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'Striving to convince readers that an invasion was no mere literary license, the Australian invasion novels of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries called upon a gallery of foreign and internal villains. Of the latter, the (mostly) male authors frequently identified the manhood of Australia's cities as a weak link that could fatally undermine the young nation. This article, though, will illuminate the work of another invasion novelist, Joyce Vincent, to show that this concern about the men of the city had more to do with the uncertainties of gender than it did with the defence of White Australia.' (p. 41)
Notes
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Epigraph: Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, in particular, are like huge cancers whose ramifications of disease spread far into national life…In our overgrown cities health and strength are sapped; the habit of productive labour is lost; and the character of the people sensibly deteriorates…If our cancers are not extirpated, they may yet destroy the nation. (A.G. Stephens, 1900)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Last amended 25 Mar 2010 13:44:48
41-56
Gendering of Disaster : Cities and City Manhood in Joyce Vincent's The Celestial Hand
Australian Historical Studies
Australian Historical Studies
