author
Best known for coining the phrase "cultural cringe," this Australian critic helped shape the way readers and writers thought about national identity and literature. His work remains a key touchstone in discussions of Australian culture.
Born in Melbourne in 1900, A. A. Phillips was an Australian writer, critic, and teacher whose ideas had a lasting influence on the country's literary life. He studied at the University of Melbourne and at Oxford, then returned to Melbourne and spent decades teaching at Wesley College.
Phillips is most closely associated with his 1950 essay The Cultural Cringe, which gave a memorable name to the feeling that Australian art and writing were somehow inferior to work from Britain or elsewhere. That phrase entered the wider cultural conversation and helped frame later debates about Australian identity, criticism, and post-colonial thought.
He also published books of criticism, including The Australian Tradition, and maintained a long connection with the journal Meanjin. Later in life he received major recognition, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Melbourne and the Medal of the Order of Australia.