Abstract

How important is place to Australians? How may we 'read' the places we inhabit? These are the major concerns in Bruce Bennett's book of literary essays, An Australian Compass, in which notions of place, region and community are explored. The essays also explore related issues such as Australian writers' sense of the past; their imagined relations with Europe, North America and Australia's neighbouring countries of the 'near north'; ecology as a literary trope; and links between creativity and ageing. The book's pervasive theme is the search by 'lost' Australians for an oikos, a place of belonging, the appropriate 'home'. These lively, thought-provoking essays reveal the author's deep knowledge of Australian literature and its contexts. They also demonstrate the value of literary studies in understanding the dimensions of real life issues and problems.