Australian Literature: Prominent Themes of Australian Literature
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What is Australian Literature?
Australian literature is a literary piece of writing in oral or written form produced in Australia
- The Aboriginals did not have any written Literature
- Literary writings began with European Settlers in 1788.
Prominent Themes of Australian Literature
- Landscape and Environment
- Australian Culture
- Identity of settlers
- Isolation and estrangement
- Migration experience
Genres of Australian Literature
Four major genres of Australian literature are
- The ripping yarn
- Bush poetry
- Twentieth Century Australian works
- Indigenous Australian literature
The Ripping Yarn
- Australia՚s oldest literary convention Tales of adventures and struggles of the settlers in an unfamiliar land
- Stories about natural disaster there struggle to survive against all odds
- This literature helped the European to gain knowledge about the newly found land of Australia
Bush Poetry
- Most famous of Australian literature
- The songs tell personal stories of life in the wide-open country of Australia.
- Typical subjects include mining, raising and droving cattle, wanderings, war stories, class conflicts between the landless working class and the landowners.
Key Poets of Bush Poetry
- “Freedom on the Wallaby” by Henry Lawson
- “The Sick Stockrider” by Adam Lindsay Gordon
- “Waltzing Matilda” by Banjo Paterson
Twentieth Century Australian Works
New developments, new themes emerged during this time like multiculturalism, feminism, and so on
Predominant writers include
- A. D. Hope,
- Judith Wright,
- David Malouf
- Patrick White
- Kenneth Slessor,
- Les Murray
Indigenous Australian Literature
- Indigenous Australian literature is the fiction, plays, poems, essays and other works authored by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.
- Noticed recently in 1960s
- Expression of culture, struggles
Major Authors
- Jack Davis
- Kim Scott
- Kate Howarth
- Kevin Gilbert
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