AustLit

Kirril Shields considers how, and in what ways, specificities of Australian history and culture have influenced literary representations of the Third Reich perpetrator, bystander and victim. He argues that the depiction of these three roles, in Australian fiction published from the mid-1940s through to the present day, shows some parallels with 'shifts and changes' identified by European scholars in views of the Third Reich, and in perspectives on literary representations of this triad in cultural production. Sheild's contends that Australian fiction enables, in varying degrees, a rearticulation of what may be considered traditional representations of the triad. He argues that that these Australian literary representations also show some extensions of traditional portrayals in Australia and elsewhere, of the Third Reich perpetrator, bystander and victim, in literary and other genres of cultural production.