An uncultured rhymer and his cultural critics: Henry Lawson, class politics and colonial literature

Abstract

This essay looks at the class tensions which characterised the reception of the Australian poet Henry Lawson (1867-1922). These tensions were expressed in post-colonial terms as an opposition between cultural distinction and national identity. Lawson's reception develops our understanding of the levels of culture available to working class writers in Australia at the end of the nineteenth century.