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“Unprecedented in the breadth of what it offers from both the ancient and the recent literature of my country.”—Thomas Keneally, from the foreword
The result of a collaboration between Sydney’s Macquarie University and International PEN Sydney Centre, and funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Research Council, The Literature of Australia gathers the most distinctive and most significant of the nation’s writing. Highlights include:

• Coverage of over two hundred years of literature in all genres, from the 1700s to the present, and over 500 entries from 307 different authors, including writing by Aboriginal authors from the early colonial period to the present.
• Work from contemporary authors of international renown, including Shirley Hazzard, Peter Carey, David Malouf, Les Murray, Alexis Wright, and Kate Grenville.
• Biographical details about the authors of the works selected, an introductory essay, major essays setting the works in their historical context, and suggestions for further reading.

The Literature of Australia offers readers of all kinds a window into the myriad ways of being Australian.

Customer Reviews (1)

The Literature of Australia: An Anthology
Literature anthologies bring to life, and light, the areas that they are covering, from American literature, to British literature and now to Australian literature.While Australian literature might not be as well known as American or British, it provides interesting stories and viewpoints of a distinctly English culture thousands of miles from its home in England.Norton provides us with a rich, and thick, anthology of Australian literature starting with the arrival of the first white settlers to modern writing.It is mainly a collection of poems, fiction, and letters, with some non-fiction at the beginning.It provides insight into the culture of history of Australia through the eyes of first the white settlers, and then the Aborigines, and other cultures during the 1960s, as Australians struggled with their national identity.Like all anthologies there will be disagreements over what should be included, and anger over some authors not being included.But Nicholas Jose has done a marvelous job including a wide sample of Australian literature, and hopefully with this collection Australian literature will start to become better known, as are American and British literature.


Reviewed by Kevin Winter ... Read more

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Poems, stories, letters and extracts from novels, plays and journals present a great variety of responses to Australia and to the art of writing. Items have been arranged into 12 groupings that reflect different ways of seeing the material of Australian writing. Each section has its own introduction. Problems are explained, theories and contexts for a wider understanding are offered. The book includes biographical guides to all authors and a full chronological table of events in the literary history of Australia. ... Read more

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The Cambridge History of Australian Literature is the most comprehensive volume ever written on Australia's national literature. This authoritative guide spans Australian literary history from colonial origins, encompassing indigenous and migrant literatures, as well as representations of Asia and the Pacific and the role of literary culture in modern Australian society. Bringing together a distinguished line-up of contributors, this volume explores each of the literary modes in an Australian context, including short story, poetry, children's literature, autobiography and fiction. This book is an essential reference for general readers and specialists alike. ... Read more

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Spanning more than a century, Australian Literature crystallizes a spirit, style, and ethos found nowhere else in world literature. These captivating selections in Australian Literature come from major voices, both famous and lesser known, and encompass short stories, memoirs, novels and aboriginal writings. Resonant or wryly witty, charming or disturbing, they explore themes deeply rooted in the Australian experience - shaping the land, the legacies of the convict past, the displacement of the aborigine, the search for a national identity, sex, love, and commitment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Aussie Literature - in a nutshell
I am an Australian -- living in California.I am also an English professor.With this combination, I have purchased MANY copies of this book to share with my colleages, students, friends.It offers a great encapsulation of Aussie literature from many different perspectives and I really like the organization, looking at the different parts of the culture.Most Australian kids read Lawson's "bush" tale in grade school.It paints a somewhat romanticized image of the brave "women" of the bush, taking care of the kids, killing snakes, etc., and I'm glad to see it included in this book.But Barbara Baynton's "bush" tale highlights the REAL dangers for women in the "outback" and is an interesting addition to this brief Aussie Canon of literature.

Who Says Only Kangaroos Can Jump?
Fantastic collection of literature from that most neglected of literary worlds. Many of these authors will be unknown to American readers. This is in itself a crime, and a very poor reflection on our awful schools. Patrick White is a Nobel Prize winner and deserves attention, but Carey is perhaps the more interesting of the two due to his interest in the bizarre and the fantastic. He taps more easily into the postmodern psyche. He is weird and wonderful, reminding this reader of Paul Bowles. Christina Stead is of interest to feminists but deserves attention for her superior writing skills. I can't think of an American woman writer with her cosmopolitan sophistication. Just shows that the Empire was good for something, because the Australian authors have gained from their commuting lives between Sydney and London and South Africa. Malouf, a Lebanese Jew, is fascinating, with a flare for the bizarre, like Carey. And on and on. The Australians, too, have authors of native descent, such as Astley. She passed away recently, I believe, but was one of the more prolific authors of her time. Many of these authors are interested in the dynamics of cross-cultural contact, exploring the lives of whites and aborigines as they have lived, for better and for worse, both together and separately. This is a fabulous anthology. For the price, it is doubtful that a better anthology can be found.

