AustLit

'This paper examines the way in which Eva Sallis fictionalises encounters with Europe, Asia and The Middle-East in her three books, Hiam (1998), City of Sealions (2002) and Mahjar (2003). In her narratives, Sallis depicts the migrant experience in Australia and in foreign places to deconstruct definitions of “home”, of being in the world, and construct the space of the cosmopolitan subject that meanders through historical settings and transnational contexts. Thus, Sallis seems to suggest that the relationship between history and literature is intimate, that narrative and history are multiform and bound, respectively acting upon one another, redefining the boundaries of nations and identities. Looking at how Sallis engages with the political realities and tackles the problems of being different to the mainstream, this paper examines the various meanings derived from intercultural encounters, whether such encounters subvert Australia’s settler-history but also its multicultural and post-colonial nature. The novelist’s use of geographic space and displacement as major components of contemporary identity-making, conveys an inclusive approach to otherness and constructs flexible identities out of global and cosmopolitan experiences.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.