Ways of Being Australia: Exploring Issues of Identity Through Four Contemporary Australian Literary Texts

Abstract

In the process of rehabilitation following bypass surgery in May 1966, one constant and enduring thread in my life has been reading. My reading has ranged over a wide span, largely of fiction, from Chaim Potok's 'Davita's Harp' through Marina Warner's 'Indigo' to Isabel Allende's 'The House of Spirits' and her autobiographical 'Paula'. I am exploring whether and how, if that were so, the reading of books might have contributed to the process of healing following bypass surgery.