Obstetric Realism and Sacred Cows: Women Writers and Book Reviewing in Australia

Abstract

Book reviews - a means of evaluating works of literature and introducing them to the reading public - have been a feature of settler-colonial Australia since at least 1824 when the first review was published in this country, and women have long had unequal access to them as authors and as reviewers. This chapter provides an overview of some common attitudes to books by women in Australian reviews since the 19th century as well as some key flashpoints in the history of Australian women’s writing in which the reviews played a part. Specifically, we identify some gendered tropes that recur in reviews written by men about the books of Australian women authors and collate the responses of women writers to being reviewed in such ways. From Miles Franklin to Barbara Baynton, Christina Stead to Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Helen Garner to Antigone Kefala, we find remarkable continuities in the discussions of women writers and their work, which amount to a devaluation of their individual accomplishments and contribution to Australian literature. We also highlight debates that have flared across the twentieth century concerning the reception of women’s writing in this country and discuss the connection between these debates and recent attempts to quantify gender bias in the book pages of Australia’s magazines and newspapers with the aim of ending it.