Cirrus@Austlit

'When Jan Morris died in 2020, people from around the world praised her elegant and eloquent writing, and her extraordinary life. Her many achievements included the publication between 1966 and 1978 of the ‘intellectual and artistic high-point of [her] career’: the Pax Britannica trilogy charting the zenith and decline of the British Empire. The popular trilogy, which remains in print, played a key role in establishing the late twentieth-century cultural narrative that the British Empire was ‘a force for good’ in the world. Calling into question the boundary between history, fiction and memory, Morris draws heavily on theatrical techniques to both construct a narrative of Empire, one which is dominated by the adventures of individual imperialists, and draw attention to its fabrication. Attending closely to its mode of address, I argue that Morris's trilogy, while equivocal and, in places, critical, ultimately offers a reassuring narrative of Empire. At a time of debate about these histories, I argue that the memorialising of Morris in the wake of her death represents one example of a continuing refusal to face the ongoing consequences of Empire.'(Publication abstract)

'In this article I investigate four phases in Australian non-fiction publishing between the late 1950s and early 2000s, focused on works of current affairs, politics and popular history. Many such books, I argue, were published as part of a ‘cultural mission’ in Australian non-fiction book publishing, where an imperative for reform motivated many publishers to publish books they believed to be of greater than commercial importance. The paper first defines ‘cultural mission’ publishing. I then argue that such publishing has played a crucial role in Australian culture wars and struggles over national identity since the late 1950s and that these struggles have played out in four overlapping phases that reflect shifts in national debate and the commercial imperatives of book publishing. These consist of, first, a ‘renaissance’ phase from the late 1950s until roughly the late 1960s; second, an ‘insurrectionist’ phase from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s; third, a ‘reaction’ phase from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, and fourth a ‘corporatist’ phase that gathered pace in the late 1990s.' (Introduction)

'Non-fiction books by and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have arguably played a crucial role in the framing of public discussion of Indigenous issues in Australia since the 1950s. In this article, I track quantitative trends in the publishing of the approximately 769 such books for the Australian retail trade between 1960 and 2000, as part of what I describe as an emerging “cultural mission” among Australian book publishers through the period. The article then discusses two major trends within the data. The first is an overall increase in the number of titles published annually through the period, while the second is a declining interest by mass-market trade publishers in publishing books in the area from the 1980s onwards versus an increased publication rate by smaller independent presses and two large trade publishers with a particular interest in the area, one of which is also independently owned. The article concludes with a discussion of possible reasons for the latter trend in the context of ongoing debates about white Australian colonialism.'  (Publication abstract)