Australian Autobiography

This is the first substantial study of twentieth-century Australian autobiography. It not only places this body of outstanding writing in relation to European models and recent critical theory; it also illustrates what is most characteristic of autobiographical writing in Australia. After showing that no sharp distinction between `straight' autobiography and autobiographical fiction can be made in the trilogies of Alan Marshall and George Johnson, it establishes Hal Porter's influential achievement in applying sophisticated narrative techniques to the art of autobiography in The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony. Although rigid categorization is deliberately avoided a typology may be seen to emerge out of the discussion of particular works, while the conclusion relates the whole discussion to contemporary sociological and literary theory.