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Shaun Crowe Shaun Crowe i(12320092 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 y separately published work icon Novel Politics : Studies in Australian Political Fiction John Uhr , Shaun Crowe , Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2020 18807115 2020 multi chapter work criticism

'Percy Bysshe Shelley once described poets as the 'unacknowledged legislators of the world'. If this is true, Australian political scientists have shown curiously little interest in the role that literary figures play in the nation's political life.

'Novel Politics takes the relationship between literature and politics seriously, analysing the work of six writers, each the author of a classic text about Australian society. These authors bridge the history of local writing, from pre-Federation colonial Australia (Catherine Spence, Rosa Praed and Catherine Martin) to the contemporary moment (Tim Winton, Christos Tsiolkas and Kim Scott). Novel Politics unpicks the many political threads woven into these books, as they document the social world as it exists, while suggesting new possibilities for the nation's future. As political commentators of a particular kind, all six authors offer unique insights into the deeper roots of politics in Australia, beyond the theatre of parliament and out into the wider social world, as imagined by its dreamers and criticised by its most incisive discontents.'(Publication summary) 

1 Undiminished Voice : Robert Mann's Latest Essay Collection Shaun Crowe , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 401 2018; (p. 14-15)

'By now, the Robert Manne essay is a well-established form – four decades at the centre of public life will do that. Whatever the topic, his pieces tend to possess certain qualities: an almost lawyerly emphasis on fact and argument over style and rhetoric; a professor’s sympathy for the world of ideas over the muck of institutions; an unfashionable willingness to change his mind without worry or shame; and an overwhelming focus on public questions over private struggles.' (Introduction)

1 Tracing Pauline : Two New Books of One Nation Shaun Crowe , 2017 single work single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 397 2017; (p. 11-12)

— Review of Please Explain : The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Pauline Hanson Anna Broinowski , 2017 single work biography

'More than any other political party in Australia, One Nation represents a puzzle for commentators. When trying to explain its support – which has hovered around ten per cent since its revival in 2016 – the temptation is to look for subtext, something deeper, beneath the surface. Could the party’s cultural pitch really be a code for economic concerns, with immigration a metaphor for the genuine fear of international competition? Perhaps we are witnessing a new political coalition of those ‘left behind’ by social change, bound together by a suspicion of everything cosmopolitan. Or is One Nation simply a vehicle for those pissed off at a stagnant political order, hoping to unseat and humiliate its representatives? What really motivates the mythical One Nation voter?' (Introduction)

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