AustLit

'A writer. A great Australian writer', Richard Flanagan writes in the foreword to Behrouz Boochani's No Friend But the Mountains (2018, Picador). In a comment designed to spark public conversation regarding Australia's ethical obligation to the incarcerated immigrants on islands inside and outside our coastline, Flanagan puts into play the tenuous category of the 'Australian writer'. Boochani's incorporation into Australia's literary community, enunciates a paradoxical idea of nationhood, one that is flexible, discursive, and open: all the qualities that our politicians oppose. Leaving aside the probability that the writer may not wish to associate himself with Australia in future, Flanagan hypothesises that the national borders policed by Peter Dutton can be discursively reoriented in light of Boochani's contribution. The irony underlying Flanagan's inclusion of Boochani thereby prompts a review of what constitutes a national literary community.' (From introduction)