Australian Literary Studies

Transgressions edited by Don Anderson & The Australian Short Story by Laurie Hergenhan

May 1986, no. 80

Mary Lord reviews 'Transgressions: Australian writing now' edited by Don Anderson and 'The Australian Short Story: An anthology from the 1890s to the 1980s' edited by Laurie Hergenhan

I have a theory that every second Australian is a closet short story writer. And this is a conservative estimate. According to my theory, the so-called ‘booms’ in the history of the Australian short story in the 1890s and 1950s merely reflected fashions in the book and magazine publishing businesses, not the relentless scratching away in exercise books or thumping of battered typewriters which occupies the waking hours of the determined taleteller and which is, I am convinced, a more popular national pastime than dodging income tax. How else to explain the sheer volume of short stories being published? And these are but the tip of the iceberg – a mere fraction of those that have been and are being written.

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Visions of Mowanjum: Aboriginal Writings from the Kimberley by Daisy Utemomorrah et al; Maisie McKenzie

by David Martin •

October 1980, no. 25

David Martin reviews 'Visions of Mowanjum: Aboriginal writings from the Kimberley'

How, not being an anthropologist, do you set about reviewing tales and fragments of experience from Aboriginals of the Kimberleys? You might begin by stating your difficulties.

People like me can usually establish some kind of empathetic link with the arts and traditions of many cultures. If we cannot feel our way into them, at least we can derive intellectual pleasure from contemplating them: as a rule there is some point of contact, although to us, of the western heritage, nothing can ever be as real as what belongs to the family of Hellenism. I can ‘make something’ of Hindu sculpture, Inca masks, Negro jazz; perhaps even of shamanic spells.

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The diplomacy of literature

by Michele Field •

February–March 1980, no. 18

‘Go, little book,’ or the book as emissary, is not the simple matter that it once was.

Australian books and their authors now go to most European and Asian countries on diplomatic duties.

The purpose is neither to broaden the writers’ lives nor to sell books abroad, but to supplement the Government’s other diplomatic initiatives.

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Problems of individuals and society

by John McLaren •

February–March 1980, no. 18

While the reading of a book has become a solitary matter, its interpretation remains a convivial task which must be performed anew for each new reader, new age, and new country. The business of criticism is to help us in this task, and from a multitude of judgements to further our understanding of an author’s words for our time. The critic is therefore involved not only with books, but through them with the cultural problems of his society. Critical debates thus become debates about major social issues.

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