Politics

From Vietnam to Gaza, Eda Gunaydin considers the recent and historical convergences of mass politics and anti-war sentiment, examining the role of artists at moments of political mobilisation as well as their vulnerability to state surveillance.

Reading across several decades of Frank Moorhouse’s essays on the writing life, author Gina Ward maps Moorhouse’s changing sense of vocation, and the ruinous effects of rising economic precarity on the writers of his generation.

In the proliferation of discourses and identities online, critique is often shadowed by its double: conspiracy. In this review, James Ley situates Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger within the re-emergence of the ‘paranoid style’ in American politics.

Reading Palestine through South American literary and political history, Yumna Kassab reflects on the potency of symbols during times of repression.

In her review of two recent books on Palestine, Micaela Sahhar draws on her family history and experience as a scholar to examine the case for academic boycott and the limitations of the Western liberal mindset for Palestinian allyship.

Hamlet’s dictum ‘I must be cruel, only to be kind’ has taken on new life in the minds of Australia’s border policymakers. Reading Jordana Silverstein’s history of child refugee policy, Ellena Savage uncovers an argument for children’s liberation as well as a critique of the turn towards ‘care’.

The act of reading does not guarantee prompt action, or any action, or the right action. It does not guarantee a particular outcome – or even the first step towards one. It does not turn readers into good people, any more than writing a book means you must be an ethical person.

If Australia were invaded, should it be defended? This is the question at the heart of a short essay by Guy Rundle published…

Democracy, John Keane tells us, is the friend of contingency.

Ultimately, it is of little consequence whether or not Morrison is genuine in his religious beliefs. He probably is.