The Colonial Journals: And the Emergence of Australian Literary Culture (Ken Gelder & Rachael Weaver, UWA Publishing)

Academics Rachael Weaver and Ken Gelder have trawled through the archives of colonial Australia’s journals to reproduce articles, stories, poems and editorials documenting the emergence of Australia’s literary culture. Each of the 10 chapters—which cover a particular topic or trend, such as the ‘Australian Girl’, race and artwork—is introduced with a short discussion to contextualise the texts that follow. An early chapter, for instance, is a collection of ‘introductions’—editorials taken from the first issues of some of the hundreds of journals that began popping up from the 1840s onwards. With a lofty self-important tone, nearly all declare their ambition to solve Australia’s apathy towards reading and the arts. That many of the journals only lasted one issue—and that contemporary cultural commentators are still making similar laments—gives the chapter an eerie pathos. There is a vast collection of primary documents here, and I think the authors’ expertise is underused. Weaver and Gelder’s introductions are clear and engaging—and if allowed to expand, could signpost even more for the reader. In many ways it’s a specialist book, and it won’t appeal to general readers. Having said that, anyone who reads contemporary Australian literature—or, even more so, devours local literary journals—or has an interest in history, will find this book illuminating. 

Brad Jefferies is the publishing assistant for Books+Publishing