scholarly journals Irish-Australian Literature: Ghosts, Genealogy, Tradition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Giles
Keyword(s):  
Australian Literature

Australia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Bode
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Australian Literature

This chapter on the history of book publishing in Australia divides Australian novel publishing since 1950 into three periods: the 1950s and 1960s, the 1970s and 1980s, and the 1990s to the present. During the 1950s and 1960s, British companies dominated the publication of Australian novels and publishing decisions were predominantly made overseas, but the period also witnessed a ‘local publishing boom’, driven by the belief in the importance of Australian literature and publishing. The 1970s and 1980s saw the growth of a vibrant local publishing industry, supported by cultural nationalist policies and broad social changes. At the same time, the significant economic and logistical challenges of local publishing led to closures and mergers, and — along with the increasing globalization of publishing — enabled the entry of large, multinational corporations into the market. This latter trend, and the processes of globalization and deregulation, continued in the 1990s and beyond.

The railway in Australian literature

1988 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-82
Author(s):  
Russell McDougall
Keyword(s):  
Australian Literature

Indigenous Studies: Australia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Minter
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Indigenous Australia ◽  
Colonial Authority ◽  
Cultural Suppression ◽  
Australian Literature

Contemporary Indigenous Australian literature draws on tens of thousands of years of sustained cultural continuity and diversity, while bearing witness to the destructive impacts of colonization and assimilation, and imagining new horizons of restoration, healing, and sovereign expression. The late 18th-century arrival of the English language amid complex Indigenous societies presented Indigenous peoples with a set of unfamiliar literary, linguistic, and rhetorical conditions and forms, the sudden appearance of Western literary modernity forever changing Indigenous modes of expression. This “intercultural entanglement” of Indigenous Australian literature is central to an appreciation of its achievements, from its earliest appearances in letters, petitions, and chronicles aimed at negotiating with or at times subversively mimicking modes of colonial authority, to its growing confidence and autonomy in the 20th century as Indigenous Australians fought back again colonization, asserted civil and land rights, and began the long process of cultural restoration and healing, through to the sovereign expressions of Aboriginal consciousness today. Across various modern literary genres, from mythological narratives to political manifestos, in poetry, plays, short stories, and novels, Indigenous Australian authors have borne witness to tragic and humiliating histories of violence, incarceration, and cultural suppression and fragmentation, but have also assertively developed new and at times revolutionary reimaginings of Western literary modes and styles. Realist testimonial narratives and lyrics in prose and poetry are today complemented by assured works of the imagination in which genre and mode are transformed in the recovery of blood memory, country, and language. The literature of Indigenous Australia continues to make a profound contribution to the literature of the world.

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