The Scent of Eucalyptus: Gothic Autobiography

Abstract

Discusses Barbara Hanrahan's The Scent of Eucalyptus as 'autobiographical fiction', describing this genre as allowing for 'greater scope and range', and increased openness to 'the essential fictiveness' of the process. Argues that 'central to the narrative is the narrator's search for/construction of an identity, an identity often at odds with the prevailing values of Australian suburban society at the time'.

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Published 1 May 1990 in Volume 14 No. 3. Subjects: Australian novels & novelists, Autobiographies, Creative imagination, Families, Memories of adolescence, Memories of childhood, Mothers & daughters, Narrative techniques, Barbara Hanrahan.

Cite as: Sykes, Alrene. ‘The Scent of Eucalyptus: Gothic Autobiography.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, 1990, doi: 10.20314/als.fd51455bee.