Cirrus@Austlit

Ackland talks about the publishing decline of Christina Stead's career due to her worsening political and economic situation. Midway through the 1960s, Stead's career was perilously poised. For more than a decade nothing new had appeared from her pen. This was a striking hiatus for a writer who previously had been producing novels at a rate of one every two or three year. Here, Ackland attempts first to establish Stead's political position and opinion of the post-war consensus that had emerged in the US before endeavouring to trace the impact of these attitudes on her depictions of contemporary society in The Puzzleheaded Girl.' (Editor's abstract)