Bush Writings Andaustralian Imagintion: Research On Australian Bush Realism Novels

The 1890s saw the great surging storms of nationalism spirits that call for the building of an independent nation on the Australian continent. Henry Lawson’s bush novels, on the one hand, established his own authorial position as the "the founding Father of Australian Literature", on the other hand, his bush realism sketches also helped push forward the development of Australian Nationalism Independence to some extent. As was said by George Orwell that an author can see farther and feel deeper than all experts from other fields, Henry Lawson saw even further. And under his realism wrirings’influence, Joseph Furphy, Miles Franklin, Steele Rudd, Louis Stone, Barbara Baynton, etc all wrote about the vast, wide and wild Australian bush with realism skills. At this period, bush has become one of the most important themes and the imagined bush spirits in their bush writings characteristic of bravery, perseverance and mateship have become national ethos. The bush ethos has got merged into the Australian identity imagination.Australian bush novels witness the important moment when the native Australian writers begin to form the consciousness of writing something that are unique of Australia at the end of the 19th century. During this period, through bush writings, the writers attempt to seek native Australian voices thus to construct Australian national identity. "Bush realism" novels are one of the main genres of Australian Nationalism literature, the real and detailed bush sketches reveal how people in the bush have struggled against the harsh environment to survive and how they cooperate with each other like brothers and sisters to make a living, and during the success in building an independent country, the spirits of bravery, perseverance and hardworking has molded into the Australian national identity.When compared with the development of world realism literature, the rising of Australian realism literature is a little later than that of the world process, especially later than that of Russia, France and Britain. But the bush realism novels with unique Australian features have established their due place in the world realism literature. Australian realism novels appeared in the 1890s when Henry Lawson first attempted the realism skills in his bush stories from which both his contemporary and later reviewers find his focus on the descriptions of Australian bush constructing Australian Identity. In this sense, the bush realism novels have earned its own international place in the world realism literature with the realism skills and bush themes of Australian characteristics.The research will be of some theoretical significance as illustrated below. Firstly, bush realism novels reflect Australian nationalism movements, local-colors and the historical and cultural background. By bush novels, we can see how Australian people have overcome insurmountable difficulties and gained their own independence through bush spirits. We also learn that the spirits of bush, typical of bravery, perseverance and unyielding efforts have merged into the Australian national identity. And now the bush spirits are still working in the construction of Australian national identity as it is a reflective theme by contemporary writers like Rachael Treasure and John Treasure. Secondly, the "Research on Australian bush realism novels" is a brand new project in the field of Australian Nationalism literature, and it is an important literature stage that connects Australian staggering colonial literature before the 1880s and the outstanding contemporary literature that has earned international reputation since the 1970s. In china. Australian colonial literature has been granted the national philosophical and social science funds in 2011, and the research of nationalism literature followed by it will be a new supplementary research to the Australian literature in China. Thirdly, the realism literature research is focusing chiefly on Euro-American literature, and the Australian realism literature research are somehow still in the dark and is neglected and haven’t drawn its due attention in China, the research achievements of Australian bush realism novels will set her due place in the world realism literature, and in this sense, the research will be a contribution to the world realism literature.Specifically speaking, this dissertation is constructed around the focused theme of Australian bush. It consists of five chapters, introduction included. The first chapter is entitled "Realism traditions and British Traditional Novels", which is composed of 3 parts:"The General Review of Realism Literature", "British Traditional Realism Novels", and "Australian Bush Realism Novels". Chapter two is entitled "Bush Myth: the Foundation of Australian Bush Realism Novels", which consists of two parts: "Bush, Myth, Imagination" and "Bush Myth and Australian Bush Realism Novels." Chapter three is a detailed discussion of Australian bush mate-ship, which accounts for the most space of the whole dissertation, as it is the most important image in Australian history. It consists of three parts:"Bush Solitude", "Bush Females", "Bush Struggles". Chapter four "Bush Narratives:the Unique Characteristics of Australian Bush Realism Novels" discusses the narrative skills of the Australian Bush Realism Novels which is also composed of three parts:"Narratives Styles", Australian Indigenous Language Usages", and "The Debate on the Narrative Skills of Australian Bush Realism Novels.’The research draws the conclusion that the bush writings aim to construct Australian identity through madness narratives, humor narratives and bush language uses. The madness narratives despicts vividly what the Australian bushman has to suffer and endure in the harsh bush environment, and the harsh bush environment is always driving bushman crazy as they live in loneliness and isolationh in the bush for most of their life. In addition, the bush writings are also characteristic of bush humor and bush languages, both of which work together to construct Australian identity. The bush languages are obvious signs for the national writers’ deliberate craftsmanship as they try to articulate Australian features with the local color.