Review of An Introduction to Australian Literature, edited by C. D. Narasimhaiah

Abstract

At the moment there is a good deal of responsible and competent literary criticism being written in Australia, and the study of an Australian literature has advanced far beyond that stage where slick generalizations and random aperçus will do service for thorough analysis and rational appreciation. I therefore find this book (which is a reprint of the 1964 number of The Literary Criterion, designed to introduce Australian literature to an Indian audience) distinctly embarrassing. Perhaps some of its contributors underestimated their readers, or misunderstood what was expected of them. Whatever the explanation, there are certain articles here which should never have appeared in print, and which lack any sense of professional responsibility to the subject.