AustLit

Nicholas Jose considers 'the language of Australian literature as being distinct from other Englishes in its relationship with Aboriginal English, a language that is used creatively in Aboriginal literature. Aboriginal English and Aboriginal literature have, in turn, their separate relationships with Aboriginal languages, many of which are lost, and with Indigenous knowledges, which they continue and communicate. Those other Aboriginal languages, known and unknown, shadow Australian literature in English and set it apart. To this extent, I will argue, Australian literature speaks a language that resists ready assimilation to Anglophone and world literary constructions' [p. 189].