Queering the Mainstream: <i>The Slap</i> and 'Middle' Australia

Abstract

On the publication of The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas has become a major figure in the literary life of Australia and beyond. This article examines whether this novel continues the concerns of his earlier fiction, especially those if his first novel Loaded, or whether, in style, content and characterisation, it abandons what many would see as a predominantly queer literary and political project in favour of addressing the concerns of mostly middle-class and straight inner-suburban Melburnians. It questions whether the shift in themes and characters has been the reason the book has gathered so much more attention than his previous works. Does the novel overtly address the so-called ‘mainstream’? And if it does, is there a corresponding shift away from Tsiolkas’s previous concerns? I argue that while it does appear to occupy more middle ground, the novel in fact performs a queering of that space, not only via inclusive characterisation but also via narrative and literary technique. In doing so, Tsiolkas enacts a profound ethics of inclusion that has ramifications for conceptions of the Australian nation.