Australian Literary Magazines as Sites Of Dissent

Abstract

In this essay, I argue that Australian literary magazines are—and should be—primarily sites of dissent. But I also recognize that literary magazines sit on the fringes of the Australian national conversation and that relatively few Australian readers engage with them. I see dissent as a constructive and essential element of Australia’s imperfect capitalist liberal democracy and civil society and as a constructive and essential element of the way Australians seek to understand—or avoid seeking to understanding—the place of Australia in the world. Literary magazines rightly sit on fringes, and yet their minimal exposure to the mainstream is troubling and limiting.