Astley, Thea

Astley, Thea

▪ Australian author
in full  Thea Beatrice May Astley 
born August 25, 1925, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
died August 17, 2004, New South Wales

      Australian author, who in her fiction examined, usually satirically, the lives of morally and intellectually isolated people in her native country.

      Astley graduated from the University of Queensland in 1947 and taught English in Queensland (1944–48) and New South Wales (1948–67) and at Macquarie University in Sydney (1968–80). Drawing her subject from personal experience, her first two novels, Girl with a Monkey (1958) and A Descant for Gossips (1960), are ironic portrayals of philistine small-town life. In The Well Dressed Explorer (1962) and The Acolyte (1972), individuals rather than the larger community are the targets of Astley's satire. With A Kindness Cup (1974) and An Item from the Late News (1982), however, Astley returned to the subject of the brutality of small-town Australian life. The sexually frustrated tourists of A Boat Load of Home Folk (1968) and the Pacific Islanders plotting revolution in Beachmasters (1985) are unsparing depictions of human folly. Later novels include Reaching Tin River (1990), Coda (1994), and Drylands (1999). Astley's characters suffer from boredom, prejudice, and narrow-mindedness; her women tend to be childish, her men either brutish or ineffectual. The crises of conscience they undergo lead to physically or emotionally violent conclusions. She also wrote poetry, and Hunting the Wild Pineapple (1979) is a collection of her short stories.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Astley, Thea Beatrice May — ▪ 2005       Australian writer and teacher (b. Aug. 25, 1925, Brisbane, Queen., Australia d. Aug. 17, 2004, New South Wales, Australia), used satire to examine the lives of repressed and isolated people, especially those living in small towns.… …   Universalium

  • Thea Astley — Infobox Person name = Thea Beatrice May Astley image size = caption = birth date = birth date|1925|8|25|df=y birth place = Brisbane death date = death date and age|2004|8|17|1925|8|25|df=y death place = Byron Bay death cause = residence = other… …   Wikipedia

  • Astley — could refer to various places in England:* Astley, Greater Manchester, a dormitory town * Astley Green Colliery Museum * Astley, Warwickshire, a village and parish * Astley, Worcestershire, a village and parish * Astley, Shropshire, a village and …   Wikipedia

  • Thea Astley — (* 25. August 1925 in Brisbane; † 17. August 2004 in Byron Bay) war eine australische Schriftstellerin. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Künstlerisches Schaffen 3 Auszeichnungen und Ehrunge …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Astley — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Edwin Astley (1922–1998), britischer Filmkomponist Philip Astley (1742–1814), britischer Zirkuspionier Rick Astley (* 1966), britischer Sänger Thea Astley (1925–2004), australische Schriftstellerin Astley… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Thea — ist ein weiblicher Vorname Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Herkunft und Bedeutung 2 Namenstag 3 Varianten 4 Bekannte Namensträgerinnen (mit Varianten) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Astley —   [ æstlɪ],    1) Thea, australische Schriftstellerin, * Brisbane 25. 8. 1925; schildert in ihren Romanen und Erzählungen Menschen im ruhigen Zentrum eines anarchischen Kosmos.   Werke: Romane: Girl with a monkey (1958); A descant for gossips… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Astley — /ˈæstli/ (say astlee) noun 1. Thea Beatrice May, 1925–2004, Australian novelist and short story writer; works include The Slow Natives (1965), It s Raining in Mango (1987), and Drylands (1999); won the Miles Franklin Award four times. 2. William… …  

  • The Slow Natives — infobox Book | name = The Slow Natives title orig = translator = image caption = author = Thea Astley illustrator = cover artist = country = Australia language = English series = genre = Novel publisher = Angus and Robertson, Australia release… …   Wikipedia

  • Australia — /aw strayl yeuh/, n. 1. a continent SE of Asia, between the Indian and the Pacific oceans. 18,438,824; 2,948,366 sq. mi. (7,636,270 sq. km). 2. Commonwealth of, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, consisting of the federated states and… …   Universalium

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