Recommended as an Introduction
The book was published in 1993 and contained 26 short stories or excerpts from novels and a memoir by 24 writers. The publication dates ranged from 1870 to 1989, and about half the pieces were by contemporary writers. The works were grouped by the themes of the bush, the Aboriginal experience, the convict system, the search for a national identity, and relationships. There was an introduction to the country and its literature, with recommendations for further reading.

Compared to other anthologies of Australian literature read that've been published in Great Britain and Australia since the 1960s, this one stood out for including excerpts from well-known novels by Marcus Clarke, Randolph Stow and A. B. Facey. Other memorable stories included one by Beverley Farmer written from the point of view of a male criminal, one by Tim Winton on a difficult childbirth, and one by Marian Eldridge about the problems of a welfare mother.

The selections were in general realist in style and not experimental, unlike some anthologies from earlier decades or the Oxford Book of Australian Short Stories. Although a number of the pieces, 11 or so, have appeared with some frequency in other collections, I'd recommend this book for those seeking an introduction, such as the audience for whom it seems to be primarily intended, North Americans.

Other anthologies include A Century of Australian Short Stories (1963), Best Australian Short Stories (1967), Classic Australian Short Stories (1974), The Penguin Book of Australian Short Stories (1976), The State of the Art (1983), Australian Short Stories (1983), Transgressions: Australian Writing Now (1986), The Faber Book of Contemporary Australian Short Stories (1988), The Penguin Best Australian Short Stories (1991), The Oxford Book of Australian Short Stories (1994), The Australian Short Story Collection: 1890s-1990s (1994 and earlier editions), Favorite Australian Short Stories (1995), Contemporary Classics 65-95: The Best Australian Short Fiction 1965-1995 (1996), The Penguin Century of Australian Stories (2000), and The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (publication expected in 2009).

Excellent celebration of Australia's literary heritage
"Australian Literature: An Anthology of Writing from the Land Down Under," edited by Phyllis Fahrie Edelson, contains over 300 pages of literature and supplementary material.Included are a substantial introductory essay, short author biographies, a map of Australia, a glossary of Australian terms, and a list of suggested readings.

The anthology is broken down thematically.Part I is "The Idea of the Bush."Part II, "Images of Australia," is further broken down into 3 subsections: "The Aboriginal Experience," "The Convict," and "The Search for a National Identity."Part III is "Relationships."Altogether there is a rich sampling of fiction and autobiographical writing.The anthology covers many themes and ideas:family ties, relations between the people and the land, socioeconomic status, education, Aboriginal culture, gay life, marriage, crime, etc.

There are a number of standouts in this overall solid collection. "The Chosen Vessel," by Barbara Baynton, is a chilling suspense tale."The Loaded Dog," by Henry Lawson, is a wild piece of slapstick comedy."Northern Belle," by Thea Astley, is a powerful character study that deals with the intersection of racial anxiety and gender roles.Excerpts from "A Fortunate Life," by A.B. Facey, offer a graphic look at the horror of war.This is a rich and diverse collection, well suited both for literature classes and individual reading.

Cultural Eavesdropping
Pieced together in snipets that leave the reader hungering for more, "Australian Literature, An Anthology of Writing from the Land Down Under," ambitiously attempts to collect the works of Aussie writers spanning two centuries and crossing class, gender, and racial lines.Edelson's introduction is invaluable for those who are new to Australian history, providing an excellent context for the works that follow.

"The Cooboo" by Katharine Prichard and "Wanamurraganya: The Story of Jack McPhee" offer a glimpse into the mythical, troubled, and gritty negotiations of Aboriginal life, their dealings with colonial oppression, and their relationship to the land."The Chosen Vessel," by Barbara Baynton, depicts a bush culture of misogyny and "Breaking a Man's Spirit," by Marcus Clarke, offers insight into the convict legacy.At first, the stories appear fragmented and unrelated, but as the reader progresses, the unifying themes of suffering, man/woman's relationship with a hostile environment, and self-determination begin to unfold.Aesthetically, the stories "feel" uniquely Australian, conveying a certain terseness, intensity, and independence.

