An Uncultured Rhymer and His Cultural Critics: Henry Lawson, Class Politics, and Colonial Literature

Abstract

IN THE 1950S AND 60S ACADEMICS CONTESTED THE VIEW WHICH WAS BEING promoted by many prominent Australian intellectuals that HenryLawson was an exemplary representative of the Australian national character. They also quickly dismissed the socialist principles which cultural workers in the Communist Party of Australia were rediscovering in the famous Australian's work. In the "end of ideology" climate of the Cold War, academics were justifying the inclusion of Australian literature in the academic curriculum by establishing a canon of the "very best" Australian writing. Admission to this canon was achieved through a professionally authorized process of critical evaluation that concentrated upon formal analysis and metaphysical inquiry. Canonization was understood as an aesthetic judgment, while political ideology, formal convention, and the social purchase of popularity were considered as anathema to both creative genius and academic discipline. 2 Accordingly, Lawson's short fiction was re-evaluated for its evidence of technical sophistication, formal innovation, and the presentation of existential themes that linked Australian writing to the modernist traditions of other nations. Lawson's politics were seen as a destructive influence on his art, and his significant body of poetic work was largely considered unworthy of professional attention.