The Boer War: Paterson, Abbott, Brennan, Miles Franklin and Morant

Abstract

Discusses Australian literary responses to the Boer War. including Banjo Paterson's dispatches from the Front and J.H. Abbott's first-hand account as a soldier reflect and reinforce pro-war sentiments. On the other hand, writers and academics including Professor George Arnold Wood and Christopher Brennan shared anti-war views. The essay also discusses references to the South African War in Miles Franklin's novels My Career Goes Bung and Cockatoos, arguing that these works present 'a literary response to different aspects of the Boer War from a feminine point of view, but also from the point of view of someone opposed to the war and well aware of the more extended aspects of imperialism.'