Cirrus@Austlit

Examines Baynton's story 'The Chosen Vessel' and its critical reception by Phillips and others with regard to the relationship between narrative and gender. 'Focusing on the place of woman as a sign in the short story and critical commentaries, keeping in mind the question of women's dissidence', the author traces 'the ambiguities of meaning within the original text and its more singular "truth" as represented by the critical tradition' (25).

Jarvis discusses the influence that advice from the Bulletin had on the form and content of Lawson's fiction. Jarvis argues, however, that Lawson developed his own idea of realism in contrast to the European mode favoured by the Bulletin, producing stories without plot or incident. Lawson's obtrusive narrators differed from the conventional narrators found in the Bulletin, but Lawson was criticized personally for the bleak picture of the bush in his stories. This "authorial" presence became an integral element in the reception of Lawson's fiction.

Discusses a number of histories of Australian literature and their authors' approaches, and suggests new modes of writing Australian literary history.