'Richard Flanagan: New Critical Essays is the first collection of critical writing on Flanagan’s fiction, featuring 12 essays from leading Australian, European and North American scholars.
'From his early historical writing to his emergence as a global writer of literary fiction, Tasmania has always been at the centre of Flanagan’s work. Of his six novels, four are explicitly concerned with Tasmania and smaller surrounding islands.
'This collection examines the themes of ‘islandness’, the historical and geographical factors that have shaped Tasmanian identity, present in Flanagan’s work; the Tasmanian tradition of oral storytelling and the effect that it has had on Flanagan’s writing; and Flanagan’s treatment of the racial other. Together they offer new insights into a determinedly regional writer, and the impact that he has had on Tasmanian, Australian, and world literature.' (Publisher's abstract)
'On 14 October 2014 Richard Flanagan was awarded the Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013). It was a signal moment not only in his own career but also in the international reception of Australian literature. In his acceptance speech and in media interviews in London, however, Flanagan identified with Tasmania rather than Australia, explaining, "I do not come out of a literary tradition. I come from a tiny mining town in the rainforest on an island at the end of the world." Echoing Salman Rushdie in the wake of his own Booker win for Midnight's Children in 1981, Flanagan went on to claim that "Literary culture... is the vengeance of the edges on the centre".'
'With The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013), Richard Flanagan became Australia’s third winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, leading many people to pick up his novels for the first time and to look for some critical support in reading them. After my own review of the novel in SRB, I was bailed up by friends – many of whom had read it in book groups – to report on lively disagreements (often with my review). Apart from reviews, there were a few articles scattered in academic journals but no easily accessible, book-length study. So this new collection of essays on his work, edited by Robert Dixon, is a welcome addition to the ongoing discussion of our latest literary superstar.' (Introduction)
'With The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013), Richard Flanagan became Australia’s third winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, leading many people to pick up his novels for the first time and to look for some critical support in reading them. After my own review of the novel in SRB, I was bailed up by friends – many of whom had read it in book groups – to report on lively disagreements (often with my review). Apart from reviews, there were a few articles scattered in academic journals but no easily accessible, book-length study. So this new collection of essays on his work, edited by Robert Dixon, is a welcome addition to the ongoing discussion of our latest literary superstar.' (Introduction)