On the downside, no poetry is included in the collection and I would have preferred more short fiction over novel excerpts.As an introduction to Australian literature, however, it succeeds beautifully. ... Read more

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The Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures series offers stimulating and accessible introductions to definitive topics and key genres and regions within the rapidly diversifying field of postcolonial literary studies in English.

In a provocative contribution to the series, Graham Huggan presents fresh readings of an outstanding, sometimes deeply unsettling national literature whose writers and readers just as unmistakably belong to the wider world. Australian literature is not the unique province of Australian readers and critics; nor is its exclusive task to provide an internal commentary on changing national concerns. Huggan's book adopts a transnational approach, motivated by postcolonial interests, in which contemporary ideas taken from postcolonial criticism and critical race theory are productively combined and imaginatively transformed. Rejecting the fashionable view that Australia is not, andthat Australian literature, like other settler literatures, requires close attention to postcolonial methods and concerns. A postcolonial approach to Australian literature, he suggests, is more than just a case for a more inclusive nationalism; it also involves a general acknowledgement of the nation's changed relationship to an increasingly globalized world. As such, the book helps to deprovincialize Australian literary studies.

i>Australian Literature also contributes to debates about the continuing history of racism in Australia-a history in which the nation's literature has played a constitutive role, as both product and producer of racial tensions and anxieties, nowhere more visible than in the discourse it has produced about race, both within and beyond the national context. ... Read more

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A collection of writings by Aboriginal men and women who come from the Torres Strait Islands and all six states of Australia. It captures the diversity of their lifestyles, and explores a sense of multiple identities while remaining faithful to traditional values and beliefs. ... Read more

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This is a book about the Australian desert and its central impact on Australian culture, from traditional Aboriginal art to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Starting with the Aboriginal understanding of the spiritual significance of the desert, it traces the attempts of the early colonists to conquer this alien space; the changing estimate of the inland explorers in fiction and art as heroes, failures, or psychological studies of obsession; the rediscovery of the desert in the twentieth century by travelers, artists, novelists, photographers and film makers; its interest for ecotourism and as a spiritual experience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Book
I agree with the other reviewer who gave this book 5 stars.

Professor Roslynn Haynes' other books are also recommended.

Explorers of the Southern Sky: A History of Australian Astronomy
(Cambridge University Press, 1996) (co-authored with Raymond Haynes, David Malin and Richard McGee)

From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994)

All the best

Fascinating Insight into the Red Center
Haynes has put a great deal of effort, energy, and insight into an incredible exhaustive exploration of what the Australian Desert means to Australians and how this attitude came about . Especially interesting to me are the sections on Australian Explorers and how their hardships, especially failures, have been transformed into myths.As an American who spent a semester in Australia, taking an Australian Studies course, I found this book supported what I had learned, while futhering my interests. Haynes provides numerous books, films, poems, and works of art in detailed discussions aboutmany big name Australian creatives such as Nolan and White. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to know more about Australian Culture. ... Read more

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'Practices of Proximity' investigates the appropriation of the English language taking place in the Australian literary contact zone between an official 'white' Australia - the apparent owners of both the land and the English language - and Australian Indigenous peoples. Rescuing the debate from seemingly peripheral locations - the 'empty' Great Sandy Desert, or the abject urban margin - it insists on the complex, ultimately open-ended and multilateral ownership of the English language by all who inhabit the intersubjective space of literature, rendering the inherited authority of who 'owns' meaning problematical and ethically suspect. Documenting the complex practices of bricolage and re-lexification of a multi-accentuated Australia, the book invites readers to consider Australian Indigenous literature as a space from which a re-routing of issues of co-habitation, sovereignty, and being and becoming Australian might begin. This interdisciplinary study of Australian Indigenous practices of appropriation ranges from texts produced during the first encounters of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to the work of established and rising authors, such as Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Jack Davis, Lionel Fogarty, Romaine Moreton and Kim Scott. ... Read more

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Describes and analyses contemporary responses to texts that explore exclusions from discourses of nation, place and belonging, indigenous people and the construction of women's subjectivity through national stereotypes and representation. ... Read more

