On May 24 I took part in a very different writers' festival event as part of the Emerging Writers' Festival: a TwitterFEST discussion about the Australian novel. It was hosted by Jason Ensor, the man behind the AustLiterature Twitter account. It moved at a rapid pace with tweeters firing off debate and questions between each other using the #EWFchat hashtag.

I've had similar debates about defining Australian literature or even whether or not it's valid to make that distinction, but I was surprised at how many people agreed with me that nationality shouldn't really be a factor when you're judging the quality of writing. I suppose my ideas on this subject cannot be divorced from my political opinions with regard to nationalism versus a class analysis of the world; it isn't just within literature that I think the idea of national identity and culture is redundant or worse, counter-productive.

I think where we come from or where we live does little to define our culture or values, and nor does it draw people together with much commonality. I think what social class we're from is a much more defining factor. If you're working-class (work for a wage), middle-class (professionals, small business owners, etc.) or ruling class (politician, head of big business, etc.) there a massive differences in culture within nations.

How someone from a working-class background lives - where we live, what we do with most of our time, what we eat, how we speak, what we do for entertainment - is quite different to how someone who heads a mining corporation lives. And the main defining factor of our lives is how we spend most of our time. For working-class people it is labouring, working for a wage. People from the working-class do this all over the world, no matter where they're from.

This extends to literature, to what we write about, our perceptions of the world, etc.

There are massive variations in Australian literature that make it hard for anybody to define it, and saying Australian literature is defined by its diversity seems like a contradiction. And then look at the things within literature, defining factors, such as genre, influences from writers from across the globe, and voices and styles that ignore borders, which is especially the case in the age of the internet. There is just too many variables in play. But the question is not redundant. It intersects with issues in the real world that have to do with a constant anxiety about national identity, and it is inevitable that so long as nationalism exists the issue is going to come up.

I think the internet breaks down the barriers to some extent, as writers have more avenues to communicate and collaborate with people of the same genre and at similar skill levels all over the world, but I don't think the question will die out completely. Globalisation in some respects makes nationalism worse.

 This is an edited reproduction of an entry from Benjamin Solah's blog. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author. Find Benjamin at:

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