Too ‘blokey’ and cliched? Why Tim Winton has become one of our most divisive authors

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Thirty years on from winning the Miles Franklin Award for Cloudstreet, Tim Winton’s work is more divisive than ever | Millie Muroi

won the Miles Franklin Award, but the years haven’t dulled the furious arguments over the merits of the book, and the author. Despite being canonised in the high school curriculum and selling more than two million copies across 29 different novels – several of which have been adapted into film – Winton’s writing remains hotly divisive.Denise Fitch

Deakin University literature professor Lyn McCredden has some theories as to why Winton seems to rub people up the wrong way. “A lot of Tim Winton’s literary reputation is founded on his ability to elevate Australian ‘ordinariness’ to stylised and poetic heights,” Best says. “Ironically, though, this doesn’t sit well with the cultural cringe felt by many domestic readers.

“It’s often quasi-Aboriginal, the way [the kinship] is expressed,” Hughes-d’Aeth says. “It can either come off as authentic or appropriative – [adapting the style] without acknowledgement.”Tim Winton’s novel Dirt Music was adapted into a film and shot in Western Australia in 2019.“As a Christian, [Winton] really divides people,” she says. “A lot of people say to me, ‘Oh, he’s too preachy’.”

There’s also the claim that Winton’s work is sexist, with Hughes-d’Aeth pointing out some readers, especially women, may find Winton’s writing “too blokey” and his interest in masculinity off-putting.Professor Lyn McCredden, Deakin Universityare especially controversial, with some critics saying Winton refuses to give women a proper role in his stories, although McCredden questions that view.

 

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Provocative but can’t agree that Cloudstreet is blokey or diminishes women. That is simply our history. Our vernacular is mirrored in Cloudstreet. That doesn’t make it cliched. Winton’s regard for the battler is compassionate regardless of gender. Article is a little cringey.

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