Peter (Walkinshaw) Cowan Criticism
Peter Walkinshaw Cowan, an influential Australian writer born in 1914, is celebrated primarily for his contributions to short fiction. His stories, often set in Western Australia, delve into themes of isolation and loneliness and reflect a modernist style influenced by literary figures such as Hemingway and Chekhov. Cowan's narratives frequently explore the inner turmoil of ordinary individuals in response to their environments. His early works depict the bush as both a healing and destructive force, while his later stories, set around Perth, emphasize urban alienation and violence. As noted in discussions of collections like The Tins by Bruce Williams, Cowan's treatment of familiar themes evolved, reflecting deeper psychological insights.
Cowan's biography shows a man deeply connected to both the land and the human condition. After early hardships, including the death of his father and an unsatisfactory clerical job, he embraced a literary career, marked by his early story "The Fence," which sparked controversy for its bold themes. His academic roles, including co-editing the journal Westerly, supported his ongoing literary pursuits.
Cowan's major works, starting with Drift, address the social ills of his time, highlighting themes like greed and isolation. His minimalist style, highlighted in collections like Voices as examined by Bruce Bennett, creates a stark yet profound exploration of human connections. While early reactions to his work were mixed, recent critical evaluations appreciate his honest portrayal of human struggles. As John Barnes deems, Cowan's stories embody an essential truthfulness, marked by a compassionate view of human failure and resilience.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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New Tracks to Travel: The Stories of White, Porter, and Cowan
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Barnes admires the stories collected in The Empty Street for their honest rendering of the human experience.
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Behind the Actual: Peter Cowan's The Tins
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Williams compares Cowan's early short fiction to his more recent collection The Tins, focusing on the author's changed treatment of such familiar themes as loneliness and isolation in this work.
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Three Short Story Writers—Peter Cowan, Elizabeth Jolley, Justina Williams
(summary)
In the following assessment of Mobiles, Williams considers 'The Lake' one of Cowan's strongest short stories due to its 'abstract, bony prose,' 'solid-looking realism,' and 'symbolic suggestion.'
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Introduction to A Window in Mrs. X's Place
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Bennett traces Cowan's artistic development, focusing on his experimentation with the short story form. Cowan has always maintained a distance between his professional demands and his needs as an artist and an individual. In the dual life which he has felt constrained to lead, one consistent association has been with the land, which he has continued to explore at the outer reaches of human settlement. The contending human needs for mobility, on the one hand, and on the other, the desire to settle, are explored in many of these stories, whether they are set in the outback or in the city and its suburbs.
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Of Books and Covers: Peter Cowan
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Bennett examines the minimalist attributes of Cowan's short story collection Voices, concluding that "few writers have used human voices more skillfully to explore the tensions between male and female set against the changing expectations of society."
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New Tracks to Travel: The Stories of White, Porter, and Cowan
(summary)
- Further Reading