Exiled in Language

Exile is ubiquitous in 20th century literature whether temporary expatriation or permanent flight. This quartet of self-exiled German - Australian poets/writers provides an unusual exile of second remove and an extraordinary study in language praxis. These gifted poets and critics fled to Australia because exile meant life and Nazi Europe meant death. They remained despite the lazy suspicion of many native Australians that these scholars were "worse than the pommies" (a terrible thing to be called in Oz) and were "prancing poufter poetasters". One of the exiles returned the compliment by calling Australia "hell...with bad white wine". Professor Tonetto describes the individual achievement of each writer and the contribution they made to the world class and confident Australian literature of today. Their brilliant gifts in two languages and their influence on contemporary Australian and German/Austrian writing is also analyzed