Popular fiction

The question of place has always been central to Australian fiction, both as a thematic element, but also as a critical or political preoccupation. Part of this is pragmatic: popular fiction writers, wanting to appeal to broad audiences, have either exploited their Australian contents to appeal to international readers looking for exotic locations, or they have excised the local to produce a generic and thus more readily accessible setting for outsiders. Another part of this is historical: long-standing political and publishing links between Australia and Britain have meant that writers have often catered to the more lucrative foreign audience (Teo 2004). A third part of this preoccupation with place is philosophical: writers have been divided over surrendering to the so-called cultural cringe that frowns on anything ‘too’ Australian or parochial, or championing the local as a defiant way to prove that local settings are worthy of attention. The popular writers surveyed in this chapter adopt a range of positions in relation to this focus on place, at times following genre conventions; at other times adapting or resisting in favour of new approaches; and in some cases disregarding setting entirely. Common to the novels discussed here, however, is their reflection of many different aspects of Australian social and historical change.