Remember Love and Struggle? Reading Jean Devanny’s Sugar Heaven in Contemporary Australian Contexts
Abstract
Devanny’s novel Sugar Heaven was re-released in 2002 some 65 years after its first publication. The momentous historical and political changes since the time of writing prompts the author of this article to ask: ‘what will new readers make of its concerns as socialist realism, its strict genre observances and heuristic political aims, and its portrait of a cosmopolitan yet strongly localised Australian working class as the class of history?’ (252). In analysing these issues, the article also considers trends in contemporary criticism and recent Australian fiction.
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Published 1 May 2004 in Volume 21 No. 3. Subjects: Australian regional literature & writers, Critical theories & approaches, Imagery, Literary & intellectual movements, Literary portrayal, Political change, Socialist Realism, Working class literature, Jean Devanny.
Cite as: Moore, Nicole. ‘Remember Love and Struggle? Reading Jean Devanny’s Sugar Heaven in Contemporary Australian Contexts.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 21, no. 3, 2004, doi: 10.20314/als.3666a3dd34.