Cirrus@Austlit

Richard Flanagan’s novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North represents yet another addition to the catalogue of Australian war experience literature. The awards and accompanying praise the novel has earned since its release in 2013 reflects a widespread appreciation of its ability to reimagine Australia in a saturated terrain. Flanagan’s novel can be read as a critique of the rise of militant nationalism emerging in the wake of Australia’s backing of Bush’s ‘war on terror’ and the idea that the arrival of boat refugees requires a military and militant response. This article discusses how the novel’s shift from battle heroics to the ordeal of POWs in the Thai jungle represents a reimagining – away from the preoccupation with epic battles – but not necessarily a challenge to the overriding emphasis on baptism of fire narratives as the only truly national narratives.

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It is rare to come across studies of important themes in the context of a national culture, such as the Australian, and think, why has this not been examined properly before? Fiona Probyn-Rapsey's Made to Matter. White Fathers, Stolen Generations represents such a study. While stolen generations have been the subject of many studies in the wake of the Bringing Them Home Report released in the mid-nineties, the stolen generations' white fathers have not attracted such scholarly attention. There are many reasons for this neglect, which could presumably include: the spotlight was on the direct victims of this atrocious and cultural-genocidal policy culminating of course in Kevin Rudd's 2008 apology; as Probyn-Rapsey points out some white fathers would disown their "half-caste" offspring, others would own up to them at the risk of attracting attention from the white authorities, whose vigorous pursuit of white justice is mercilessly laid bare in the dramatized autobiography, Rabbit Proof Fence, and Baz Luhrmann's fictional account Australia. [From the journal's webpage]

This volume addresses the multiplicity of issues concerning the presentations to students of post colonial literature. The collection focuses upon the specific strategies for teaching post-colonial literature within particular political environments. Further, it offers course outlines covering the literature of a number of post-colonial regions. The individual chapters survey the changes and ideas in the discourse of "Commonwealth literatuer" since the emergence of this particular field. The essays are historical, formulating a cohesive sense of past and present.

Source: Publisher's blurb.