Review of Tradition in Exile: A Comparative Study of Social Influences on the Development of Australian and Canadian Poetry in the Nineteenth Century by John Pengwerne Matthews

Abstract

The publishers correctly describe this work as a pioneer study. It is, indeed, the irst serious attempt at a reasonably comprehensive comparison of the two most important Commonwealth literatures. As such, it poses a challenge to almost ever}r reader, including reviewers, for as yet few are equipped with substantial knowledge of both Australian and Canadian writing. My own qualifications in Australian literature are minimal. Thanks to a fellowship from the Canada Council and a lecture tour arranged by the Australian Humanities Research Council, I was able to live in Australia for some fifteen fruitful and happy months in 1958— 59, listening a lot, lecturing a little, and reading a fair number of Australian books. By contrast, Dr Matthews is a native-born Australian, a graduate of the University of Melbourne, who had spent four years studying in Canada by the time he obtained his Doctor's degree from the University of Toronto in 1957. The present book in its original form was offered as the dissertation. Subsequently, Dr Matthews taught in St. John's College, University of Manitoba, until 1962. Then he joined the Department of English of Queen's University, in Kingston, Ontario, where he is now director of the newly established Institute of Comparative Commonwealth Studies. His qualifications are therefore unusual if not unique.