Vale Brian Kiernan, 1937–2024

Brian Kiernan, who died on March 1, was a major figure in the development of Australian literary studies, and of the teaching of Australian literature in the university. He was one of a group of scholars who crucially contributed to the acceptance of Australian literature as a recognised academic discipline from the 1960s onwards.

Born in Melbourne on July 24, 1937, he was a student at Xavier College. His reminiscence of his years there that he contributed to a series of articles on schooldays in Quadrant (January 1969) resulted in the school’s cancelling him from the old boys’ register.

He studied English literature at the University of Melbourne, where he completed his BA, Dip Ed and MA. He spent some time in Italy teaching English to the Italian Air Force, and always maintained connections with the country; his wife studied Italian at the University of Sydney and lectured in it both there and at Melbourne University. His cousin, the novelist and journalist Desmond…