Review of The English Men: Professing Literature in Australian Universities, by Leigh Dale, and A Career in Writing: Judah Waten and the Cultural Politics of a Literary Career, by David Carter.

Abstract

These two titles are the first in a series of specialised monographs published by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature [ASAL]. The first thing to be said is that ASAL is to be congratulated for initiating the series, and for having done so in such fine style. In these times of straitened academic publishing opportunities the kind of encouragement for professional students of Australian literature that ASAL is providing through this project deserves nothing but commendation and support. The next thing to be said is that, while my name (I am delighted to say) appears in the list of Editorial Advisers, I was invited to join the panel well after David Carter and Leigh Dale had been chosen to inaugurate the enterprise; well after, indeed, their manuscripts had gone into production. Anything I have to say about them, therefore, should be construed as entirely free of institutional partisanship or prejudice.