Big-Noting: The Heroic Theme In Australian War Writing
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Acceptable
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: FEP missing
Markings: Previous owner,Remainder mark
Condition remarks: damaged front pastedown
From the trenches of Gallipoli to the jungles of the Pacific, Australian war writing has long cultivated a mythology of the heroic soldier — and Robin Gerster's Big-noting: The Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing subjects that mythology to rigorous and revelatory scrutiny. This landmark work of literary and cultural criticism argues that Australian war literature is defined by a persistent tradition of self-aggrandisement — or big-noting — in which the figure of the Anzac warrior is repeatedly constructed, idealised, and lionised across decades of prose and poetry. Gerster brings a sharp analytical eye to a vast body of texts, tracing the heroic archetype through official histories, personal memoirs, and imaginative fiction to uncover the ideological machinery that sustains the Anzac legend. His writing is precise, intellectually rigorous, and compellingly readable, situating Australian war writing within broader debates about nationalism, masculinity, and cultural identity. Published by Melbourne University Press in 1987, this study remains an essential — and quietly provocative — intervention in Australian literary history, raising urgent questions about the stories a nation chooses to tell about itself in wartime.
Author: Robin Gerster
Format: Hardback
Published: 1987, Melbourne University Press
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Acceptable
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: FEP missing
Markings: Previous owner,Remainder mark
Condition remarks: damaged front pastedown
From the trenches of Gallipoli to the jungles of the Pacific, Australian war writing has long cultivated a mythology of the heroic soldier — and Robin Gerster's Big-noting: The Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing subjects that mythology to rigorous and revelatory scrutiny. This landmark work of literary and cultural criticism argues that Australian war literature is defined by a persistent tradition of self-aggrandisement — or big-noting — in which the figure of the Anzac warrior is repeatedly constructed, idealised, and lionised across decades of prose and poetry. Gerster brings a sharp analytical eye to a vast body of texts, tracing the heroic archetype through official histories, personal memoirs, and imaginative fiction to uncover the ideological machinery that sustains the Anzac legend. His writing is precise, intellectually rigorous, and compellingly readable, situating Australian war writing within broader debates about nationalism, masculinity, and cultural identity. Published by Melbourne University Press in 1987, this study remains an essential — and quietly provocative — intervention in Australian literary history, raising urgent questions about the stories a nation chooses to tell about itself in wartime.