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'"Australia has a fascinating yet contradictory nuclear history," writes Jeffrey Lantis, and this ambiguity can be seen in the post-nuclear young adult fiction produced in that country. British, American and German speculative fiction for young readers set after nuclear disaster tends to suggest reasons for the disaster, and by implication, to position readers towards acting to stop the disaster happening in the real world. By contrast, Australian writers of both fantasy and speculative fiction tend to be less concerned with the cause of the disaster than with how the nuclear apocalypse can be used to explore a range of cultural issues which may appear to have little or nothing to do with nuclear disaster. Working with the notion of apocalypse as both revelation and, more popularly, as a violent "end event" (Curtis), this paper explores why young adult post-nuclear fiction produced in Australia tends to be different from that produced in Britain, the USA and Germany, and demonstrates how the nuclear disaster is used in a selection of Australian young adult post-disaster fiction to address cultural issues, particularly those dealing with Australia's Indigenous population, and with the contemporary treatment of refugees.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Last amended 21 Jul 2015 09:29:52
22-29
The Perfect Place to Set a Novel about the End of the World? Trends in Australian Post-Nuclear Fiction for Young Adults
Bookbird
Subjects:
- On the Beach 1957 single work novel
- Obernewtyn 1987 single work novel
- The Earthborn 2003 single work novel
- The Inheritors 1988 single work novel
- Daywards 2010 single work novel
- The Broken Wheel 1996 single work novel
- Taronga 1986 single work novel
- A Secondhand Dreaming 2008 single work novel
- The Lake at the End of the World 1988 single work novel
- Quest Beyond Time 1985 single work novel
- The Sky So Heavy 2013 single work novel
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