Abstract

The 1890s witnessed the great surging storms of nationalism movements which called for the building of an independent nation on the Australian continent．Henry Lawson's bush novels, on the one hand, established his own authorial position as the “Founding Father of Australian Literature”, on the other hand, his bush realism sketches also helped construct the Australian nationalism identity to some extent．As was said by George Orwell that an author can see farther and feel deeper than all experts from any other field, Henry Lawson saw even further．Under his realist writings' influence, Joseph Furphy, Miles Franklin, Steele Rudd, Louis Stone, Barbara Baynton, etc., all wrote about the vast, wide and wild Australian bush with realist skills．At this period, bush is one of the most important themes in their writings, and the bush spirits built among bushmen in their bush writings constructed an imagination of Australian national identity．The bush spirits, characteristic of bravery, perseverance and mateship (ready-to-help others at any time) have become Australian national ethos．

Australian bush novels witnessed the important process that the native Australian writers were beginning to form the consciousness of writing Australia at the end of the 19th century．During this period, through bush writings, the writers were beginning to seek native Australian voices thus to construct the bush spirits．“Bush realism”novels are one of the genres of Australian Nationalism literature．The real and detailed bush descriptions reveal how people in the bush have struggled against the harsh nature to survive and how they cooperate with each other like brothers and sisters to make a better living, and during the success in building an independent country, the spirits of bravery, perseverance and hardworking have molded into the Australian people.

When compared with the development of world realist literature, the rising of Australian realist literature is a little later than that of the world, especially later than Russia, France and Britain．But the bush realism novels with unique Australian features have established their due place in the world realist literature．Australian realist novels appeared in the 1890s when Henry Lawson first attempted the realist skills in his bush stories from which both his contemporary and later reviewers find his focus on the descriptions of Australian bush constructing Australian identity．In this sense, the bush realism novels have earned its own international place in the world realist literature with the realism skills and bush themes of Australian characteristics.

The research will be of some theoretical values as illustrated below．Firstly, the fictions of Australian bush realism reflect Australian nationalism movements, local colors and the historical and cultural background．By focusing on bush realism, we can see how Australian bushmen have overcome insurmountable difficulties and gained their own independence through bush spirits．In the process of the construction of bush ethos, typical of bravery, perseverance and unyielding efforts, Australian bush realism writers have merged them into the Australian national identity through artisitic imagination．Bush spirits have been constructed as one of the most essential elements of Australian national identity that are still working today as a reflective theme by contemporary Australian rural writers like Rachael Treasure and John Treasure．Secondly, the “Research on the fictions of Australian bush realism”is a brand-new program in the field of Australian nationalism literature, which is an important literary development stage that connects Australian staggering colonial literature before the 1880s and the outstanding contemporary literature which has earned international reputation since the 1970s．In China, Australian colonial literature has been granted the national philosophical and social science funds in 2011, and the research of nationalism literature followed by it will be a new supplementary research to the Australian literature in China．Thirdly, the realism literature research is focusing chiefly on Euro-American literature, and the Australian realism literature research is somehow still in the dark and neglected, and hasn't drawn its due attention in China．The research achievements of Australian bush realism novels will set her due place in the world realism literature, and in this sense, the research will be a contribution to the world realism literature.

Specifically speaking, this academic work is constructed around the focused and recurring theme of Australian bush．It consists of five chapters, introduction included．The first chapter is entitled “Realism Traditions and British Traditional Novels”, which is composed of 3 parts：“The General Review of Realism Literature”, “British Traditional Realism Novels”, and “Australian Bush Realism Novels”．Chapter two “Bush Myth：the Foundation of Australian Bush Realism Novels”consists of two parts：“Bush, Myth, Imagination”and “Bush Myth and Australian Bush Realism Novels”．Chapter three is a detailed discussion of Australian bush mateship, which accounts for the most space of the whole book as it is the most important image in the fictions of Australian bush realism．It consists of three parts：“Bush Solitude”, “Bush Females”, and “Bush Struggles”．Chapter four “Bush Tradition”consists of three part：“Bush Tradition and Australian Tradition”, “Bush Nostalgia and Australian Tradition”, and “Female Tradition and Australian Tradition”．Chapter five “Bush Narratives：the Unique Characteristics of the Fictions of Australian Bush Realism”discusses the narrative skills of bush realism, which is also composed of three parts：“Narratives Skills and Styles”, “Australian Indigenous Language”, and “The Debate on the Narrative Skills of the Fictions of Australian Bush Realism”.

The research draws the conclusion that the bush writings aim to construct Australian identity through the detailed and authentic descriptions of bushmen's madness, bush mateship and bush languages．The madness images convey the idea vividly about what the Australian bushman has to suffer and endure in the harsh bush environment．The harsh bush environment has the driving force that drive the bushman onto the verge of madness as they live in loneliness and isolation in the bush for most of their life．In addition, the bush writings are also characteristic of bush mateship and bush languages, through which the Australian national identity is constructed．The bush indigenous languages are obvious signs for the national writers' deliberate use as they try to articulate Australian bush landscapes and convey the Australian landscapes with local languages to the world, thus to convey the bush voice of Australia to the world readers.

The fictions of Australisn bush realism is typical of the characteristics of European traditional realism literature with Australian bush landscapes．The bushmen's “persevering, painstaking, and unyielding struggling”images are vividly and authentically depicted in Henry Lawson, Joseph Furphy, Miles Franklin and Steel Rudd's bush works．In depicting bushmen's hard life in the harsh bush environment, the writers construct their Australian imagination that Australia is a country built upon bush through bushmen's efforts.