'Many years ago I read a now forgotten novel by a now forgotten author, which had a truly wonderful preface. It read, simply, this bloody book nearly killed me. I therefore dedicate it, dear Reader, to myself. There is a delicate irony at play, I think, in my long remembering this dedication while the book itself is erased completely from my memory. I’ll touch on the interplay of knowledge and memory in due course. What I want to start by saying, though, is that in my case, as in the case of that forgotten preface’s author, while writing can be a horrifically stressful business - and while writing this paper did indeed feel like it was going to kill me - the Author is emphatically Not Dead.' (Introduction)
Dedication: Dedicated to all refugees currently imprisoned by the Australian State
Barry Andrews Memorial Lecture
'The notion of interiority in Australian literature can be thought of in two main ways: as a physical, geographical location, such as the outback, or as a subjective notion of what constitutes our identity. Examining a range of representative examples, this chapter examines the way in which Australian fiction has explored, transgressed, and questioned the overlap of these two metaphors of interiority. For authors like Patrick White and Tim Winton, for instance, these liminal moments are often presented as mystical experiences, whereas novels like Kate Grenville’s Joan Makes History or Kim Scott’s Benang explore their colonial and political dimensions. The common intersection for all these narratives lies in their shared ethical confrontation between self and other, internal and external, a contested line that challenges readers of Australian fiction to rethink the borders of their own interiority.'
Source: Abstract
'The notion of interiority in Australian literature can be thought of in two main ways: as a physical, geographical location, such as the outback, or as a subjective notion of what constitutes our identity. Examining a range of representative examples, this chapter examines the way in which Australian fiction has explored, transgressed, and questioned the overlap of these two metaphors of interiority. For authors like Patrick White and Tim Winton, for instance, these liminal moments are often presented as mystical experiences, whereas novels like Kate Grenville’s Joan Makes History or Kim Scott’s Benang explore their colonial and political dimensions. The common intersection for all these narratives lies in their shared ethical confrontation between self and other, internal and external, a contested line that challenges readers of Australian fiction to rethink the borders of their own interiority.'
Source: Abstract