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* Contents derived from the Melbourne,Victoria,:Oxford University Press,1971 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Kiernan looks at the text as an organic whole that presents a unified meaning to the reader. Kiernan examines the role of the narrator in establishing this meaning, concluding that all of the text is a drama because of Tom Collins' presence in the action. This enables the reader to consider the whole without the author's intervention. The novel is a success, therefore, according to the "critical standards which demand a novel . . . be a fully objectified work of art".
In 1968, Maurice Guest was the only Australian novel to significantly deal with love. Kiernan examines the conventions of romantic love at play in the novel, arguing that while the characters may seem conventional on the surface in this context, Richardson explores the psychology of each character more deeply. Kiernan concludes that despite the flaws of Maurice Guest, it is a remarkable novel because of its exploration of romantic conventions in 1908.
An Apocalyptic Map : New Worlds and the Colonization of AustraliaRoslyn Weaver,
2011single work criticism — Appears in:
Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study2011;(p. 23-53)'This chapter examines the map that preceded, and eventually superseded, the territory of Australia, in order to demonstrate that early maps of the south land established an apocalyptic tradition that still resonates in contemporary fictions. If one reinterprets Jean Baudrillard's comments in the context of colonization and Australia, it is possible to see how European imagination delineated an apocalyptic map of the country before explorers and settlers even arrived, a map that located Australia as a tabula rasa, a blank slate where heaven and hell might equally be feasible. This chapter surveys the dialectic emerging from these confliction visions.' (24)
An Apocalyptic Map : New Worlds and the Colonization of AustraliaRoslyn Weaver,
2011single work criticism — Appears in:
Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study2011;(p. 23-53)'This chapter examines the map that preceded, and eventually superseded, the territory of Australia, in order to demonstrate that early maps of the south land established an apocalyptic tradition that still resonates in contemporary fictions. If one reinterprets Jean Baudrillard's comments in the context of colonization and Australia, it is possible to see how European imagination delineated an apocalyptic map of the country before explorers and settlers even arrived, a map that located Australia as a tabula rasa, a blank slate where heaven and hell might equally be feasible. This chapter surveys the dialectic emerging from these confliction visions.' (24)
