The Fin de Sicle Imagination in Australia, 1890-1914

This book explores the fin de sicle, an era of powerful global movements and turbulent transition, in Australia and beyond through a series of biographical microhistories. From the first wave feminist Rose Summerfield and the working class radical John Dwyer, to the indigenous rights advocate David Unaipon and the poet Christopher Brennan, Hearn traces the transnational identities, philosophies, ideas and cultures that characterised this era. Examining the struggles and aspirations of fin de sicle lives; respect for the rights of women and indigenous peoples, the injustices and hardship inflicted on working men and women, and the ways in which they imagined a better world, this book examines the transformation and renewal brought about by fin de sicle ideas. It examines the distinctive characteristics of this great acceleration of economic, technological and cultural forces that swept the globe at the turn of the 19th century both within an Australian context and on the world stage. Asserting that the fin de sicle was significant for the making of modern Australia, and demonstrating the impact Australian fin de sicle lives had on the transnational and global movements of the era, Mark Hearn traces the turbulent nature of the fin de sicle imagination in Australia, and its response to these dynamic forces.