Olivia and Chloe: Fictions of Female Friendship

Abstract

In the Australian context, where the theme of male friendship, expressed through the myth of mateship, has gathered so much literary and cultural significance, it is particularly interesting to look at the ways women writers portray interactions between women. Surprisingly, however, the subject has attracted comparatively little of their attention, even though female friendship plays so important a part in most women's lives. Those who deal with it frequently show female friendship as a refuge, a space which allows scope for creativity, but also as an embattled region, continually under threat from external pressures and the inner tensions which these generate.