Section 2

 

RECEPTION

 

George Molnar's illustration for JD Pringle's Australian Accent (1958)

 

IN 1940 Professor J.I.M. Stewart, Professor of English Literature at Adelaide University, began his inaugural Commonwealth Literary Fund lecture with these (since much-quoted) words:

I am most grateful to the CLF for providing the funds to give these lectures in Australian literature, but unfortunately they have neglected to provide any literature - I will lecture therefore on D.H. Lawrence's Kangaroo.

Then, Kangaroo was regarded as one of the most important works in the canon of Australian literature.

In his 1958 book, Australian Accent, the future editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, John Douglas Pringle, wrote a chapter about Kangaroo and its position in Australian literature and culture (see Section 3 below).

He said Kangaroo was, alongside only Keith Hancock's historical work Australia, "the most profound book ever written about Australia."

Since then, however, Kangaroo has slipped down in the rankings to the point where, today, it is not even regarded as a part of Australian literature.

Its last appearance as an Australian novel was, I believe, in the Australian Classics series published by Angus & Robertson in 1982.

Coincidentally, that was about the high-point of Lawrence's reputation, internationally, as a major figure in world literature.

Since then, he too has slipped in the rankings, and his name - once so famous (and notorious) - hardly rates a mention in current studies of literature in Australian schools and universities.