This international collection of eleven original essays on Australian Aboriginal literature provides a comprehensive critical companion that contextualizes the Aboriginal canon for scholars, researchers, students, and general readers. Australian Aboriginal literature, once relegated to the margins of Australian literary studies, now receives both national and international attention. Not only has the number of published texts by contemporary Australian Aboriginals risen sharply, but scholars and publishers have also recently begun recovering earlier published and unpublished Indigenous works. Writing by Australian Aboriginals is making a decisive impression in fiction, autobiography, biography, poetry, film, drama, and music, and has recently been anthologized in Oceania and North America. Until now, however, there has been no comprehensive critical companion that contextualizes the Aboriginal canon for scholars, researchers, students, and general readers. This international collection of eleven original essays fills this gap by discussing crucial aspects of Australian Aboriginal literature and tracing the development of Aboriginalliteracy from the oral tradition up until today, contextualizing the work of Aboriginal artists and writers and exploring aspects of Aboriginal life writing such as obstacles toward publishing, questions of editorial control (orthe lack thereof), intergenerational and interracial collaborations combining oral history and life writing, and the pros and cons of translation into European languages. Contributors: Katrin Althans, Maryrose Casey, Danica Cerce, Stuart Cooke, Paula Anca Farca, Michael R. Griffiths, Oliver Haag, Martina Horakova, Jennifer Jones, Nicholas Jose, Andrew King, Jeanine Leane, Theodore F. Sheckels, Belinda Wheeler. Belinda Wheeler is Associate Professor of English at Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC.

Foreword - Nichola JoseAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Emerging Canon - Belinda WheelerChronologyIndigenous Life Writing: Rethinking Poetics and Practice - Michael R. GriffithsAustralian Aboriginal Life Writers and Their Editors: Cross-Cultural Collaboration, Authorial Intention, and the Impact of Editorial Choices - Jennifer JonesContemporary Life Writing: Inscribing Double Voice in Intergenerational Collaborative Life-Writing Projects - Martina HorakovaEuropean Translations of Australian Aboriginal Texts - Danica Cerce and Oliver HaagTracing a Trajectory from Songpoetry to Contemporary Aboriginal Poetry - Stuart CookeRites/Rights/Writes of Passage: Identity Construction in Australian Aboriginal Young Adult Fiction - Jeanine LeaneHumor in Contemporary Aboriginal Adult Fiction - Paula Anca FarcaWhite Shadows: The Gothic Tradition in Australian Aboriginal Literature - Katrin AlthansBold, Black, and Brilliant: Aboriginal Australian Drama - Maryrose CaseyThe "Stolen Generations" in Feature Film: The Approach of Aboriginal Director Rachel Perkins and Others - Theodore F. ScheckelsA History of Popular Indigenous Music - Andrew KingNotes on the ContributorsNote on the Cover ArtistIndex