AustLit

The dual use of 'reading' in this title evokes the nature of this study, which analyses the ways in which people 'read' (make sense/produce) images of culture as they approach translated novels. Part of this analysis is the examination of what informs the 'reading culture' of a given community; that is the conditions in which readers and texts exist,or the ways in which readers are able to access texts. Understandings of the depictions of culture found in a novel is influenced by publicity and promotion, funding bodies, and other links between the reading public and the production and sale of books. All of these parties act as 'translators' of the text. A set of contemporary Australian novels provides case studies to show that the influence of the press and other 'translators' is significant to the ways in which texts, and cultures, are read.