'We are all philosophers; we cannot help being': Credos, Lifechoices and Philosophy in Murray Bail's The Pages

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Ackland, Michael
Michael Ackland
Abstract

[Extract] According to one famous postulate, 'an unexamined life is not worth living'. The words, originally attributed to Socrates, gained notoriety at Sydney University, where they were appropriated as a polemical exhortation to successive generations of eager students by Professor John Anderson. More recently their spirit has been dramatised by the autodidact Wesley Antill, in Murray Bail's fourth novel The Pages (2008), in response to the insistence of a lecturer from the same department that the would-be philosopher must 'become a singular person' (65).

Journal

Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature

Publication Name

Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature

Volume

12

ISBN/ISSN

1833-6027

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3

Pages Count

13

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Association for the Study of Australian Literature

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