Fiction

Rumbles in the Zeitgest

by José Borghino •

November 2003, no. 256

Three Dog Night by Peter Goldsworthy

Penguin, $29.95 pb, 341 pp

Fiction

Rumbles in the Zeitgest

by José Borghino •

November 2003, no. 256

It is difficult for non-Aboriginal novelists to deal adequately with Aboriginal experience in their work. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is general ignorance about Aboriginal experience. But another, more insidious, reason is self-censorship. The politics of speaking in an Aboriginal voice, if you’re not Aboriginal, is at best fraught and at worst a nightmare. Thinking twice before embarking on such an ‘adventure’ is no bad thing, a counter-balance, perhaps, to the days when it was all too easy to usurp an indigenous point of view, days of racist triumphalism or paternalist do-goodism.

José Borghino

José Borghino has managed government, media, and public relations for the Australian Publishers Association since 2005. He lectures in Literary Journalism at Sydney University, and is a regular book reviewer for The Australian, The Australian Literary Review, and the Sydney Morning Herald. He was the Editor of the online news and commentary site NewMatilda.com from 2005 to 2007. José Borghino was the Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors from 1998 to 2004; and before that worked for the Literature Board of the Australia Council from 1990 to 1998. He was Chair of the Australian Coalition for Cultural Diversity from 2003 to 2004 and Chair of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Committee in 2000. He was the book reviews editor for marie claire magazine and the founding editor of both EDITIONS Review magazine and Education Australia magazine.