A failure of memory? Revisiting the Demidenko/Darville debate

Despite its somewhat perverse inversion of Holocaust memory, Alba argues that the literary hoax of Demidenko's novel 'The Hand that signed the paper' can be understood (but not excused) as a “refraction of Australia’s racial and identity politics at the time”. While acrimony and scandal followed in its wake,the novel also served to reveal important fault lines in Australian political life.