Cirrus@Austlit

'The notion of interiority in Australian literature can be thought of in two main ways: as a physical, geographical location, such as the outback, or as a subjective notion of what constitutes our identity. Examining a range of representative examples, this chapter examines the way in which Australian fiction has explored, transgressed, and questioned the overlap of these two metaphors of interiority. For authors like Patrick White and Tim Winton, for instance, these liminal moments are often presented as mystical experiences, whereas novels like Kate Grenville’s Joan Makes History or Kim Scott’s Benang explore their colonial and political dimensions. The common intersection for all these narratives lies in their shared ethical confrontation between self and other, internal and external, a contested line that challenges readers of Australian fiction to rethink the borders of their own interiority.'

Source: Abstract

'The somatic effects of empire can be found in Tim Winton’s “pneumatic materialism”, an aesthetic preoccupation in his novels with moments of anoxia, or the deprivation of oxygen to the brain. This essay will consider how Winton's novel engage with pneumatic materialism in response to questions of uneven development traditionally associated with the Global South, thereby disrupting clear South–North distinctions. By blurring his concerns across the North–South divide, Winton shows a willingness to think of empire as a series of relations that are not bound by national or territorial borders so much as by substances in the air. He does this, I argue, in his use of the breath.' (Publication abstract)