Australian Poetic Satire

This publication is based on Prof Dennis Haskell’s Colin Roderick Lecture, which was delivered in 1994 at James Cook University, in Queensland, Australia.

In three chapters (titled ‘How much can the Wattle Sting?’, ‘A Cure of Souls, and Satin Boots: Kenneth Slessor as Satirist’, and ‘Nurturers turned Nasty: Australian Women Satirists’) Haskell argues that satire is often overlooked in contemporary literary theory and criticism, and examines its role in Australian culture, primarily through the work of Kenneth Slessor and a number of women satirists.