A Woman of the Future

A Woman of the Future (1979) is a novel by Australian author David Ireland. It won the Miles Franklin Award in 1979 and was joint winner of the Age Book of the Year award in 1980.[1]

A Woman of the Future
First US edition
AuthorDavid Ireland
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherPenguin, Australia
George Braziller (US)
Publication date
1979
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages351pp
ISBN0-14-005657-2
OCLC9395876
Preceded byThe Glass Canoe 
Followed byCity of Women 

As a result of this novel, Ireland was "being hailed as the successor to Patrick White and the antipodean rival of the great American satirist Kurt Vonnegut".[2]

Originally published in 1979, it was re-issued in 2012 as part of the Text Publishing Text Classics series.[3] This edition carried an introduction by Kate Jennings.

Critical reception

On the announcement of the Miles Franklin Award win, The Canberra Times stated: " A Woman of the Future was rejected by Macmillans at first because it was too long and too complex or, as Mr Ireland put it yesterday, 'too incomprehensible' ".[4] Following this, one of the award judges, Emeritus Professor Colin Roderick, described the book as "literary sewage",[5] and stated it was "a dreadful, sex-ridden fantasy, doomed to oblivion."[5]

Writing in 1980 for Woroni, Andrea Mitchell noted a

"different and more rewarding perspective on women in society" from the author. "In this novel Ireland has pinpointed the crisis of modern feminism by projecting it forward in one direction. Must feminism adjust to the mainstream of modern culture, training girls up to become pseudo-men in order to compete for power and privilege in an unequal and vicious society — or can it work to undermine such qualities and recreate the world with a human face?"[6]

Awards and nominations

References
  1. Austlit - A Woman of the Future by David Ireland
  2. David Ireland, the great unknown
  3. Text Classics
  4. "Author's third Miles Franklin", The Canberra Times, 3 June 1980, p3
  5. "Award for 'sewage' ", The Canberra Times, 5 June 1980, p7
  6. "A Woman of the Future - a feminist review" by Andrea Mitchell, Woroni, 8 September 1980, p14
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Tirra Lirra By the River		 Miles Franklin Award recipient
1979		 Succeeded by
The Impersonators


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