National Fictions: Literature, film and the construction of Australian narrative

National Fictions is a study of Australian literature and film. It is also a study of Australian culture, viewing the novels and films as products of a specific culture - as narratives with similar structures, functions, forms and meanings. It covers a wide range of texts, offering both close analysis and an account of their place within the system of meanings the book proposes as dominant in Australian culture.

The second edition of this influential work includes a new Afterword which traces recent changes in Australian literature and film, examining the growth of women’s writing and popular fiction, as well as current trends in Australian cinema. Turner asks whether these developments really mark a shift in the Australian narrative, and whether it is still possible to speak in terms of a national culture.

‘.a ground-clearing book. a seminal work, setting an agenda for cultural studies beyond the stockyards and croquet lawns of literary criticism.’ - David Carter, Australian Literary Studies

‘As a global syncretist, Turner is without peer.’ - Stuart Cunningham, Media Information Australia