AustLit

McPherson gives an anlaysis of gendered subjectivity in Nadia Wheatley's The House That Was Eureka and considers whether or not the novel challenges dominant patriarchal discourses by looking at its representational functions and the 'effects of fantasy and realism' on its textual constructions (31). The text is concerned with 'the inequalities of class, wealth and power' and attempts to address issues of gender stereotyping and the construction of gendered behaviour through the depiction of events during the Great Drepression. McPherson posits that while Wheatley challenges many gender sterotypes using realist and fantasy narrative techniques, ultimately the novel condones masculine intervention, domination and violence (38).