Cirrus@Austlit

'As editor of The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature, Elizabeth Webby has had to perform the delicate balancing act now required of any literary guide: how to familiarize the reader (both national and international) with certain historical details – she includes a welcome mini- history of Australia as part of her introduction – which also serve as co-ordinates for an increasing wealth of material on reception and production, and the history of critical evaluation. While her chosen emphasis differs from the Oxford Literary History of Australia (1998), the two books share a culturally materialistic approach. There is, however, an additional “contrapuntal” aspect to Webby’s book which encourages a wider, more layered reading of Australian literature than earlier accounts.'  (Introduction)