AustLit

Discusses the issue of Aboriginal assimilation with reference to Herbert's novel.

'In a number of collaborative works of Indigenous life-writing, the historical and theoretical entanglements between orality and literacy ... the spheres of "talk" and "text" ... underwrite the limits and possibilities of such works as part of the broader project of contemporary cross-cultural representation. Paddy Roe's and Stephen Muecke's collaboration in Gularabula has been extremely influential in this field in Australia. Their work has shaped cross-cultural approaches to the genre since its publication in1983. This article revisits Gularabula in order to examine the relationship between talk and text in collaborative Indigenous/non-Indigenous works, and considers some critical responses to these efforts.' (p.59)

Concentrating on Ellis's two accounts of road trips with Francis Birtles, this article explores 'some of the social and political context of motoring and car culture in the inter-war period. It also shows how Ellis's continuing obsessions, his conservative politics and his personality flaws ... were reflected in his motoring exploits.' (p.86)