Jean Devanny Jean Devanny Archive. [Archive] (Unpublished)
Summary
Jean Devanny was a novelist and a prominent member of the Communist Party of Australia. She was concerned in her literary and political work with the position of women. She was born in New Zealand in 1894 and died in Townsville in 1962.
In the 1930's Devanny was involved with the fellowship of Australian Writers and through contacts she made in that group joined the Communist Party. She became a prominent public speaker and organiser for the Communist Party, touring around Australia.
Her involvement with north Queensland included working as a maid on a sheep station to get material for her novel Out of such fires and organising during the 1935 cane cutters strike which inspired her novel Sugar heaven.
She attended the Workers International Relief Conference in Berlin in 1931 after which she became interested in proletarian art forms and became involved with the Workers Art Guild and the New Theatre. Her commitment to literary form as well as to sound idealogical content brought her into conflict with the executive of the Communist Party. In 1941 she was expelled from the Communist Party, for 'political degeneracy'. She writes of this period in great detail. In 1944 she was invited to rejoin the Party. In February 1949 she resigned from the Communist Party. Tribune judged her novel 'Cindie' idealogically unsound and refused to run a critical review of it. Jean Devanny played a very active role in the literary circles of her time as her correspondence reveals.
Business correspondence series listing
Communist material series listing
Karl Shaprio poems series listing
Manuscripts series listing
Personal letters series listing
Personal papers series listing
Additional Information
Special Collection items may be used on the Library premises by visiting the appropriate Reading Rooms during opening hours. Digital copies of selected items from this Archive will be made available through the repository as copyright or other restrictions allow.
The Jean Devanny Album is located in the NQ Photographic Collection. Also see the Publications Album.
References
Daniels, K., Murnane, M., & Picot, A. (Eds.) (1977). Women in Australia: An annotated guide to records. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Ferrier, C. (1999). Jean Devanny: Romantic revolutionary. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
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