O’Grady, John see ‘Culotta, Nino’: Popular Authorship, Duplicity and Celebrity

Abstract

Considers the 'textual and institutional gestures' set in train by John O'Grady's Nino Culotta hoax. 'The point of this essay is neither to condemn the novel again for its passing nor, by discovering some hidden subversiveness, to redeem it from critical readings of its ideological performance. Its assimilationism is foundational and pervasive, although not as one-dimensional in its historical effects as the novel's closing exhortation to 'new Australians' would suggest. But for present purposes I want to approach the novel from a different perspective, setting aside 'ideology critique' for the moment and focusing rather on questions of authorship and the marketplace.'