AustLit

In 2015 I was invited to Hungary to give a talk at the European Association for Studies on Australia conference. The invitation meant a lot to me as my parents were Hungarian-they left during the 2nd world war-and I was in the process of obtaining Hungarian citizenship. Hungarian was my childhood language and Hungary then a mythical country. Where are you from? That simple, standard, frequent question, asked socially or officially, curiously or dutifully, is one I was asked all my life in Australia. They never meant which suburb do you live in or which part of the city did you grow up in. These days I do not take for granted the wonderful simplicity of replying "Australia". Once upon a time there was a real Australia to which I could not belong and therefore had no right to speak about. That was the Australia that was. [From the journal's webpage]