Unbecoming Australians : Crisis and Community in the Australian Villa/ge Book

Abstract

Examines recent Australian examples of travel memoirs that 'recount the author's attempt to live the southern European dream in ways that are not available to "tourists"'. Discussing the books as 'forms of autobiography', Genoni asks: What exactly is meant by the invention of self in the context of such books? What can we generalise about the places to which authors of the villa books choose to relate? If these books are autobiography, then exactly what type of autobiography are they?

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Published 1 October 2007 in Volume 23 No. 2. Subjects: Australian identity, Australians overseas, Autobiographical writing, Quest motif, Search for self identity, Travel fiction & writing.

Cite as: Genoni, Paul. ‘Unbecoming Australians : Crisis and Community in the Australian Villa/ge Book.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 23, no. 2, 2007, doi: 10.20314/als.ebb173135d.