Arthurianism in Australia

The Arthurian legends have been taken up by educators, poets, playwrights and novelists in the British colonies in Australia and the societies that emerged from them, developing an Arthurianism that has contributed to the formation of Australian identity and national consciousness. This chapter examines the changing significance of these legends as an imaginative prism through which Australian experience has been refracted. While in some instances Arthurianism distances the colonial subject from their antipodean surrounds, elsewhere it creates a vision of Camelot transformed by life in Australian environments. Arthurian legend has been valuable for exploring the states of colonial dependence and cultural autonomy, and has provided an indispensable resource for understanding modern femininity in the Australian context. Australian Arthurianism’s capacity for constant renewal is reflective of a culture undergoing significant changes in its self-understanding; indeed, renewal is at the heart of Arthurianism itself, even at a profound distance from its source.