'Publishing accounts of captivity in Australia in the wake of the First World War presented many aspiring memoirists with a significant challenge. The prisoner of war had an unconventional tale of war to tell, one that was fundamentally at odds with a dominant literary figure in the wake of the war—the Australian soldier hero. Those who did publish retrospective accounts of captivity framed their experience in a deliberate way—through the lens of both personal and public contemporary understandings of that experience—and used their accounts to both reflect and challenge assumptions about military captivity.' (Publication abstract)
'Publishing accounts of captivity in Australia in the wake of the First World War presented many aspiring memoirists with a significant challenge. The prisoner of war had an unconventional tale of war to tell, one that was fundamentally at odds with a dominant literary figure in the wake of the war—the Australian soldier hero. Those who did publish retrospective accounts of captivity framed their experience in a deliberate way—through the lens of both personal and public contemporary understandings of that experience—and used their accounts to both reflect and challenge assumptions about military captivity.' (Publication abstract)
