ABSTRACT
As Australian novelists who both explore gay homosexual desire, class culture, and Greek identity in their multiculturally flavored realistic narratives, Christos Tsiolkas and Peter Polites come across as two angry men who deal with strong emotions in contrastive aesthetics. This chapter will chiefly discuss Merciless Gods, Tsiolkas’ collection of short stories, and Polites’ The Pillars in an attempt to bring to the fore the various forms of rage which transpire in a range of literary forms and techniques. While this violent, uncontrollable anger is given full expression in Tsiolkas’ writings, it appears to be more restrained and channelled in Polites’ second novel.
This essay will ultimately demonstrate that both above-mentioned creative writers are using fiction as an effective advocacy platform to voice their moral outrage at some of the wrongdoings and social inequities that plague contemporary Australia.
