ABSTRACT
In recent years, Australian literature has experienced a revival of interest both domestically and internationally. The increasing prominence of work by writers like Christos Tsiolkas, heightened through television and film adaptation, as well as the award of major international prizes to writers like Richard Flanagan, and the development of new, high-profile prizes like the Stella Prize, have all reinvigorated interest in Australian literature both at home and abroad. This Companion emerges as a part of that reinvigoration, considering anew the history and development of Australian literature and its key themes, as well as tracing the transition of the field through those critical debates. It considers works of Australian literature on their own terms, as well as positioning them in their critical and historical context and their ethical and interactive position in the public and private spheres. With an emphasis on literature’s responsibilities, this book claims Australian literary studies as a field uniquely positioned to expose the ways in which literature engages with, produces and is produced by its context, provoking a critical re-evaluation of the concept of the relationship between national literatures, cultures, and histories, and the social function of literary texts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part Section A|37 pages
Literature in the Colony
part Section B|38 pages
Early Twentieth-Century Australia
part Section C|40 pages
Contemporary Australia
chapter 12|7 pages
Towards a New Direction in Contemporary Criticism
part Section D|56 pages
Australian Literary Studies in the Public Sphere
part Section E|46 pages
Australian Literature and the World
chapter 19|12 pages
News from Australia
part Section F|108 pages
Key Themes in Australian Writing
chapter 31|10 pages
‘The Extraordinary Behind the Ordinary’
part Section G|77 pages
Genre in Australian Literary Studies