The Mabo Turn in Australian Fiction

The Mabo court decision - which acknowledged indigenous people's presence in the land, in history, and in public affairs in Australia - challenged previous ways of thinking about Australian history and culture. This is the first study of the impact of this decision on Australian fiction, focusing on nineteen important contemporary novels.

Winner of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature's Alvie Egan Award 2019! Winner of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies (GAPS) Dissertation Award 2018 This is the first in-depth, broad-based study of the impact of the Australian High Court's landmark Mabo decision of 1992 on Australian fiction. More than any other event in Australia's legal, political and cultural history, the Mabo judgement which recognised indigenous Australians' customary «native title» to land challenged previous ways of thinking about land and space, settlement and belonging, race and relationships, and nation and history, both historically and contemporaneously. While Mabo's impact on history, law, politics and film has been the focus of scholarly attention, the study of its influence on literature has been sporadic and largely limited to examinations of non-Aboriginal novels. Now, a quarter of a century after Mabo, this book takes a closer look at nineteen contemporary novels including works by David Malouf, Alex Miller, Kate Grenville, Thea Astley, Tim Winton, Michelle de Kretser, Richard Flanagan, Alexis Wright and Kim Scott in order to define and describe Australia's literary imaginary as it reflects and articulates post-Mabo discourse today. Indeed, literature's substantial engagement with Mabo's cultural legacy the acknowledgement of indigenous people's presence in the land, in history, and in public affairs, as opposed to their absence demands a re-writing of literary history to account for a Mabo turn in Australian fiction.

Autorentext

Geoff Rodoreda is a lecturer in the English literature department at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. His PhD at the University of Stuttgart focused on post-Mabo discourses in contemporary Australian fiction. His teaching and research interests include Australian literature, history and culture, Anglophone-African literatures, and contemporary British literature and culture. He previously worked as a journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Adelaide and Darwin.

Klappentext

Winner of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature s Alvie Egan Award 2019! Winner of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies (GAPS) Dissertation Award 2018 This is the first in-depth, broad-based study of the impact of the Australian High Court s landmark Mabo decision of 1992 on Australian fiction. More than any other event in Australiäs legal, political and cultural history, the Mabo judgement which recognised indigenous Australians customary «native title» to land challenged previous ways of thinking about land and space, settlement and belonging, race and relationships, and nation and history, both historically and contemporaneously. While Mabös impact on history, law, politics and film has been the focus of scholarly attention, the study of its influence on literature has been sporadic and largely limited to examinations of non-Aboriginal novels. Now, a quarter of a century after Mabo, this book takes a closer look at nineteen contemporary novels including works by David Malouf, Alex Miller, Kate Grenville, Thea Astley, Tim Winton, Michelle de Kretser, Richard Flanagan, Alexis Wright and Kim Scott in order to define and describe Australiäs literary imaginary as it reflects and articulates post-Mabo discourse today. Indeed, literature s substantial engagement with Mabös cultural legacy the acknowledgement of indigenous people s presence in the land, in history, and in public affairs, as opposed to their absence demands a re-writing of literary history to account for a Mabo turn in Australian fiction.

Inhalt

CONTENTS: Four Core Post-Mabo Novels - Re-writing the Past: Mabo and History - Re-writing the Present: Mabo and Contemporary Australia - Sovereignty: Mabo and Aboriginal-Authored Fiction - Conclusion: Dominant, Residual and Emergent Cultures