Promoting Postcolonial Australia by John Uhr

Promoting Postcolonial Australia by John Uhr

Promoting Postcolonial Australia: New Readings of Miles Franklin and Joseph Furphy uses Australian literary practice as a case study in the emergence of modern democratic literary culture. John Uhr merges traditional political theory and contemporary literary theory in this political reinterpretation of novels by two classic Australian writers: the feminist Miles Franklin and civic republican Joseph Furphy. Examines three of Franklin’s novels: My Brilliant Career, Some Everyday Folk and Dawn, and All that Swagger. Surveys two of Furphy’s novels: Rigby’s Romance and The Buln-Buln and the Brolga, which were both written under Furphy’s pseudonym Tom Collins. Despite their reputations as Australian nationalists, Uhr argues that Franklin and Furphy should be seen as pioneering examples of postcolonial literary theory as later devised by the late literary critic Edward Said, Said’s framework is surprisingly relevant to writers like Franklin and Furphy who blend pre-modern or Stoic philosophy and post-liberal or communitarian perspectives in their critical portraits of the limits of conventional liberalism for emerging democracies.

In this stimulating study of two once famous but now neglected Australian novelists – Joseph Furphy and Miles Franklin – John Uhr stakes their respective claims as creative postcolonial political thinkers, civic humanists and stoic cosmopolitansMore broadly, his book is an eloquent plea to take seriously the role of the novel in the study of political theory, and to treat the ideas of novelists as a fruitful source of ‘spiritual exercises’ in fostering civic virtue and renewing liberal democracy. -- Frank Bongiorno, Donald Horne Professor of History and Public Ideas, University of Canberra

John Uhr is emeritus professor in politics at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Born in Australia, John completed graduate studies in political science at the University of Toronto, Canada and has taught political theory and public policy at the Australian National University since 1990.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9798765156193
Title	Promoting Postcolonial Australia
Author	John Uhr
Series	Politics Literature And Film Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Year published	2026-08-06
Number of pages	248
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.