Literature Nationalism’s other? The case for revision

Abstract

Some years ago Edward Said complained: ‘if the body of objects we study - the corpus formed by works of literature - belongs to, gains coherence from, and in a sense emanates out of, the concepts of nation, nationality, and even of race, there is very little in contemporary critical discourse making these actualities possible as subjects of discussion’. 2 His remarks have born fruit, and discussion already shows signs of congealing into orthodoxy. It is becoming a commonplace that the institution of literature works to nationalist ends. This chapter works in the spirit of revision (in part - as we shall see - because it is written in Australia). I want to draw attention to the ways that, at ..