Australia's Fourth World Literature single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 1989... 1989 Australia's Fourth World Literature
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In this examination of the literature produced in Australia by Aboriginal writers, Shoemaker takes the 1975 World Council of Indigenous Peoples definition of The 'Fourth World' as a phrase to describe Indigenous minorities. Beginning with Kath Walker's We Are Going (1964), Shoemaker traces the beginnings of Aboriginal literary expression set against the changing political context of the 60s, 70s and 80s. He subsequently argues that contemporary Black Australian creative writers have already played a major role in articulating a sense of unity and defining Aboriginal identity.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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    y separately published work icon Black Words, White Page : Aboriginal Literature 1929-1988 Adam Shoemaker , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1989 Z106800 1989 single work criticism (taught in 1 units)

    Shoemaker's primary concern is to look at the beginning of 'black people's' writing in Australia since the 1960s and focus on the nascent literary canon emerging through Aboriginal writing. Shoemaker moves the readership through non-Aboriginal authors such as Katharine Susannah Prichard (1929) and Xavier Herbert (1938) in a chapter entitled 'Popular Perceptions of Unpopular People to Progress and Frustrated Expectations: The Era Since 1961'. Where Aboriginal writing begins, for Shoemaker's purposes, is an area of literary production he describes as 'fourth world literature'.

    St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1989
    pg. 1-16
Last amended 23 Feb 2011 17:34:13
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