Witnessing the past

This study offers an Australian 'landscape of memory'. Its interdisciplinary analyses of historical novels by Henry Handel Richardson, Patrick White, Peter Carey, and Rodney Hall explore the ethical and political potential of remembering and writing the past in a post-colonial context. Complementing the literary interpretations with two wide-ranging theoretical chapters (Bhabha, Blumenberg, Derrida, Ricoeur), the study discusses the genre of the historical novel, the conundrums of post-colonial history, the role of myth and materiality in the post-colonial world, and the ramifications of memory and trauma to eventually develop the concept of witnessing.