Cirrus@Austlit

Laurie Hergenhan asserts that '[t]he decline in the tertiary teaching of Australian literature needs to be seen in the context of the general decline in the teaching of English literature across all levels of the educational system'. He comments, too, on funding arrangements, noting the 'nonsensical disparity between the substantial funding offered to research into Australian literature and limited funds available for its undergraduate teaching'.

Stephen Matchett discusses 'a new subset of the memoir, the bio-op. In bio-ops an author writes their past as they want us to know it but also set [sic] out their ideas and opinions on anything that interests them'. Matchett cites the writings of Robert Hughes and Gabrielle Carey to illustrate his argument. He concludes: 'These books are not big-noting of the old-fahsioned kind. They describe defeats as well as victories. But it takes an ego measured in metres for an author to assume their opinions on anything and everything are worth recording.'