Visions of Western Sydney in Howard’s Australia

Once overlooked in Australian literature, recent writing from Western Sydney is now among the fieldâ s most dynamic and vital. Over the past two decades, Western Sydney, one of Australiaâ s most culturally and linguistically diverse communities, has also become a locus for Islamophobia, racism and anti-multicultural sentiment. This sentiment was bolstered by John Howardâ s Coalition government between 1996 and 2007 through the creation of a â citizen normâ mythologising Anglo-Celtic identity, normative expressions of masculinity, and neoliberal individualism (Johnson 197). This period also saw a sharp rise in discrimination against Muslim Australians following the MV Tampa controversy, the fabricated â Children Overboardâ scandal, the September 11 attacks on New York City, and the trial and conviction of a group of young Lebanese Muslim men, led by Bilal Skaf, for a series of violent gang rapes perpetrated against young women in Sydney. In this essay, I read three works by writers from Western Sydney as resistance to Howardâ s citizen norm: Luke Carmanâ s An Elegant Young Man (2013), Peter Politesâ s Down the Hume (2017) and Michael Mohammed Ahmadâ s The Lebs (2018). I examine the worksâ depictions of suburban locality and masculinity in the context of Howard-era multicultural Australia

Context (archaeology · Islamophobia · Masculinity · Media studies · Multiculturalism · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Vision · Anthropology · Australian History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Themes in Literature Analysis