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Issue Details: First known date: 2016... no. 60 November 2016 of Australian Humanities Review est. 1996 Australian Humanities Review
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Contents

* Contents derived from the , 2016 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Reviewing Race in the Digital Literary Sphere : A Case Study of Anita Heiss’ Am I Black Enough for You?, Imogen Mathew , single work criticism
The View from Above from Below : Novel, Suburb, Cosmos, Brigid Rooney , single work criticism
Introduction : Book Reviewing in Australia, Patrick Allington , Melinda Harvey , single work criticism

'This special section on book reviewing in Australia emerges from the symposium Critical Matters: Book Reviewing Now, held at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne on 9 April 2015 and hosted by Monash University’s Centre for the Book. This symposium, the first of its kind ever to take place in Australia, brought together over thirty reviewers, academics, writers, literary editors and publishers to debate a series of ‘provocations’ on topics such as the necessity of negative reviews, the problem with pitching, the anachronistic nature of critical jargon, the pros and cons of ‘clubbishness’, and the advent of online reviewing sites. Like the symposium, this special section consciously refuses two premises: namely that, before we even start to talk about book reviewing itself, we have to defend its right to exist or that it is in a state of crisis. Instead, this special section understands book reviewing to be a dynamic field that has influence beyond itself, and that can and should be treated to sustained attention by academics.' (Introduction)
Taking the Measure of Gender Disparity in Australian Book Reviewing as a Field, 1985 and 2013, Melinda Harvey , Julieanne Lamond , single work criticism
'This essay presents and analyses the initial results of a large-scale and comparative quantitative survey of book reviews to draw some conclusions about the current state of Australian book reviewing as a field. We argue that the gender disparity in Australian book reviewing that has been identified by the Stella Count over the past four years needs to be seen in the wider context of changes to the nature and extent of book reviews over time. We compare two key publications across two years, three decades apart: Australian Book Review (ABR) and The Australian in 1985 and 2013.' (Introduction)
How Nice Is Too Nice? Australian Book Reviews and the ‘Compliment Sandwich’, Emmett Stinson , single work criticism
'This article responds to an ongoing public debate about whether Australian book reviewing is ‘too nice’, which started in the literary journal Kill Your Darlings in 2010 and has continued in other literary publications. It takes up Ben Etherington’s claim that ‘too nice’ reviewing is characterised by the ‘compliment sandwich’ in which critique is surrounded by mollifying praise. It offers a ‘distant reading’ of two years of fiction reviews in the Australian Book Review, applying a manual appraisal analysis to demonstrate that book reviews in Australia’s flagship reviewing publication do often adhere to the compliment-sandwich form. The article then returns to the question of ‘too nice’ reviewing, and applies a modified Bourdieusian analysis to examine how reviewing debates have served as proxies for larger disputes between institutions and interlocutors in the literary field.' (Introduction)
True or False? The Role of Ethics in Book Reviewing, Gillian Dooley , single work criticism
'Can, or should, literary criticism ever be entirely free of ethical judgement? And what does it mean to talk about the place of ethics in criticism? As a literary scholar with an interest in a wide range of fiction in English, and a book reviewer, I am implicitly confronted with these questions whenever I set out to write about literature in either essay or review form. Although the book review and the literary essay are different types of endeavour in many ways, this problem is common to both.' (Introduction)
A Defence of Tempered Praise and Tempered Criticism in Book Reviewing, Patrick Allington , single work criticism

'The academic, critic and nun Veronica Brady once wrote that Thomas Keneally ‘has always been a writer who mattered, even when he is writing too much too quickly’ (74). For several reasons, I often ponder this brilliant line. First, it captures a fundamental truth—perhaps the fundamental truth—about Keneally’s oeuvre. Indeed, it is an even more accurate appraisal of Keneally’s legacy in 2016, taking into consideration his more than fifty published books, than it was when it appeared in the literary magazine Meanjin in 1979. Second, the brevity of Brady’s observation is admirable: she uses so few words to say so much so well. Third, Brady here offers a mixed critical response: she is at once positive and negative about Keneally, with the two responses commingling rather than competing; her tone is moderate.' (Introduction)
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