because i dont have anyone else to talk to ...

wheee!!! i just figured out what i think australian 'national literature' is all about!
ive been sitting at my computer for hours, looking up articles, trying to find SOMEONE who gives a concrete definition that i didnt think was rubbish, and was coming up blank for ... well forever. then i said "what the heck" and decided that my definition was as good as anyone elses.
except i didnt know what my definition was

then i did!

check it out:

... This ‘Australian legend’ became the ideal in which Australian postcolonial literature was immersed. ‘Post-colonialist’ literature refers to literature that deals with stereotypical postcolonial issues, such as identity and personal journeys through unknown/hostile environments.[1] According to Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins, “A theory of post-colonialism must … respond to more than the merely chronological construction of post-independence, and to more than just the discursive experience of imperialism … colonized peoples respond to the colonial legacy by writing back to the center.”[2] In other words, in order to deal with the changes wrought by newfound independence, post-colonialists need to go back to the identity they had before colonists invaded. The problem with this is that Anglo-Australians never had an identity prior to colonization; their heritage was Britain. ****This is what I view as Australia’s ‘postcolonial challenge’: its national identity must be made ‘from scratch.’ Thus in this paper, Australian ‘national’ literature will be understood as postcolonial literature that is seeking a deeper understanding of ‘what it is to be’ Australian. ****
[1] Helen Gilbert, Joanne Tompkins, Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics, Routledge 1996, p.11
[2] Ibid.




yeah, i think its awesome. and exciting. and *magically*, fits my paper beautifully!

(its cooler if you know the name of my class is "Australian Literature and the Post Colonial Challenge", and that our assignment has nothing to do with the issue of what exactly the 'challenge' is)


plus i just realized tonight that while writing papers at least, ive become freakishly uptight about dangling prepositions. i never used to care.
i also hate split infinitives, but am much worse at catching them, and tend to use them chronically.