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Realism and the Australian novel in the 1930's
thesis
posted on 2017-02-08, 04:18 authored by Grant, Donald J.That the 1930's were a severe testing time for the
Australian people is indisputable. That the events of the
decade contributed to a re-examination and revision of
fundamental principles is plausible. That the work of
Australian writers has not received detailed examination in
the context of its relation to the crises of those times is
surprising.
In the following pages I have tried to rectify this
omission to some extent, in order to explore my contention
that, with all their diversity, Australian novels of the
thirties are characterized by their contribution to this
reassessment of Australian society. My thesis is that the
outstanding quality of the thirties' novelists is their
proclivity to introspection, which expressed itself in a
wide-ranging search through all aspects of their society
for some explanation of the conditions that were so
painfully obvious to them, and perhaps for some hint as to
an appropriate course towards a better society in the
future.
It was, no doubt, because so many of the novels of the
period were obviously concerned with social conditions, that
there has been a tendency towards categorization, especially
towards the use of all-embracing terms such as "realist" or
"social-realist". It became clear to me that the use of
such critical terms often involved over-simplifications, and,
because of the variety of possible interpretations, frequently
added to, rather than decreased the difficulty of criticism.
As a result I have thought it desirable to look in some detail
at the way in which words like realism have been used. An
exhaustive study of this area would be far beyond the scope
of the present work, but even the limited study that has been
attempted extends well beyond the period of the thirties and
far outside the confines of Australian literature. However,
the study seems necessary if there is to be full appreciation
of the comments made later in the work about the realism of Australian novels of the thirties.
History
Principal supervisor
Dennis DouglasYear of Award
1973Department, School or Centre
EnglishCourse
Master of PhilosophyDegree Type
MASTERSCampus location
AustraliaFaculty
Faculty of ArtsUsage metrics
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