Who’s Who?: Mapping Hoaxes and Impostures in Australian Literary History

Abstract

Discusses 'the long Australian tradition of literary hoaxes and imposture', and introduces this special issue of ALS on literary hoaxes and impostures. "This volume does not attempt to provide comprehensive coverage of these many cases: rather, the essays are meant to introduce readers to particular controversies and either to provide an original contribution to specific debates or to use a particular instance to explore larger theoretical issues. There are obvious absences other than those writers who are named above, and there is a focus on more contemporary cases. Equally, this special issue does not attempt to develop a single or orthodox interpretation of a set of related debates, nor to argue that there is some distinctive or peculiar national pathology that underpins the practice. Our aim is to point out the complexities of particular cases, and in so doing, to highlight the differences between the controversies considered here."