Abstract:

The prevailing nationalist thoughts in the end of the 19^th centuries is the driving force of Australian nationalist literature. As the jungle poets at that time, A. B. Paterson and Henry Lawson created poems around the Australian jungle respectively from romanticism and realism, expressing their construction and imagination of Australian literature. Their distinct jungle landscape writings gave rise to the famous “jungle debate” in the history of Australian literature. Taking this jungle debate as a starting point, one can deeply explore the national (literary) orientation behind the “jungle debate” of Paterson and Lawson in the context of Australian nationalism at the end of the 19^th century. The “jungle debate” between Paterson and Lawson not only created a spectacular jungle literary landscape at the end of the 19^th century in Australia, but also marked a leap for Australian literature in breaking away from the British colonial literary tradition, making jungle literature a unique genre highlighting the characteristics of Australian national literature.

Key words: romanticism, realism, A.B. Paterson, Henry Lawson, “Jungle Debate”