The Pathos of Distance

Australia is a land of migration. Its literature is hardly more than a hundred years old. In seeking for suggestive literary models and inspiration, Australian writers have inevitably gone beyond their own shores and language. The literature and culture of the German-speaking world has strongly attracted a number of major Australian writers. This book presents a variety of studies in cross-cultural relations. It examines the lives and works of Australian poets and novelists, ranging from Christopher Brennam (1870-1932), the poet whose early sojourn in Berlin was decisive for his poetic and scholarly career, to James MacAuley (1917-1976), admirer of Eichendorff and Trakl, to Patrick White (1912-1990), the Nobel-prize winning author of "Voss."