Paul Kelly

Post colonial literature and imperial history pass like ships in the night. Indeed, the emblematic preoccupation of Australian literature: canonical and contemporary, with the post colonial status of Australia and the hybrid nature of her culture is testimony to the notion that Australia is entrenched in a crisis of identity, seemingly yearning for a defined concept of 'Australian-ness.' Literature is most often a forum for exploring the unsaid and the unaddressed within society and thus it makes sense that this journey for a 'place and a space: and an effective identifying relationship between the two' has remained a major concern for the Australian author; the search for a new language and imagery a long and agonizing one.

There are complexities and perplexities surrounding the difficulty of conceiving how a colonized country can 'use language as a tool for revenge' in order to reclaim its identity 'in a language that is now but was not its own language, and genres which are now but were not genres of the colonized.' Certainly the images and constructions of 'Australian-ness' are hazy and although her n

Similarly the Anglo-Saxon couple are readily shown how to 'slaughter and to pluck and to dress' by the Macedonian family. It is in this way that Winton demonstrates the necessity of Australians to move beyond its European history and beyond its tendency to exclude that which is 'other,' in order to find a holistically Australian voice thereby claiming a past in order to claim a future.

This is not to say that we should reject literature which is nostalgic of the English homeland; to the contrary. In order to understand ourselves this past needs to be revisited so that we can 'set about making Australia into our real spiritual home.' Similarly, if we accept this heritage 'too wholeheartedly' it will be difficult to embark upon the journey of turning Australia, Australian.

This interaction between the new and the old; between the white settler and the new migrant are further explored in Tim Winton's 'Neighbours' which, in telling the story of two couples problematises the connection between the suburban world and the natural world and the necessity to overcome this barrier in order to effectively identify oneself with a place. Winton's concern with the importance of defining the self against the natural landscape is evidenced in the way the Anglo-Saxon couple must be taught by the new migrants to embrace nature where as the Macedonian couple are presented as much more accepting of change and the other and more willing to see the boundaries created by Anglo-Saxon heritage defeated than the older couple. Winton foregrounds the importance of landscape to the development of a national identity; as the seasons change so too does the couples attitude towards each other and towards the foreign Australian land.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Eastern Asiatic, Kelly Post, Tim Winton's, Writing Australia, Similarly Anglo-Saxon, Australian-ness Lawson, Lawson Reflecting, Slessor Hope, Hope Slessor, John Kinsella's, australian society, national identity, identity crisis, attitude towards, english heritage, australian literature, holistically australian, post colonial, effective identifying relationship, relationship self, australian lifestyle, idea australians displaced,
Approximate Word count = 2646
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)