'Henningsgaard considers the theoretical and political implications of teaching Sally Morgan's My Place to American university students alongside Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. My Place is a milestone in indigenous writing in Australia in which Morgan writes of her quest to discover her hidden Aboriginal heritage, while The Jungle and Uncle Tom's Cabin are American classics whose reputations are inextricably linked to the social reforms they inspired. He presents an intriguing thesis about proximity and identification, distance and empathy based on the experience of teaching Australian and American literature together.' (Publication summary)