Michael Wilding – författare

First published in 1980, Political Fictions is a work of literary criticism with emphasis on the specific handling of literary forms. The author examines the way in which writers exploring radical politics simultaneously explore radical literary possibilities and look at the various sorts of fictional modes they use-romance, utopian fable, discovered manuscript, imaginary book. He shows how all the writers under discussion experiment with non-realistic forms- sometimes in dialectical combination with realism as one of the poles of the novel’s structure, sometimes in rejection of realism.Wilding has selected six such writers and examines some of their work in detail: Mark Twain, William Morris, Jack London, D.H. Lawrence, Arthur Koestler, and George Orwell. He has chosen works which he believes have been misunderstood and ignored by Left as well as Right. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of English literature and critical theory.

First published in 1980, Political Fictions is a work of literary criticism with emphasis on the specific handling of literary forms. The author examines the way in which writers exploring radical politics simultaneously explore radical literary possibilities and look at the various sorts of fictional modes they use-romance, utopian fable, discovered manuscript, imaginary book. He shows how all the writers under discussion experiment with non-realistic forms- sometimes in dialectical combination with realism as one of the poles of the novel’s structure, sometimes in rejection of realism.Wilding has selected six such writers and examines some of their work in detail: Mark Twain, William Morris, Jack London, D.H. Lawrence, Arthur Koestler, and George Orwell. He has chosen works which he believes have been misunderstood and ignored by Left as well as Right. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of English literature and critical theory.

The 44 essays and other pieces collected in his new book range from Adam Lindsay Gordon to Peter Corris, and include Eleanor Dark, Hal Porter, Christina Stead, Dal Stivens and A. B. Facey among many other creators of the unique body of literature Australians may claim as their own. The contribution Michael Wilding has made to the study of Australian Literature, and to literary publishing in Australia and as a novelist in his own right, has been enormous. The most recent count of his works made it 29 non-fiction; 3 documentaries; and 28 novels & short-story collections (not to mention the Cosmo centrefold).