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Panorama du roman australien des origines à nos jours
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Vernay, Jean-François Éditeurs, H. J. Tourte |
| Copyright Year | 2010 |
| Abstract | Without doubt, Panorama du roman australien des origines à nos jours is a unique contribution among quite a few existing surveys of Australian literature. As it was published the same year as The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, a landmark collection of Australian writing across all genres from over two centuries, and The Cambridge History of Australian Literature, the most comprehensive volume ever written on Australia’s literary history, French scholar Jean-François Vernay’s book could have passed unnoticed. Yet, it stands out in many ways. Panorama’s first distinctive feature is its linguistic medium: the study is the first of its kind to be written in French. Furthermore, unlike the aforementioned university publications, which compile the work of several contributors who together sought to give a comprehensive view of Australian literature in bulky volumes meant to be reference works, Panorama is a short and single-authored book that reads from cover to cover like a riveting novel. In fact, it would seem that Vernay intended—and managed—to share his enthusiasm for Australia’s national literature as much as he sought to impart the sound knowledge he acquired over ten years of research. Passion shows through each page of this carefully argued text. Another distinctive feature of the book is that it focuses on the novel, although reference is occasionally made to other literary genres. Opting for a chronological (rather than thematic) organisation, the author breaks up the evolution of the Australian novel into six different stages and artfully demonstrates its great metamorphosis over the years: from the colonial to the contemporary period, from the first documentary writings to the modern inclination for graphic illustration, from early convict novels to the written expressions of colonialism, feminism, nationalism, modernism, multiculturalism, postmodernism, and more. In fact, one of the book’s main strengths lies in Vernay’s ability to associate literary productions with broader movements and relevant historical, political, cultural, social and psychological information. The author thus distances himself from the tendency to approach literature as if it had developed in an ivory tower. Whether as a part, a mirror, a criticism or a way out of society, literature is intimately related to the context in which it emerges. This the author |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/download/1170/1033 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
