AustLit

'Both Dennis Altman’s autobiographic Unrequited Love: Diary of an Accidental Activist and the edited anthology Growing up Queer in Australia are engaging books rich in insights into queer life and politics in Australia.' (Introduction)

'The story of Adela Pankhurst, the third daughter of Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, is a complex and uncomfortable one. Exiled to Australia by her mother and sister Christabel for her socialist ideas, Adela quickly became a darling of the left. She was a charismatic leader in the anti-conscription campaign and led women in militant marches during the great strike of 1917. In the late 1920s, however, Adela's politics took a sharp turn to the right. Disillusioned with the rise of Stalinism in Russia she became a staunch anti-communist, flirted with fascism and died a born-again Catholic. Though this paper focuses on Adela's role in the anti-conscription campaign, it also considers the methodological and ethical challenges involved in investigating such a contradictory career.'  (Publication abstract)