Many of the major achievements in Australian Literature since the 1950's have been autobiographies, but only within the last decade has much attention been given to the form. As a literary form, autobiography is rich and varied; it is also culturally revealing. Like its counterpart in the United States, the Australian autobiography is much concerned with ideas about national identity; it frequently presupposes a national type or a typical environment against which the narrator attempts self-definition. This study of Australian autobiography will raise questions about the distinctive concerns and structures of the genre. It will examine recurring myths of 'growing up Australian.'
