AustLit

Examines the development of a beach culture in Sydney in the 19th century, and the writing about it in tourist guides, travel accounts, journalism and poetry. It also traces the influences of British romantics on the writings.

Discusses two short stories and the ways in which romantic views of beach summer happiness is questioned and undermined in each of them.

In an overview of films and dramas that feature sea and beach life, 'the plays discussed in this chapter envisage a different relation between masculinity and environment from that of the Bush realist plays. This new relation is one in which an exposure to the sea and the sky has a resolutive effect on men who are somehow incapacitated or incomplete' (71).

An overview of O'Connell's life and the way he relates his adventures in his narrative.

Discusses Flynn's autobiographical writing with the focus on his relationship with the sea.

Compares two 'versions of coastal', Astley's and Captain Thomas Beckford Simpson's, which take different perspectives on the edge, 'the one looking longingly out from land to sea, the other looking apprehensively from sea to land' (122).

Discusses some of Koch's novels with focus on the notion of crossing boundaries and entering new spaces, where transformation of identities is possible. Using sea travel and the sea wall as a boundary which serves to prevent a crossing, the novels focus on liminal spaces, but the transformative potential of such liminal spaces is rarely fulfilled. The notion of 'crossing over' 'serves to help understand Koch's fiction as a unified body of work' (231), representing a coherent vision despite shifts in focus and emphasis.

Discusses a historical novel about the lives of early 19th century seamen and their encounters with indigenous people.