‘Sex and gender are acknowledged as highly vexed and contradictory categories in Australian history and culture. White Australia’s ethos of mateship, the primacy of friendship between men, excludes women, yet white Australian women were among the first in the world to be granted the franchise. Mateship is a fiercely homophobic relation, yet today the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in one of Australia’s most celebrated international events. Australian literature rehearses similar contradictions and anxieties. Specifically, at the time of nation formation in the late nineteenth century, and coinciding with the rise of nationalist discourses more generally, Australian literature commonly presents processes of identity formation without stable definition or closure, betraying a fascination with perverse and volatile identities.’ (Introduction)