Colonial Australian Fiction: Character Types, Social Formations and the Colonial Economy
Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver
Sydney University Press
ISBN: 9781743324615

Over the course of the nineteenth century a remarkable array of types appeared and disappeared in Australian literature: the swagman, the larrikin, the colonial detective, the bushranger, the 'currency lass', the squatter, and more. Some had a powerful influence on the colonies' developing sense of identity; others were more ephemeral. But all had a role to play in shaping and reflecting the social and economic circumstances of life in the colonies.

In Colonial Australian Fiction: Character Types, Social Formations and the Colonial Economy, Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver explore the genres in which these characters flourished: the squatter novel, the bushranger adventure, colonial detective stories, the swagman's yarn, the Australian girl's romance. Authors as diverse as Catherine Helen Spence, Rosa Praed, Henry Kingsley, Anthony Trollope, Henry Lawson, Miles Franklin, Barbara Baynton, Rolf Boldrewood, Mary Fortune and Marcus Clarke were fascinated by colonial character types, and brought them vibrantly to life.

As this book shows, colonial Australian character types are fluid, contradictory and often unpredictable. When we look closely, they have the potential to challenge our assumptions about fiction, genre and national identity.

About the authors

Ken Gelder is Professor of English and co-Director of the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Rachael Weaver is an ARC Senior Research Fellow in English and the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Contents

Introduction: The Colonial Economy and the Production of Colonial Character Types
The Reign of the Squatter
Bushrangers
Colonial Australian Detectives
Bush Types and Metropolitan Types
The Australian Girl
Works Cited
Index

Sydney Studies in Australian Literature

The Sydney Studies in Australian Literature series publishes original, peer-reviewed research in the field of Australian literature. The series comprises monographs devoted to the works of major authors and themed collections of essays about current issues in the field of Australian literary studies. The series offers well-researched and engagingly written re-evaluations of the nature and importance of Australian literature, and aims to reinvigorate its study both in Australia and internationally.

Also available:

• Alex Miller: The Ruin of Time by Robert Dixon
• Contemporary Australian Literature: A World Not Yet Dead by Nicholas Birns
• The Fiction of Tim Winton by Lyn McCredden
• Shirley Hazzard: New Critical Essays edited by Brigitta Olubas