Messengers of Eros

After decades of strict, puritanical censorship, Australian writers are free to address sexual issues. But sex remains a controversial and disturbing topic-its representation in poetry or fiction can never be free of ambiguities and still requires a variety of literary strategies to be made acceptable. Messengers of Eros examines those strategies and offers close readings of many Australian literary texts. It revisits classics such as Coonardoo, Capricornia or Such Is Life as well as major modern writers such as Patrick White, Peter Carey, David Malouf or Richard Flanagan, and engages with contemporary works whose status is still a matter for debate. It takes into account the postcolonial context of Australia's culture, especially where Indigenous and multicultural writers are concerned. This original and compelling book draws on the lessons of French theory and, though its approach is sympathetic to postmodernism, it never falls into academic jargon, remaining easily accessible to the general reader. Xavier Pons teaches Australian Studies at the University of Toulouse (France). A former President of the European Association for Studies on Australia, he has lectured and done research at several Australian universities. He has published widely on many aspects of Australian culture (Out of Eden, 1984; A Sheltered Land, 1994; Departures, 2002) and has been described as 'probably the best known and most highly respected Australian Studies scholar in Europe.' Messengers of Eros, described as a 'challenging and risk-taking critical book, ' was nominated as one of the 'Best Books of the Year' in the Australian Book Review, n317, December 2009-January 2010, p. 22