Graphically gendered: a quantitative study of the relationships between Australian novels and gender from the 1830s to the 1930s.

Abstract

This paper aims to continue and expand, while critiquing aspects of, previous feminist analyses of authors and authorship in Australia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The majority of such studies have focused on particular women writers and/or on aspects of their fiction. I consider the number and proportion of published novel titles by Australian men and women from 1830 (when publication of Australian novels effectively began) to 1939 to determine whether and what gender trends emerge. This study also departs from the majority of previous explorations of Australian literary history (including feminist accounts of that history) in not pre-emptively selecting the authors or texts considered. Rather, I explore gender trends in relation to all Australian novel titles published before 1939..