Out from the Shadows: The Realist Writers’ Movement, 1944-1970, and Communist Cultural Discourse

Abstract

There are at least two reasons for the absence of a communist cultural discourse in contemporary Australian literary studies. First, there is the ideological orientation of its dominant practitioners: neither those involved in developments in post-structuralist theory nor those still under the influence of New Criticism can cope with a literary politics that focuses upon, and privileges, working class organisation. To generalise from Carole Ferrier's comments in relation to working class women's novels: 'a politics that relates centrally to the organisation of [the] working class... in struggle is not fashionable within the literary establishment and thus, when embodied in [literary documents], will still require a 'different manner of apprehension' (24). The language of tradition, fundamental principles and class struggle, necessary for the reconstruction of communist discourse, denies and defies the 'manner of apprehension' of the dominant critical practices.