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"Dark Side of the Dream" offers an assessment of Australian literature from a postcolonial perspective. Taking a post-bicentenary look at Australian culture and society through its literature, the authors argue that the shape of Australian society and literature has been profoundly affected by the processes that began when a colonizing society from Britain invaded Aboriginal Australia and dispossessed its people. "Australia" is not simply an autonomous White society; it also includes Aboriginal people and cultures and the problems of their relationship to the cultural practices of the colonizers. Nearly half of the book deals with Aboriginal texts, issues and themes, in recognition that this dimension of Australian literature is usually neglected. It also refers to recent work from Marxist, feminist and multicultural perspectives in order to analyze the "traditional" canon of Australian literature. ... Read more

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Unique in its field, exhaustive in scope, the Oxford Companion to Australian Literature offers a comprehensive account of Australian writing from European settlement in 1788 to the 1990s.It presents the most important achievements in the fields of fiction, poetry, and drama, and also covers non-fictional prose in journals, diaries, biographies, and autobiographies, and the impact of key historical events on Australian literature.Fully revised and updated, the second edition contains 500 new entries, bringing the total to 3050, reflects the greater influence and volume of women's and multicultural writing, and includes major new articles on crime fiction and the immigrant experience.Written in clear and accessible language, this major reference belongs on the shelf of every library and every lover of world literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A VERY THOROUGH, FABULOUS BOOK
What a fabulous, comprehensive, informative book this is! I love Australian memoirs of early settlement as well as "Banjo" Paterson's humorous poetry, the novels of Patrick White, other classic Australian novels such as "Picnic at Hanging Rock", and just about everything I have ever read by Australians, about Australia. In my wildest dreams I never knew there was such a vast array of books, all of which, it seems, are listed and discussed in this book. Listings are alphabetical by authors and often by a particular book title itself.Research appears to be exhaustive and all-inclusive and unbiased.I love this book!But because of it, I will go broke buying Australian books and will have to live an extra hundred years or so in order to read all of them.With this book, I have neglected my reading and have found myself spending the better part of several evenings looking through this tome.

Also wonderful, and along the same line as this book, is "The Oxford Literary Guide to Australia".It is arranged differently, by location and then by townships, and includes hundreds of photos of authors and places.I am using the two books together for a thorough description of authors, books, places, etc.GREAT reading and such fun!

Exhaustive in scope, clear and accessible to readers
This is a 'must have' guide for those who are either researching particular Australian writers, works of literature, or important themes.

If, for example, you are trying to find out more about bushrangers in Australian Literature, the comprehensive entry that starts on page 137 will define the term, give some history and provide some examples of literature.

Want to know something about 'The Thorn Birds' by Colleen McCullough?Turn to Page 745.Colleen McCullough is herself the subject of an entry on Page 489.

A great starting point for any author, theme or significant work of literature up to the 1990s.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith ... Read more

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Australian literature is one of the world's richest, dealing not only with "local" Australian themes and issues but with those at the forefront of global literary discussion. This book offers a fresh look at Australian literature, taking a broad view of what literature is and viewing it with Australian cultural and societal concerns in mind. Especially relevant is the heightened role of indigenous people and issues following the landmark 1992 _Mabo_ decision on Aboriginal land rights. But attention to other multicultural connections and the competing pull of Australia's continued connection to Great Britain are also enlightening. Chapters are devoted to internationally prominent writers such as Patrick White, Peter Carey, David Malouf, and Christina Stead; fast-rising authors such as Gerald Murnane and Tim Winton; less-publicized writers such as Xavier Herbert and Dorothy Hewett; and on prose fiction, poetry, and drama, women's and gay and lesbian writing, children's literature, and science fiction. The Companion goes beyond Eurocentric ideas of national literary history to reveal the full, resplendent variety of Australian writing. ... Read more

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Thomas Keneally is arguably Australia's best known and most popular author. World sales of his Booker Prize winning novel, Schindler's List, exceeded two million in 1994 alone. His fiction has always provided complex and vibrant enlightenment about Australian history and culture.

This first comprehensive critical study of Keneally's work concentrates on his many novels, but covers plays and nonfiction as well. It also analyses the vexed and often bitter academic reception that Keneally has endured, which in turn illuminates crucial aspects of Australian cultural history, not least as regards the Aborigines and the republican movement.

Thomas Keneally is the writer most attuned to the melodramatic temper and genius of Australian literary culture. His characters inhabit a world where moral bearings have been lost, the innocent are preyed upon by the malevolent, and dichotomies are ruthlessly insisted upon - between Europeans and Aborigines, English and Irish, convicts and gaolers, rich and poor. In the agitated and polarised terrain of Keneally's fiction, moral choices are extreme matters, the fates of individuals and of nations lie in perpetual jeopardy. ... Read more