AustLit
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Notes
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Contents indexed selectively. 'This issue of JEASA presents articles submitted for the general issue in 2019 by both European and Australian scholars of Australian studies. The first two provide analyses of contemporary literary texts, while the last three articles are devoted to current debates on issues of migration, representations of rural Australia, and current politics in tertiary education' (via editorial).
Contents
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Forever in the Postcolonial Process of Growing Up : Change and Changelessness in Christopher Koch’s Bildungsroman-Inspired Novels,
single work
criticism
'Bildungsromane are often debut or early novels by writers who relate part of their youthful experiences by means of an archetypal growing-older-and-wiser narrative in which the adolescent theme is paired with other concerns such as growth, identity and independence. This article examines the strong Bildungsroman streak which pervades half of Koch’s multifaceted novels by highlighting the main characteristics of the genre. The discussion of the transformation element in these novels, of tensions between change and changelessness, and of the writer’s conceptual use of metaphors, will draw attention to Koch’s postcolonial project.'
Source: Abstract.
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'Why Does It Always Have to End like This?' : On Board the Endeavour in Australian Children’s Fiction,
single work
criticism
'Journals of the earliest British visitors to Australian shores facilitated the creation of the image of Australian Indigenous nations as savage, primitive and inferior in every aspect of their appearance and their way of life to both Europeans and indigenous peoples of other lands. In 1688, William Dampier described the inhabitants of “New Holland” as “the miserablest people in the world … having no [sic] one graceful feature in their faces.” In 1770, James Cook found the natives’ canoes “the worst … [he] ever saw” (A New Voyage ch. 16). The encounter took a hostile turn when beads and nails thrown at their feet failed to impress Aboriginal people and pave the way for a peaceful landing. Prejudiced descriptions and opinions justified European colonisation of Australia and dispossession of indigenous peoples. It took more than two centuries to revise those views. Literature was a powerful tool of colonisation and in turn was used by the colonised to oppose the coloniser. In this article, literature is examined as a tool for adopting fresh perspectives in education of new generations of young people in Australia about Cook’s discoveries on the Endeavour journey. The paper examines two children’s novels—The Goat Who Sailed the World by Jackie French (2006) and Captain Cook’s Apprentice by Anthony Hill (2008)—in order to demonstrate that these novels can be extremely important in educational, cultural and socio-political terms because they open the ground for a discussion of ideologies, social behaviour and cultural values in classroom, and thereby can contribute to the ongoing process of reconciliation in Australia.'
Source: Abstract.
