Document Type
Journal Article
RIS ID
19517
Citation
Simoes da Silva, Tony, 2004, Rethinking Marginality: class, identity and desire in contemporary Australian writing, Life Writing, 1(1), 45-68.
http://ro.uow.edu.au/era/378
Abstract
This essay fuses together a critical examination of contemporary Australian literary writings and a personal meditation about the author's own 'coming into being' as an Australian: as citizen, critic and academic. The cross-cultural dimensions of this process are explored with reference to contemporary culturaI studies of postcolonial and diasporic experiences of identity, as well as through detailed readings of a range of Australian novels.The paper foregrounds a position 'of self-interested knowledge,' both as a recognition of the agoniotic fluidity of cross-cultural identity and of the intensely personal nature characteristic of much literary function by ethnic minority individuals.