Following a decade of major social and cultural change in Australia, this study looks at what exactlyit means to be Australian and examines how different conceptssuch as egalitarianism and sporting prowesshave been used to create a national identity. Serving as a broad introduction to Australian history and social science, it explores the origins and effects of the national character, including the dominant ideas of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and race in modern society."

By the mid-twentieth century the various Australian states began changing their approaches to Aboriginal peoples from one of exclusion to assimilation. These policy changes meant that Aboriginal people, particularly those identified as being of mixed heritage, were to be encouraged to become part of the dominant non-Aboriginal community the Australian nation.
This book explores this significant policy change from a cultural perspective, considering the ways in which assimilation was imagined in literary fiction of the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on novels from a range of genres the Gothic,...

New Voices, New Visions brings together a collection of papers that engage with the ideas of nation, identity and place. The title New Voices, New Visions harks back to earlier scholarship that endeavoured to explore these issues. It therefore makes links between old and new stories of Australian identity, tracing the continuities, shifts and changes in how Australia is imagined. The collection is deliberately interdisciplinary, gathering work by historians, literary and film scholars, communication and cultural theorists, political scientists and sociologists. This mixed perspectives enables...