The contemporary study of Australian literature, as befitting that of a country that has been at the forefront of postcolonial studies, is a highly self-conscious and theoreticized enterprise, carried on by academics across the globe and not just Australians concerned with asserting their national identity as used to be the case. This volume deals with issues such as the tensions between literary and cultural studies, indigenous autobiography, postcolonial nostalgia, masculinity, the placing of Australia in the Pacific and in Asia, the uses of Australian literature in the United States, and includes the considerations of such widely-studied authors as Mudrooroo, Peter Carey and Patrick White.