Abstract
This article discusses the uses of history as a dominant structuring metaphor or interpretative frame in two Australian autobiographies by women. In both Drusilla Modjeska'sPoppy, which forms the main focus of the argument, and in Sally Morgan's earlierMy Place, this imperative can be related to women's stories having been hidden from history. But it also needs to be understood in the context of the search for a redefinition of Australian national identity, involving an intense engagement with history itself. For both Modjeska and Morgan, personal histories are conceived of in terms of Australia's Aboriginal history. Yet within this crucial shift, certains notions of “history” come to be valorised. A departure from nationalist conventions in autobiography, these texts also repeat some of the terms they seek to oppose. This limits the ways in which we remember, and construct, personal and public pasts.
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