Heaven and hell : a survey of utopian and anti-utopian prose fiction published by Australians since 1870

Abstract

It is notable that Australian utopian literature is little known outside this country — or within it. In their anthology of lesser known utopias written since 1850, Negley and Patrick do not mention one Australian author. The only southerner listed is the Anglo—New Zealander J. Macmillan.Brown, author of two weighty volumes, Riallaro, the Archipelago oF Exiles (1897) and Liamanora, the Island oF Progress (1903). I.F. Clarke lists a number of futuristic works written by Australians and published in Britain, but does not specifically identify them as Australian.

Within Australia, local utopian literature has received scant attention From bibliographers, anthologists and critics. S.L. Larnach lists some works in Materials Towards a Check List of Australian Fantasy to 1937 (1950) and the catalogues of science fiction libraries contain some relevant titles, but Olga Laszkiewicz's recent Bibliography of Utopias (1971) deals primarily with foreign material. Australian critics have made some interesting observations on overseas utopian writings? yet use of the term "utopian" in relation to local literature has been extremely vague. The writings and actions of certain persons tend to be labelled, in passing, "utopian", without precise explanation of what is meant by this appelation. Only two critics — Vincent Buckley and T. Inglis Moore — have paid any sustained attention to the subject of utopian thought and writing in Australia, while anti-utopian writing has been almost entirely overlooked.

The purpose of this thesis is to partially rectify the situation by providing a survey of Australian utopian and anti—utopian prose fiction. Since little fiction of this nature was written in Australia until late in the nineteenth century, no works published before 1870 are included. Although this survey aims at comprehensiveness, some works may have been overlooked. The inclusion or omission of particular works may also be queried; for this reason the survey opens with a discussion of the problems of definition and classification, and an explanation of the selection criteria employed. Certain "doubtful" works such as satires, allegories and invasion warnings, which cannot strictly be classified as "utopian" or "anti—utopian", are described briefly in the bibliography. Utopian and anti-utopian poetry and drama are omitted entirely, there being sufficient of each to warrant full individual treatment.