Contemporary Australian Literature

'Readers will come away from this thoughtful and wide-ranging book with a more positive and reconfigured sense of the merits of our national literature. [Birns'] faith in the ability of Ozlit to provide a strongly felt, aesthetically various and intellectually sly alternative to the current status quo is catching.' -- Geordie Williamson * The Australian * 'Birns leaves us in no doubt that the dominant ideologies of neoliberalism should be resisted. In his excoriating critique, neoliberalism - although not without its 'positive aspects', such as cultural diversity and benefits to lifestyle and communications - essentially 'degrades humanity into automatons of profit and loss, success and failure' ... For all the vicissitudes, creative challenges and 'slow violence' ascribed to neoliberalism, this is a hopeful book, and a valuable addition to the study of Australian literature.' -- Marion Rankine * Times Literary Supplement * 'Birns' book is much more than a survey of contemporary literature, or an analysis of neoliberalism in Australia; it is also a concerned and deliberate stand, an attempt to feel and to speak against the kind of 'general indifference' that the system relies on.' -- Megan Nash * Southerly * ' ... though Birns - like most literary historians - is going over grounds that have already been covered, he manages to think outside the box by applying tenets of neoliberalism to Australian literary studies and one learns much from this book, not least from its valuable discussions of the American reception of Australian fiction.' -- Jean-Francois Vernay * Commonwealth: Essays and Studies * 'In Birns's vision, exemplary Australian prose and poetry are united in their responsiveness to the 'unique challenge' of neoliberalism and its 'threats to the imagination' ... In Contemporary Australian Literature Birns's critical flexibility can be seen in how easily he draws poetry and prose into dialogue with one another's ideas and histories.' -- Bonnie Cassidy * Cordite Poetry Review * 'Contemporary Australian Literature is a book of wide-ranging ideas and surprising conjunctions. It does not claim to offer authoritative readings, but its insistence that literature has a direct relationship to prevailing economic doctrine should stimulate new discussions among Australian readers.' -- Susan Lever * Australian Book Review *