From Literary Orphans to Award-winning Authorship: Serbian Migrant Writers in Australia

Abstract

Focusing on literary careers of individual writers, this paper traces the trajectory of Serbian migrant writing in Australia from its beginnings after World War II until the present, arguing that this writing has progressively evolved from being part of a doubly neglected ghetto-like literary community to becoming a fully integrated, award-winning authorship. Each new wave of migrants is viewed as a link in the chain of evolution triggered by migration understood as a change of place. In the case of migrant writers and writers of non-Anglo-Celtic background in Australia, the advantages gained by migration include the access to a large bilingual cultural pool, a doubly informed vision and interpretation of the world, and the privileged position of a mediator between two cultures.