Writing the Australian Beach

Writing the Australian Beach is the first book in fifteen years to explore creative and cultural representations of this iconic landscape, and how writers and scholars have attempted to understand and depict it. Although the content chiefly focuses on Australia, the beach as both a location and idea resonates deeply with readers around the world. This edited collection includes three sections. Forms of Beach Writing examines the history of beach writing in Australia and in a number of forms: screenwriting, social media writing, and food writing. In turn, Multiplicities of Australian Beach Writing examines how forms of writing—poetry, travel writing, horror film, and memoir—engage with some specific beaches in Australia. And, finally, Reading the Beach as a Text considers how the beach itself functions in cultural narratives: how we walk the beach; the revealing story of beach soccer; and the design and use of ocean baths. Given its scope, the collection offers a unique resource for scholars of Australian culture and creative writing, and for all those interested in Australian beaches. 

Acknowledgements.- Preface.- Chapter 1 Writing the Australian beach: Texts, sites, events and people.- SECTION: Forms of beach writing.- Chapter 2 Surfers and lifeguards: A short history of beach writing in Australia.- Chapter 3 Screenwriting the beach: Conflict, catharsis and the character arc in Australian film.- Chapter 4 Instafamous: Social media influencers and Australian beaches.- Chapter 5 Food writing and the Australian beach: From leisure to labour.- SECTION: Multiplicities of Australian beach writing.- Chapter 6.- Exploring Australian coastal Gothic: Poetry and place.- Chapter 7 Writing Noosa’s beach: Travellers’ narratives and modernity.- Chapter 8 Beaches in Australian horror films: Sites of fear and retreat.- Chapter 9 Challenging conceptions of beach as paradise in fiction and memoir: The Gold Coast’s bathing beauties.- SECTION: Reading the beach as text.- Chapter 10 Walking the Australian beach: Mapping footprints in the sand.- Chapter 11 Australian beach soccer: Tracing paradoxical narratives.- Chapter 12 Australia’s ocean baths: Stories of design, aesthetics and swimming.- Chapter 13 Sculpture by the Sea: A visual essay.- Index.