Aboriginal Australians - Literary portrayal

Dorothy Green is quite right when she notes that Grant Watson's psychological and metaphysical disturbance looks forward to the novels of Patrick White, although the…

However silently or intermittently James Tucker may have hoped for redemption he had given himself to death in 1845 when he placed the final touches…

The novels which we will look at belong almost to different universes of discourse. Rowcroft's Tales of the Colonies (1843) deals with the aborigine in…

It is now eight years since the first book by Kath Walker caused a stir in Australian literary circles; and she has recently published her…

Elliott examines the Jidyworobaks' appropriation of Aboriginal culture, particularly a 'religious', or 'metaphysical' connection to the land. He argues that 'spiritual bondage to the land…

‘In this essay I aim to acknowledge the efficacy of the liberal humanist discourse in Remembering Babylon, whilst interrogating some of its more problematic…

Despite its having the pioneering life as its subject and something like the family saga for its structure, Xavier Herbert's Capricornia (1938) has little in…

The focus of this essay is ‘on excavating short fiction built around representation of frontier conflict’ (33). The short fictions of colonial frontier violence ‘seem…

The essay discusses Brimming Billabongs, ‘the first Aboriginal “autobiography”, albeit simulated, but also the first fictional narrative to rely upon an Aboriginal character as…

The article for the first time discusses Hewett’s early unpublished poetry which still exists only in manuscript and typescript in the National Library of Australia…

Focusing on Wright’s representation of the land, the river and the cyclone, the essay attempts to demonstrate ‘how playfully, flexibly and experimentally Wright moblilises a…

The article discusses the polarised response to Wright’s work. The author argues that it is Wright’s ‘blend of realism and the visionary that marks the…

The article examines the use of bodily metaphors of dismemberment and beheading in Drewe’s novel about the fate of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people, The Savage…

This article examines Elizabeth O’Conner’s seven books, published between 1958 and 1980, as works which functioned ideologically to implement a desire in post-World War II…

Discusses Murray's collection of poems, The People's Otherworld (1984) and collection fo essays, Persistence in Folly (1984), arguing that Murray's work explores the richness of…

Examines the political consequences inherent in the genre of the ‘well-made novel’. Argues that ‘a reading of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith may tell us…

Since the finding of the Australian High Court in what has come to be known as the Mabo decision of January 1992, the phrase Terra…

Provides a bibliography of works engaged with the subject of 'Australian literature' broadly conceived. It aims at giving a diversified picture of Australian literature by…

Defining ‘ethnographic verse’ as ‘a loose, heterogeneous sub-genre that mixed poetry with anthropology, or ethnology as Victorians called it’ O’Leary considers examples within the context…

'They won't have heard of much Australian writing, apart from Patrick While, but what they'll be interested in is the Aborigines.' Words of advice from…