Cirrus@Austlit

'A critical study of revelation in Australian literature in the case of Randolph Stow, Patrick White, Francis Webb and Harold Stewart, this book concentrates mainly on these writers but also includes a discussion of the literature of such writers as Christina Stead. 

'This book also includes a lengthy afterword that focuses on such matters as the nature of human evolution and, in reference to such writers as Northrop Frye, to the role of the prophetic mission in human history, examining the nature of human evolution in relation to such notions as The Good Mother and The Terrible Mother, and the question of whether humanity will survive all the challenges facing it in the twenty first century given the nature of human folly. 

'It concludes with a discussion of the increasing degradation of Australia’s cultural and educational institutions such as their universities that are controlled by a self-seeking managerial class to the detriment of learning, and the emergence of Australia as a dumb country, as many of its citizens become increasingly ignorant and stupid, raising the issue of what measures will need to be taken to reform the Commonwealth of Australia so that its citizens begin to think and question, and to learn how to live with their land, use its water wisely, and know about its history, including its literature, and are not simply unthinking captives of the unbridled use of technology being open instead to the mystery and wonder of the cosmos.' (Publication summary)