‘Nation’ and literary history.

Modern histories of a nation's literature require a comprehensive, scholarly approach. A serious literary history of Australia should focus primarily on literary form and content – the stories and myths of Australians in a variety of literary genres. Relevant historical contexts will extend from local and regional concerns to Australians' links with Europe, North America and, increasingly, Asia. Colonial and post-colonial contexts provide important avenues of investigation and research, employing the scholarly disciplines of bibliography, biography and textual editing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]