The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Examines the political consequences inherent in the genre of the 'well-made novel'. Argues that 'a reading of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith may tell us, not only what Keneally's novel explicitly states, that there is a limit to understanding white Australians can have of aboriginal culture, but also why Keneally was forced by the limits of the novel form itself to draw this lesson in politically conservative terms' (291).