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'This essay intends to highlight how Brian Castro's
Birds of Passage
(1983) and
After China
(1992) waver between transparency and opacity. It explores some of the techniques employed - among which a blurring of categories and a questioning of narratorial reliability
- in order to create what Roland Barthes calls a "text of bliss" - one which challenges the limits
of language as a means of communication.' (Author's abstract)
'David Malouf 's
An Imaginary Life
has been praised for its anti-colonial and ethical treat
-
ment of alterity. However, this paper argues that Ovid appropriates the Child's mysticism
as a tool to soothe his pain of unbelonging. In this sense, the novel brings to mind the
current debates about the Australian project of reconciliation and the white settlers' opportunist
engagement with Aboriginal mysticism and spirituality.' (Author's abstract)
'Andrew McGahan's Wonders of a Godless World (2009) explores consciousness, reality and madness through the main viewpoints of two odd and mysterious characters. Set in a psychiatric ward reminiscent of Bentham's panopticon, the story is an eye-opening journey into a transparent society characterized by the singular connections it makes between the visible and the invisible. Dreams and fantasy delineate spaces of otherness that call forth questions of perspective and reliability. The multi-layered narrative combines strategies of invisibility with the staging of the self so that while transparency normally implies openness, communication, and accountability, it can also operate in such a way that it becomes difficult to ascertain the characters' actions.' (Author's abstract)
