(1945-2021) Australian author, editor and critic whose first published fiction of genre interest was "The Truth About Oscar" (22 December 1981 The Bulletin; in Matilda at the Speed of Light, anth 1988, ed Damien Broderick). Her The Murders at Hanging Rock (1980; exp 1988) is a remarkable jeux-d'esprit study of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) by Joan Lindsay, whose four mutually incompatible approaches to the novel's central mystery include analyses in terms of classical detective fiction, Hermetic magic and Australian Dreamtime Fantastika; when the cut final chapter of Picnic at Hanging Rock was published as The Secret of Hanging Rock (1987 chap), including "A Commentary on Chapter Eighteen" by Rousseau, the enigmatic "solution" did indeed prove fantastical in nature.
She was a member of "The Science Fiction Collective" that edited and published the Ditmar Award-winning Australian Science Fiction Review: Second Series 1986-1991. This included several examples of her meticulously researched criticism; others appeared in Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction, The Metaphysical Review, Science Fiction Eye and SF Commentary. Rousseau also published a useful critical study of Cherry Wilder's work, Minmers Marooned and Planet of the Marsupials: The Science Fiction Novels of Cherry Wilder (1997 chap). [DRL]
Yvonne Rousseau
born Benalla, Victoria: 1 August 1945
died Heidelberg, Victoria: 13 February 2021
works
nonfiction
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