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.
This article explores the portrayal of women in contemporary Australian literature - as suffering beings, self-harming, bulimic, obese, depressed and even mad. The author examines women writers' sense of the body as a source of suffering rather than pleasure.
If Native Legends (1929) made David Unaipon the foremost Aboriginal writer, Colin Johnson became the foremost Aboriginal novelist and theorist with the publication of Wild Cat Falling (1965) and Writing from the Fringe (1990). While displayng an intimate knowledge of Aboriginal culture, Johnson has never tried to hide his unfamiliarity with vernacular speech.