ABSTRACT
It may seem that I have set myself a difficult task, comparing the incomparable: on the one hand is a book that became a bestseller, written by one of the leading writers of his generation; on the other hand a set of books, in a somewhat folksy outback genre, that were dated almost before they were written. However, it is not my primary aim to compare them as literature (though I do feel that Harney has been considerably underrated as a writer), but rather to compare them as representations of Aboriginal society. Harney’s books and Chatwin’s book were both, in their own time, the most popular books written on Aborigines. My initial aims in this paper are very simple ones: to consider how their writings on Aborigines compare with anthropological knowledge about Aboriginal society, and to consider whether the contexts in which Aborigines are embedded in their work reflects any gaps in this anthropological knowledge.
