Cantrell explores the myths that have been constructed around the Bulletin and A. G. Stephens' role in the development of Australian literature. Cantrell argues that the Bulletin's status as a nationalist publication is destabilized by an unacknowledged "bourgeois vision" and a tendency towards xenophobia that produced a "selfcontained world". But, in the "Red Page", A. G. Stephens' subdued assessment of Australian literature in relation to European literature produced a voice far removed from the "xenophobic nationalism" promulgated by the Bulletin.