Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Australian writer David Malouf talking about how he writes, and describing the circumstances that best allow his ideas to develop and a book to take shape. Malouf and interviewer DJ (Dinny) O’Hearn are filmed on a cliff top in South Head, Sydney. The camera focuses mainly on Malouf who stands with his back to the sea and a more distant headland. As the camera shows O’Hearn listening to Malouf, a couple come into view, stop to watch and then move off again.

Educational value points

• In this clip author and poet David Malouf (1934–) clearly articulates the way in which he gives form to the inner world of ideas and feelings that preoccupy him as a writer. Malouf’s observations about the way he writes reveal something of the creative process that for many is mysterious. He outlines the particular conditions, such as time for reflection in each writing day, that are necessary for his writing to take shape and for ‘the book to declare itself’.

• Malouf refers to the role his subconscious plays in the writing of his novels. He often begins with just a couple of characters ‘who are related to one another in some way’, and without an initial idea of a plot he begins to write. Malouf believes that it is in this ‘actual moment of writing’ that memories arise and connections are established between the characters and through this process the shape of the novel emerges.

• Malouf features as an important Australian author whose writing constantly returns to themes of belonging and the importance of place, themes that relate to key questions concerning Australia’s history and national identity. Born in Brisbane into a family of British and Lebanese ancestry, he moved to Italy in 1975 where, at the time of this clip, he lived for half the year. Like other Australian writers he cites the expatriate life as providing a vital perspective for his writing.

• Malouf is interviewed at a time when his writing had gained national and international recognition. He had already made his mark as a poet when his first novel Johnno (1975) was published, gaining praise for its contribution to Australian writing. Malouf’s novels An Imaginary Life (1978) and Fly Away Peter (1981) won prestigious literary awards that enabled him to commit to full-time writing, including the libretto for the opera Voss in 1986.

• The clip shows how the subject of an interview will respond when he or she shares a rapport with the interviewer. Dinny O’Hearn (1937-1993) is shown listening to Malouf without interrupting or asking additional questions. This allows Malouf to speak revealingly and eloquently for an extended period. O’Hearn, a University of Melbourne academic, brought his love of Australian literature to his role as presenter of The Book Show for SBS television.