Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What is the future of the great Australian novel? Novelists Jessica Au, Brian Castro and André Dao contemplate the novel, the nation and its literature with Lynda Ng.
The old novel … had defined boundaries within which information was traded for the reader’s loyalty to a common and national agenda. The new novel places the boundaries themselves under question. — Brian Castro, ‘Heterotopias’ (1994)
Marking 30 years since Brian Castro considered the ‘new novel,’ three of Australia’s most talented contemporary novelists discussed the future of the form. Was there such a thing as a ‘Great Australian Novel,’ or had twentieth-century paradigms expired? What, exactly, did greatness have to do with fiction? How did the novel relate to the nation? Dr. Lynda Ng, lecturer in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne, hosted Jessica Au, Brian Castro, and André Dao as they considered the novel, the nation, and the boundaries that shape them.
Presented in partnership with Liminal.
What is the future of the great Australian novel? Novelists Jessica Au, Brian Castro and André Dao contemplate the novel, the nation and its literature with Lynda Ng.
The old novel … had defined boundaries within which information was traded for the reader’s loyalty to a common and national agenda. The new novel places the boundaries themselves under question. — Brian Castro, ‘Heterotopias’ (1994)
Marking 30 years since Brian Castro considered the ‘new novel,’ three of Australia’s most talented contemporary novelists discussed the future of the form. Was there such a thing as a ‘Great Australian Novel,’ or had twentieth-century paradigms expired? What, exactly, did greatness have to do with fiction? How did the novel relate to the nation? Dr. Lynda Ng, lecturer in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne, hosted Jessica Au, Brian Castro, and André Dao as they considered the novel, the nation, and the boundaries that shape them.
Presented in partnership with Liminal.
