, some little known, some 

forgotten, some well-known. Referring to Christina Stead’s oceans of story Bruce writes 

that he wants to give us a few dips into those oceans. The pure beauty of his language in 

describing his purpose is also indicative of Bruce himself:  

 
In the swirling seas of contemporary storytelling it is the literary historian’s task to 

restore some meaning and context to those small imprints in the kerosene shale. […] The 

stories of a culture can be thought of also in a popular image of bottles washed up on a 

shore.  (2002: 1) 

 

This is a seminal work, not least for us Europeans, giving us the opportunity to get a 

broad overview of Australian short fiction, for, as he writes, “the literary historian is a 

beachcomber, a bottle opener, a translator” (1). As a beachcomber he has provided 

fascinating reading not least because Bruce writes in a manner that whets the ordinary 

reader’s interest, followed by more detailed comment on some stories. For me another 

important feature of this book is the inclusion of so many women writers, from the 

“Unquiet Spirits” of 1825 – 1880, such as the moralistic tales for the bush by Mary 

Theresa Vidal, and Ellen Augusta Clacy’s tales and novellas about the goldfields.  We 

are introduced to Mary Fortune the first Australian woman detective writer, and the 

alternative tradition of women’s writing between 1880-1930: women who did not write 

of the bush and mateship, but, more in line with their sisters in England and America, 

on social issues and aspects of emancipation at all levels, as we see in the work of 

Catherine Helen Spence. Bruce gives us an excellent introduction to all these women 

writers, most of whom are forgotten and unavailable today. And so the text continues 

through the contending forces of realism and romance to modernism and urban realism 

Copyright ©  Anne Holden Rønning  2012 This text may be 

archived and redistributed both in electronic form and in 

hard copy, provided that the author and journal are 

properly cited and no fee is charged 

 



Coolabah, No.9, 2012, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians, 

Australian Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona 

 

 

20 

 

in twentieth century writing. Thank you, Bruce, for helping us to get to know all these 

writers male and female.  

 

As a former President of EASA it is a great pleasure to contribute a little to this edition 

of Coolabah in memory of Bruce Bennett. I first met Bruce through EASA. His 

kindness on my first research trip Australia researching Christina Stead in Canberra, and 

on later occasions, will always be remembered.  It was a pleasure to know him. 

 

Anne Holden Rønning is Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Bergen, 

Norway. Her research interests and fields of publication are Women’s Studies, and 

postcolonial literatures and cultures, especially from Australia and New Zealand. She 

was co-editor of Identities and Masks :Colonial and Postcolonial Studies (2001); and 

Readings of the Particular: The Postcolonial in the Postnational (2007); and author of 

“For Was I not Born Here?” Identity and Culture in the Work of Yvonne du Fresne 

(2010). In 2012 she was visiting professor at the University of Barcelona  and gave a 

Masters course on Cultural identities