Astley's early work resisted both the representation of women's experience and any openly feminist position, though her later work sometimes presents feminist opinions in an obvious way. She appears to be a social and cultural conservative, yet she passionately attacks some conservative positions. While her talents appear to be comic and satirical, her novels often confront violent or tragic events. She declares her sympathy for the marginalized and oppressed, but she exposes the failings of her characters with an unforgiving irony. She is a stylist who shifts from one style to another, often within the same novel.
Some of these contradictions may be understood in terms of Astley's personality and her experience of a rapidly changing Australian society. Personally, she can be contrary, even cantankerous, though she also has a great comic gift, expressed in witty self-mockery. In some ways, she is a typical Australian intellectual of her generation, jealously guarding her isolation from major intellectual groups and resisting participation in wider political and social movements. This isolation provides a platform for a sometimes passionate, sometimes wry denunciation of Australian society; it also ensures that she can never be claimed by any single political group or ideology.
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