LGBTQIA writers are central to Australian literature including, iconically, Australia’s only Nobel Laureate for Literature, Patrick White.
Australian novels, poetry and drama have also had and continue to have significant impacts on the formation and understanding of LGBTQIA identities. Moreover, the history of Australia’s colonisation coincides with modern forms of sexual and racial classification – a coincidence that has produced unique patterns of LGBTQIA literary representation from invasion to the present. Yet there is to date no comprehensive history of the LGBTQIA dimensions of Australian literature – a gap the AUSTLIT database has identified as a serious shortcoming in its range and capacity. An understanding of the interactivity between post-invasion history, LGBTQIA literature, and individual and cultural identity-formation is long overdue. In this paper we will sketch out some of the key issues, approaches and methods in our aim to redress this shortcoming in Australian literary history.
Elizabeth McMahon is Professor of English in the School of the Arts and Media at UNSW. She researches the fields of Australian literature, Island Studies, and intersectional identity construction in literature.
Guy Davidson is Professor of English in the School of the Arts, English and Media at the University of Wollongong. He researches the interconnections of literature and sexuality.
This seminar is co-hosted by the Literary Provocations Hub and by the English and Creative Writing Programme in the School of the Arts and Media at UNSW.
All are welcome, and there is no need to register.