U.S. Reporting

There was much talk of radicalized spirituality and flamboyant extremes at the first meeting of the American Association of Australian Literary Studies in New York March 21 and 22. The tone was scholarly without being stuffy. Alexandra Cromwell from the University of Minnesota searched for (and found!) Byzantine themes in The Twyborn Affair and wryly commented that she was probably the first person to bother about such a connection. Norma Richey of the Louisiana State University talked about Stow’s narrative and Phyllis Fahrie Edelson gave a feminist interpretation of Hanrahan’s novels. Brian Matthews, currently in residence at the University of Oregon, was one of the few Australians at the conference. He gave a fine description of the Angry Penguins hoax which sparked a discussion of nationalism.