Cirrus@Austlit

'‘One might ask whether both novels and suburbs are obsolete,’ writes Brigid Rooney, at the start of her inquiry into suburban space in the Australian novel (9). Why should we care for the suburbs—those sub-urban spaces ringing the inner city, those in-between feminised spaces neither urban nor rural—when globalism, market deregulation, and the big-four (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) have collapsed the distinction between globe, city, suburb and home. The homogenised and ever-expanding land-creep of late capitalism has nullified ideas of the centre and periphery. The grids, the bungalows, the post-war facades, and the ubiquitous red tile roofs, are earmarked for redevelopment.' (Introduction)