AustLit

'During the Federation era, the isomorphic association of literature, land, and nation found expression through the cartographic imaginary, a term that is meant to focus especially on the role of maps in shaping imagined geographies, but which also includes related media such as topographical engravings and photographic views. Contrary to Paul Giles's implication of an achieved "national period" in American literary history, however, Dixon argues that in Australia during the Federation era, the cartographic imaginary expressed an alignment of literature, land, and nation that was more wished for than achieved. He claims that the literature of the Federation period-in particular, the sketches and stories of Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils (1896) and Joseph Furphy's novel Such is Life (1903)–reveals the uncertainties and the sense of incompletion that attend the cartographic imaginary.' (Publication abstract)