The winner of The 2025 Stella Prize, THEORY AND PRACTICE (Text Publishing 2024) is an interesting and eclectic work from author Michelle de Kretser which combines fiction, memoir, autofiction, essay and literature theory to create a hybrid tale that shapeshifts from the first pages to the last.
De Kretser’s work has developed, expanded and become more experimental with every book since her first novels. This latest piece defies classification – even the title THEORY AND PRACTICE (with a photo on the cover of the author at a young age) seems unlikely for a work of fiction. But it demonstrates all the skills and includes all the innovation that this author is known for: a razor-sharp eye for detail; an eviscerating interiority; evocative description; nuanced characterisation and development of relationships; and themes of society, colonisation, race and class.
In addition, this book is a deep dive into de Kretser’s early academic life, in the 1980’s, when she delved into the life and works of Virginia Woolf amongst an examination of feminist theory.
The novel begins with a fictional narrative which is entirely engrossing until suddenly, on page 12, the author ceases it with the sentence: ‘At that point, the novel I was writing stalled.’ With no chapters but substantial section breaks, the book then moves into an exploration of poststructuralist and urban theory as related to the current situation in Palestine / Israel. The author is now narrating from her point of view, as she discusses everything from Situationist theory to a disturbing childhood incident to migration to Melbourne share house life to the friends who meant everything at that time in her life, to the romance – passionate, blighted, challenged, sensuous, forbidden, ‘deconstructed’ – that bracketed much of that period for her.
De Kretser’s sense of irony and humour shine strongly, especially through the interactions and conversations with her mother.
Her thoughts on what she actually feels about feminism and colonialism butt up against what she thinks she should believe; what her university studies tell her to believe. In this way it is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a stimulating and clever intellectual with strong views about class, racism, sexism, stereotyping, truth, belonging, shame, jealousy, diversity, radicalism, activism, social equity and justice. She punctuates the story with repeated touchstones – phrases or situations or thoughts – that continue to bring the reader back to the central themes of her novel.
In this blend of essay, memoir and fiction it is hard to pin down which is which; de Kretser deliberately blurs the boundaries so that the reader constantly questions what is truth, what is memory, what is construct, what is theory and what is story. Unusual, experimental, this brilliantly conceived and skilfully written book will particularly hook lovers of literary fiction.