Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 'Legends of the Terrible, Laughing Men' : The Australian Literature of War
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The essay gives an overview of Australian war literature, its writers and major works. Unlike most European literatures which depicted the 'Great War' in rather bleak terms and saw the soldiers as victims rather than heroes, Australian war literature celebrated the 'Digger', the heroic prototype as 'the birth of a latter-day Achilles' and glorified the soldiers: 'Self-congratulation was the norm rather than the exception in Australian literature of the Great War' (342). Gerster argues that this trend continued through World War II and Vietnam literature, and even in recent times 'the cult of the Australian soldier has never had such widespread, unquestioning support' (345-346).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Reading Down Under : Australian Literary Studies Reader Amit Sarwal (editor), Reema Sarwal (editor), New Delhi : SSS Publications , 2009 Z1560703 2009 anthology criticism

    This literary reader on Australian studies for India not only investigates this central question by exploring many other facets of Australian literature especially Australian cross-cultural relationships with India and Asia. Taking a broad view of what Australian literature is, it explores the dimensions of Australian literature (national, Aboriginal, multicultural, ecocritical, postcolonial, modernist, comparative, feminist, and popular) in its varied genres of drama, poetry, autobiography. explorers' journals, short stories, literature of war, travel writing, Anglo-Indian fiction, diasporic writing, mainstream novel, nature writing, children's literature, romance, science fiction, gothic literture, horror, crime fiction, queer writing and humour. Each paper in this Reader presents different ways of "reading down under" and "performing Australianness" (Source: Backcover).

    New Delhi : SSS Publications , 2009
    pg. 339-348
Last amended 24 Feb 2009 14:39:30
339-348 'Legends of the Terrible, Laughing Men' : The Australian Literature of Warsmall AustLit logo
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