Cirrus@Austlit

'Bernard Hickey devoted his life to the cause of Australian literature and Australian culture in Europe, often at the cost of great personal sacrifice. He was known, loved and profoundly respected wherever Australian writing and literary culture were studied.' -- From the online text of Eureka Street, vol.17 no.16.

'In this article I examine two recent works, The White Earth by Andrew Mc Gahan and The Secret River by Kate Grenville. The first explores the current preoccupation with borders, both external and internal, and the second is looking to move across them. A border can have both negative and positive connotations; as a mark of separation or, if used as a verb, the action of approaching or verging on another culture or environment. In Australia it has usually been defined negatively as an expression and focus of anxiety about invasion from outside but also of subversion from within. These assumptions can be explored through fiction, to the extent that it provides access to the unconscious, to what is otherwise unspoken and often unspeakable.' -- Author's abstract.

'Drawing on recent Australian studies of "intersubjectivity" and "whiteness", this article offers insights into the ongoing debate on Indigenous/non-Indigenous literary collaborations. Through the combination of these theories, the Australian literary contact zone is unveiled as a space where writers, readers, editors and critics are always intersubjectively, although often not reciprocally, influenced. Hence, this article hopes to offer a terrain for discussing issues of sovereignty, difference and subject positioning.' -- Author's abstract.