AustLit

Korang engages with Grenville's novel Joan Makes History from the perspective of his 'reading self', that is 'African, male, non-white and non-Australian'. Through this experience, he discovers that 'against the ironic necessity of accepting that each time we travel we discover ourselves only, we must posit the freedom to make the disclaimer, postcolonially, that in our worldly encounters we are enjoined to discover in ourselves other selves.'

Clark seeks to 'apply Bookchin's theories, and those of his anarchist predecessors, in a reading of John Kinsella's poetry.' Clark concludes that: 'For a poet like Kinsella, whose environmental thought is informed by his readings in political theory, a socio-ecological perspective is quite apposite. Such an approach reveals the underlying concern of political organization and economic centralization evident in the various aspects of Kinsella's work, from his critique of colonial land appropriations and the impacts on the environment of unsustainable land-use practices, to his engagement with indigenous politics, pastoral ideology and animal rights.'

Goodspeed takes exception to the omission of Slessor's 'Heine in Paris' from major verse anthologies believing it to be the work in which Slessor 'establishes himself as a moderninst.' Goodspeed argues that 'Heine in Paris' is 'certainly modernist and feminist in its content and style' and that 'critical consideration, other than biography, would enable richer and more varied scholarship.'

From the vantage point of a personal relationship with the author, Atherton explores Wallace-Crabbe's recent poetry and notices a shift from melancholy and resignation to a more sensual, sexual and occasionally even erotic tone.

Nearly 50 years after the publication of Voss, Beston comments on 'the greatness of the novel and the qualities that alienate the reader from it.' He notes that in Voss White is really attempting to put Australia on the 'cultural map'; 'it is the cultural exploration that engages White's heart and mind.' Beston notes that the significant changes in Australian culture that occurred in the latter part of the twentieth century have changed the way in which Voss is received and understood by a new generation of readers.