Australian Poets in and about Europe since the 1960s

Abstract

During my last study stay in Australia in 1994 I got hold of two handsome newly published books of poems that caught my attention as a European scholar doing research "down under".  These two books discussed here are: On the Move: Australian Poets in Europe (1992), edited by Geoff Page, and Changing Places: Australian Writers in Europe (1994), edited by Laurie Hergenhan and Irmtraud Petersson. They have attracted some criticism in Australia, but hardly so in Europe, where the poems are set. It seems to be our task, of us European literary critics, to amend this, which this paper sets out to do.