AustLit

'The student sharehouse might be dying out. When I say sharehouse, it's not with any particular address in mind, no long-decomposed couch dragged home from roadside collection, no TV with the sound gone. I mean the one in our collective imagination, the one that may have only existed in barely remembered stoned conversations on the couch, unanswered texts to heavenly Gumtree ads, or the House of Trouser that Toadie from Neighbours lived in. As personal and shifting as this idea has been, it's always hovered on the fringe of access, maybe over the next page of Gumtree listings, maybe stuck to the noticeboard at IGA, or residing exactly where your friends are moving into next weekend. While the dream remains bewitching, the reality that made it possible might be slipping away. But why does it mean so much? How did the sharehouse become the sharehouse? And if it's going, why?' (Publication abstract)