AustLit

'This article examines the work of Ernestine Hill (1899–1972), an Australian journalist, travel writer, and broadcaster. It begins by elaborating some of the ways in which Hill's life and work have been given scholarly treatment previously, and then it proposes a reading of her work in terms of the themes of race and belonging—in particular, the relationship between whiteness and indigeneity in her written depictions of Australia's far north. The article draws upon the conceptual framework developed by Terry Goldie and Penelope Ingram to read Hill's collection of travel pieces,The Great Australian Loneliness (1937), and her historical writing in The Territory (1951).' (Authors abstract)

'Nineteen thirteen was an extraordinary year for Stella Miles Franklin. Alongside her hectic schedule with the National Women's Trade Union League in Chicago, Franklin worked on a variety of manuscripts, including the suffrage play “Aunt Sophie Smashes a Triangle”. I focus on this play about male adultery, contextualising it in her personal relationships and intellectual life, especially in the ways Franklin's interest in social purity, feminism, and the influence of Charlotte Perkins Gilman coincided with moral movements abounding in Chicago during 1913. Energised by the progressive literary endeavours of the period, Franklin makes three important points in this protest play about male adultery that include: the degeneracy of masculinity that leads to male susceptibility for adultery, the dangers of domesticity that help explain male infidelity, and the necessity of women's economic independence and solidarity to survive the realities of male adultery in society. In this latter claim, Franklin subverts the polarisation of wife and mistress and presents women as allies united in resisting male sexual transgressions.' (Source: Author's abstract)

'This article addresses “the problem” of Judith Wright's last volume of poetry, Phantom Dwelling (1985), seeking to understand why it has been neglected by literary scholars despite very positive reviews. It positions this work in relation to Edward Said's thesis on “late style” (2006), seventeenth-century Japanese poet, Matsuo Bashō'sThe Narrow Road to the Deep North and “Record of the Hut of the Phantom Dwelling”, and Romanticism. (Author's abstract)