Australia has traditionally been depicted as ‘man’s country’. Iconic figures from the nation’s history have always been white males—the convict, the free settler, the bushman, the Anzac soldier, the surf lifesaver, the...

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The development of a canon for Australian literature was to examine the level of attainment achieved and to encourage debate and discussion. Rather than creating a standard, canon formation enabled scholars to select representational texts and build a critical discourse. This has not limited...

Bruce Bennett and Jennifer Strauss (eds.), The Oxford Literary History of Australia (Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1998, $49.95 hb) From as early as the 1840s, as we learn in the second chapter of this new Literary History of Australia, a flourishing national...

In the following excerpt, Gibson documents European perceptions of Aborigines during the period 1770 to 1850, noting the prevailing double image of the Aborigine as either a degenerate barbarian or a noble savage.

In the following excerpt, Mitchell concentrates on the principal Australian novels written between 1844 and 1889, categorizing most of them as romances and appraising the language, style, plots, and themes in these works.

In the following excerpt, Hadgraft reviews the principal Australian novels of the nineteenth century.

The early identity of colonized Australia was that of the rugged Australian man: a practical man, rough and ready in his manners and quick to decry and appearance of affectation in others. This history myth was fueled by Australian literature, which enforced this nationalistic view of the nation.