The Bronzista of Muradup

BACKGROUND This work contributes to the field of literary nonfiction practice: in particular, memoir, and to debates around the interplay between history and memory. What role is there for personal and narrative nonfiction in articulating and reframing historical events such as World War II? How does ordinary experience refracted through memory and narrative bring new facets to historical understanding? Regarding history and narrative, Hayden White's work on historiography is still key, while others such as Passerini have written about the value of oral history and memory. In memoir studies, Birkets on non-linear temporality is a touchpoint. CONTRIBUTION This work contributes, through the memoir genre, to a contemporary reshaping of Australia's prevailing narratives around wartime experience, which questions the limits, effects and politics of those narratives. It tells a story by moving fluidly back and forth in time, from the 1940s to the present, through three generations of two families, one Australian and one Italian, and traces how enduring human bonds can form across cultures and 'enemy lines'. It posits a mode of historical understanding acknowledging and inviting affective flows, and a partial, embodied narrative position. SIGNIFICANCE This work was commissioned by and published in Enduring Legacies, a special edition of Australia's leading literary journal, Griffith REVIEW, which marked the centenary of Gallipoli in 2015. Enduring Legacies was widely reviewed in Australia and New Zealand, received national radio coverage on multiple occasions, and featured in public events in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane.