In the 1870s, Australia became a British colony, and a large number of British exiles settled in Australia. Therefore, Australian literature is actually English literature. Australian literature began in the colonial period (1788~1890), beginning with the oral songs of exiles and rural laborers.
The "Old Forest Songs" (1905) collected and compiled by Patterson is a collection of ballads from this period. Most of them express the feelings of the insulted and oppressed, and have a more democratic spirit. The earliest poetry collection published in Australia was "The First Fruits of Australian Poetry" (1819) by British official Barron Field (1786~1846), but its artistic quality was not high.
A group of locally born poets subsequently appeared: William Charles Wentworth (1793~1872), Charles Thompson (1806~1883) and Charles Harper (1813~1868), etc. Among them, Harper is more prominent. He was influenced by the British poets Milton, Wordsworth and Shelley, and was good at depicting scenery and narrative. Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833~1870), who followed, was quite famous at the time, but his artistic conception was not high. He wrote "The Jungle Ballad and the Prancing Pony" (1870) and so on. Henry Kendall (1839~1882) was a highly accomplished poet in this period, known for his lyric poetry.
Novel appeared later than poetry. The earliest novel-like work is Quintus Sevington (1830), written in prison by the exiled Henry Savery (1794~1842). But around 1850, travel notes, memoirs, etc. became the main forms of literature. They introduced Australian customs and the life conditions of the colonists to the British mainland. Later, works in this form were closer to novels. The more influential works are "Memoirs of Geoffrey Hamlin" (1859) by Henry Kingsley (1830~1876), "Life Sentence" by Max Andrew Hislop Clark (1846~1881) (1874) and "Armed Robbery" (1888) by Thomas Alexander Brown (1826~1915), etc. These works describe typical Australian life scenes such as herding roaming, exiled prisoners, green forest heroes, gold mining and wealth, among which the most prominent is "Life Sentence", in which the author exposes Australia's early colonial exile system based on historical materials.
The literary creation of this period, whether poetry or novels, was not very outstanding. It was basically influenced by British writers and literary schools, and did not form its own style and characteristics of Australian literature. Most works are not artistically exquisite enough, especially novels, which tend to focus on narrative stories and ignore the characterization and psychological description of characters.
In the 1880s, Australia began to contemplate the establishment of a federation, and the nationalist movement emerged. The booming national democratic movement brought a new look to Australian literature. In 1880, the "Gazette" magazine founded by John Fey Archibald publicly put forward the slogan "Australia belongs to Australians", promoted radicalism, pacifism and socialism, united a large number of writers, and formed the " Gazette School" promoted the development of Australian national literature. After A. Joe Stephens (1865~1933) became editor, he opened the "Red Pages", vigorously supported young writers, promoted the creation of short stories and "Jungle Ballads", and organized the publication of full-length novels. Under his advocacy, many writers actively created, many excellent works appeared, and a prosperous creative situation was formed. The creation of ballads and short stories is particularly prominent.
The famous writers Joseph Furfield (1843~1912) and Henry Lawson (1867~1922) were the two most accomplished and influential writers during this period. Fulfi is a novelist and poet who came from a working class background. His novel "Such a Life" (1903) describes the jungle scenery and the tragic situation of working people in the form of a diary. It has an obvious democratic spirit, vivid and humorous language, and a rich flavor of life. Lawson wrote both poetry and short stories, and published 14 works including the collection of poetry "In the Days of Broad Sky" (1896) and the collection of short stories "When the Water in the Jar Boils" (1896). His poems are full of patriotic passion, expressing the people's strong desire to resist oppression and demand democracy and freedom; his novels reflect the lives, thoughts and feelings of the lower class people, shape the image of ordinary workers, and praise their excellent qualities. The works of both writers are based on reality and have Australian characteristics. They had a great influence on the development of Australian realist literature.
In addition, short story writers include: humorist Arthur Hoy Davis (1868~1935), William Astley (1854~1911), who reflected the life of exiles, George Louis Baker (1855~1913), who reflected the life of the sea, and Edward George Dyson (1865~1931), who reflected the life of workers. Miles Franklin's (1879~1954) autobiographical novel "My Glorious Course", which showed equality between men and women, was published in 1901 and is known as "the first Australian novel". Henry Handel Richardson (1870~1946) was a talented female writer who was good at exploring the inner world of characters.
Her trilogy, Mahoney's Lot, occupies an important place in Australian literary history.
The representative representative of the famous writer of ballads is Andrew Barton Patterson (1864~1941). He collected, compiled and composed a large number of ballads, some of which were widely circulated after composing music. "A Visitor from Snow River" " (1895) and other poems are still recited today. Other famous poets include Mary Gilmore (1865~1962) and Christopher Brennan (1870~1932). The former's poems are obviously democratic, while the latter's poems show more influence of French symbolism.
Under the influence of poetry and short story creation, Australian national drama art has also developed. In 1909, playwright William Moore (1868~1937) initiated the annual "Australian Drama Gala". Subsequently, Louis Essen (1879~1943), Vance Palmer (1885~1959) and others jointly organized the "Pioneer Actors" group. At the same time, a number of scripts emerged that reflected people's lives and struggles, such as Essen's "The Time Is Not Ripe" (1912), Palmer's "Dark Horse" (1922), Katherine Susanna Pritchard (1883~1969) )'s "Pioneer" (1922), etc.