Peter Pierce is Honorary Research Fellow and Professor at the National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University.

List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction Peter Pierce; Part I. From European Imaginings of Australia to the End of the Colonial Period: 1. Britain's Australia Ken Stewart; 2. The beginnings of literature in colonial Australia Elizabeth Webby; 3. Early writing by Indigenous Australians Penny Van Toorn; 4. Australian colonial poetry, 1788-1888: claiming the future, restoring the past Vivian Smith; 5. No place for a book? Fiction in Australia to 1890 Tanya Dalziell; 6. Romantic aftermaths Richard Lansdown; Part II. From the Late Nineteenth Century to 1950: 7. Australia's Australia Peter Pierce; 8. The short story, 1890s to 1950 Bruce Bennett; 9. Australian drama, 1850-1950 Peter Fitzpatrick; 10. 'New words come tripping slowly': poetry, popular culture and modernity, 1890-1950 Peter Kirkpatrick; 11. Australian fiction and the world republic of letters, 1890-1950 Robert Dixon; 12. Australia's England, 1890-1950 Peter Morton; Part III. Traverses: 13. Australian children's literature Clare Bradford; 14. Representations of Asia Robin Gerster; 15. Autobiography David McCooey; 16. Riding on the 'uncurl'd clouds': the intersection of fiction and history Brian Matthews; Part IV. From 1950 to Nearly Now: 17. Publishing, patronage and cultural politics: institutional changes in the field of Australian literature from 1950 David Carter; 18. Theatre from 1950 Katharine Brisbane; 19. The short story from 1950 Stephen Torre; 20. Scribbling on the fringes: post-1950 Australian poetry Dennis Haskell; 21. Groups and mavericks John Kinsella; 22. The challenge of the novel: Australian fiction since 1950 Susan Lever; 23. The novel, the implicated reader and Australian literary cultures, 1950-2008 Richard Nile and Jason Ensor; 24. Nation, literature, location Philip Mead; Select bibliography; Index.