Volltext - ub-dok: der Dokumentenserver der UB Trier - Universität ...

establish a sense of identity between man and his universe which has been lost in the West,
even when the need to do so is fully recognised, is just not appreciated. Contemporary
Australians would apparently just as well forget these images as they bear the stain of
Orientalism, which seems to lay a certain amount of guilt on white Australia, and therefore
threatens Australia’s future economic relations with the Asia-Pacific region.
While both Koch and d’Alpuget have enjoyed continued popular success for their
novels, they have dropped off of the radar screens of Australian criticism. Scholarly interest
developed through the 1980s, and reached a peak in 1992, but forces of political correctness
seem to have made them anathema. And this has happened even though Australian intellectual
circles are actively engaged in the very same search for self, soul and identity which Koch and
d’Alpuget are devoted to. The fact is that it is time for the scholarly community to turn their
attention back to the genre of the Australian novel set in Asia, devote more time to the
necessary research into the Asian pretexts, and give such writers as d’Alpuget and Koch the
credit due them for their efforts in uncovering the true Australian identity from the layers of
masks which obscures it from view. If this work aids in rekindling the debate, then it will have
been more than successful.
- 372 -