期刊名称：Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature
印刷版ISSN：1447-8986
电子版ISSN：1833-6027
出版年度：2009
卷号：SPEC
出版社：Association for the Study of Australian Literature
摘要：Dorothy Green is only known to me through her published work which means I have met her in the same way I have met most Australian writers, as a reader. Some years ago a popular Auckland magazine called Metro had a running visual joke which became a famous tag phrase. On their social page they ran the usual pictures of celebrities and hangers on consorting at publicity friendly events. There would always be a group shot which featured someone looking particularly unfortunate—their mouth open in a hyena laugh, too many chins, caught in a drunken leer—and in the caption this person would be recorded as ‘a visitor from Hawkes Bay’. Giving the Dorothy Green Memorial Lecture at ASAL makes me feel I am standing in as the ‘visitor from Hawkes Bay’. I hope I will not be caught in a peculiarly unflattering grimace, but I am standing here as the anonymous presence in a room full of celebrities. I mean by this not so much to reflect on my circumstances, but the peculiarity of my category. I am a New Zealand reader of Australian literature. That makes me just about a category of one. The reverse category, an Australian reader of New Zealand literature, is also a rare beast, though perhaps there is a breeding pair in existence.
