AustLit

Rolls argues against essentialist notions of identity based on 'blood' and 'race' and against an understanding of Aboriginality based on an 'either/or' positioning. He argues that 'boundaries are not impervious but permeable, and black and white do not so much cross them as exist through them' (100).

Delys Bird discusses issues of essentialism and authenticity as applied to Aboriginal writing. She looks at examples of non-Aboriginal editing or framing of Aboriginal texts before moving to an extended reading of Benang and how the novel negotiates between - and complicates - ideas of orality and writing and Indigenous and non-Indigenous representation and identity.

Author's abstract: 'A major preoccupation in David Malouf's fiction - particularly in evidence in Remembering Babylon but also in An Imaginary Life - has to do with the relationship between words and things, and with the quest for a kind of language that might be in complete harmony with reality.

At times, Malouf seems to believe this quest can be successful, in spite of the arbitrary and conventional nature of language. But this conviction is undermined by the realisation that language gives shape to reality as we see it, that it is creative rather than simply referential' (99).

The author re-considers the work of three writers who 'represent distinct intellectual, artistic and socio-political traditions which at certain points seem to clash and conflict. Each has a distinctive literary voice and presence. All three have made major contributions to Australian literary culture from different parts of the country.'

'In the course of analysing a random selection of Lionel Fogarty's poetry I have pointed to the necessity of interculturally appropriate, intersubjective research methods' (165). Wildburger advocates an approach to textual analysis based on 'mutual respect, as practised in intercultural dialogues' (166).