The Dissenter and Anti-authoritarian Aspects of Australian History and Character that Inform the Moral Ambiguity that Marks Australian Crime Fiction

Abstract

This thesis consists of two distinct but related parts: a creative component, the contemporary crime novel ‘The Grass Mud Horse’, and an exegesis. Both will attempt to answer the question: How has the moral ambiguity that marks Australian crime fiction been informed and influenced by the dissenter and anti-authoritarian aspects of Australian history and character? It examines how issues usually associated with noir fiction of the twentieth century were present earlier in Australian crime fiction.