Relationships to the bush in Nan Chauncy's early novels for children

In the 1950s, bush settings were strong favourites for children's novels, which often took the form of a generic mix of adventure story and bildungsroman, novel of individual development. In using bush settings to take up the environmental concerns of the period, the early novels of Wrightson and Chauncy added a new dimension to traditional settler images of rural life as central to Australian national identity. The bush is loved for its beauty and revered as a source of knowledge and character building, rather than being represented as an antagonist which must be overcome or domesticated. In this respect, Chauncy in particular anticipates later ecological concerns in writing for children.

Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature

Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature

14

1833-6027

N/A

3

10