AustLit

'Colonial Australian Fiction: Character Types, Social Formations and the Colonial Economy (2017), by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver, is published within the Sydney University Press’ Sydney Studies in Australian Literature series, which aims to reinvigorate the study of Australian literature both locally and internationally. Gelder and Weaver combine their expertise in Australian literary studies to produce a rich study of character types in colonial Australian fiction, including how these types evolve and mutate over time and reveal what was taking place in colonial Australian society, especially in terms of structures of power, influence, and the economic landscape. This book adds to Gelder and Weaver’s already significant contribution to reviving interest in the rich archive of colonial Australian fiction and what it reveals about Australia’s history and continually evolving sense of national and cultural identity.'  (Publication abstract)