1 8 1 https://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/files/original/88a37f3ccc93d18c35e00161e9c1cc81.jpg 02915376fc1e43f001116c81debe106c Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 Height 3503 Width 1171 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Medievalism on the Page Description An account of the resource This Collection examines literary medievalism from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It traces an arc from the populist literary medievalism of the nineteenth century, through the more rarefied modernist turn of the mid-twentieth century, to the re-emergence of popular forms such as childrenâ€™s literature and fantasy since the 1980s. In this Collection you will find items relating to printed medievalist works and also to medievalism operating in print, for example in references to medieval events, people, and literature in nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts and dramatic works. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Original Format If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Microfilm Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource ‘Bards of the Backblocks: Knights of Chance’, The Bulletin, 26 May 1900. Subject The topic of the resource Adventuring, Australian national character, backblocks, bard, city, E. J. Brady (1869-1952), Federation, freedom, knight, lance, nationalism, romanticisation, rural economy, New South Wales, NSW. Description An account of the resource To describe everyday life in colonial Australia as entirely rural-based in 1900 would be misleading, for the country’s major urban centres, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, housed much of the population and fuelled its commercial vitality (see F. K. Crowley (ed.), A New History of Australia, Richmond, William Heinemann, 1984, p. 261). Yet, the author of these verses, E. J. Brady, romanticises the ordinary Australian’s willingness to ‘chance their luck’ on bold ventures: E.g., prospecting for gold, running sheep and cattle in the water-scarce ‘backblocks,’ harvesting pearls in the N.W., and shipping commodities all over the world. Brady clearly favoured the “adventuring life,” valuing rural freedom over machine-shop slavery in the noxious urban sprawl (Louise D’Arcens, Old Songs in the Timeless Land: Medievalism in Australian Literature 1840-1910, Turnhout, Brepols, 2011, p.141). The propensity for romanticising the Australian present by conflating it with a medieval past was not unusual at the time. The Bulletin published (and made room for) quite a lot of this type of ‘backblocks’ versification, which “was not only determinedly populist and disposable but also extremely cursory in its medievalism, ransacking the popular imaginary indiscriminately for tropes and terms that signified instantaneously and superficially as ‘medieval’” (D’Arcens, 19). That much is apparent from the poem, with its comparatively stock imagery and reliance on ‘the bygone days of yore’ for inspiration: the “Barons of Bold Adventure, Kings of the stout free lance”. Yet Brady, who was a long-standing member of the Australian Socialist League (See John B. Webb, A Critical Biography of Edwin James Brady 1869-1952, University of Sydney PhD Thesis, 1972 p.9), evidently envisaged entire communities of unburdened ‘emancipated’ workers “roaming the countryside and working at will,” like so many questing medieval knights (D’Arcens, p.140). It is likely that Brady was appealing to the resolve that was forming and cohering as a result of the recent Federation debates (c. 1897-98) which, having filtered down into everyday exchange sought to persuade and unite the colonies under the one flag and banner. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource E. J. Brady Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Bulletin Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Bulletin Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 26 May 1900 (p. 3) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Public Domain Adventuring Australian national character backblocks bard city E. J. Brady (1869-1952) federation freedom knight lance nationalism New South Wales NSW romanticisation rural economy