Original scientific paper

Ada Cambridge’s Subversive Romance

Tihana Klepač ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Suffering “cultural apartheid” (Anne Summers) as a writer of urban romance novels
in the predominantly male, realist, nationalist tradition of Australia, the work of Ada
Cambridge has long been silenced, devalued, and given only documentary value by
most literary critics. A careful analysis of A Marked Man, however, reveals Cambridge’s
subversion of both the form and the and content of the romance genre and thus
proves its literary merit by producing an alternative to the nationalist metanarrative:
a “little narrative” (Lyotard) which voices the concerns of urban nineteenth-century
Australian women.

Keywords

Ada Cambridge; romance fiction; “little narrative; ” subversion of the genre

Hrčak ID:

61579

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/61579

Publication date:

15.4.2010.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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