Cirrus@Austlit

'This essay argues that contemporary Australian literary theory, like most varieties of contemporary critical theory, is losing whatever relevance it once had, not because 'theory' has lost intellectual force, but because the contexts in which it operated have radically changed. A 'crisis in liberalism' and the rise of neo-liberalism and the new conservatism, I argue, requires a reassessment of the project of critical theory. This is especially crucial in the case of Australian literary criticism, given that Australian literary liberalism is historically complicit with a wider white patrician liberalism that has recently begun to contest itself in response to the new conservative politics of race.' (author's abstract)

'This article rereads Patrick White's Riders in the Chariot against some of the past criticism of the text. It argues that the text has much to say about the contemporary politics of fear operating in Australia and demonstrates that many of the historical readings of White as an elitist, alienated Modernist cannot be sustained. The contemporary relevance and force of this novel arises from a double movement: the beauty of White's prose operates continually to allow us to perceive the "infinite in everything" but it also helps us understand the absolutely ordinary fears and insecurities of the suburban Australian consciousness. Through the ordinary everydayness of his Australian characters (other than the riders) we see all too clearly how the ignorance and prejudice of a very small few have the ability to snowball with catastrophic consequences. Himmelfarb, in the face of horror, turned away from literature believing that intellectual reasoning had failed humanity. Today it is the fear of intellectual reasoning that has the potential to make us all less than we have the potential to be.' (Author's abstract)

'The Year of Living Dangerously is perhaps the clearest example of Koch's engagement with Asia. In this novel the wayang kulit, the Javanese shadow-puppet play, is used for a variety of purposes. It appears at crucial points within the narrative, and also serves as an overall structuring device for the novel. It frames the novel's main plot, which depicts the last days of the Sukarno regime in 1965 and the coup which brought Indonesia to the brink of crisis. Furthermore, the characters of the wayang are used as archetypes for the characters in the novel, which creates space for reflections on stereotyping and the complicity of Western characters in the instability and violence experienced by Indonesia. Ultimately, the wayang is a motif and device of narrative and characterisation which allows Koch to explore notions of power and the abuse of power in a post-colonial context.' (Author's abstract)

'In this article, I examine Australian crime writer Kerry Greenwood's first 15 novels in the Phryne Fisher series, published between 1989 and 2005. Throughout this series, Greenwood clearly signals the interlocutory relationship between her novels and those of Agatha Christie. I therefore focus my study on how and to what end she "rewrites" Christie.' (Author's abstract)

'While scholars have critiqued early representations of the white colonial female in the form of the novel, short story, or historical narrative, analyses of poetry tend to be located only on that produced in Australia and often in light of a nascent national identity. This article examines how poetic renditions of the desolate woman might be viewed as part of imperialism's mythologising process, displacing more worrying versions of womanhood in relation to the new colonies. While social anxieties over the identity of the white colonial female would result in highly controlled productions of the female convict and female emigrant, this article demonstrates how they also prove unstable and point to a disruptive reality beyond language.' (Author's abstract)

'C.J. Dennis's biographers have consistently understated or ignored his political verse, but none as pointedly as Geoffrey Hutton, whose C.J. Dennis, The Sentimental Bloke was published on behalf of the Victorian Liberal Government in 1976. This paper surveys Dennis's most intense period of political output during his employment on the Call, a Labor Party ha'penny daily. It outlines the background to his decision to travel to Sydney to work on this newspaper during the Federal election campaign of 1914. It surveys his contributions to the Call during the campaign, and it sets out his personal disintegration during this period.' (Author's abstract)