The central argument of the thesis, the representation and reception of otherness, is followed throughout White¿s novels with the support of a complex critical instrumentarium made up of postcolonial theory, reader response theory, cultural-critical frameworks, alterity theory, and narratology. Otherness in its manifold representations is a main component of Patrick White¿s fiction. It functions on several levels and this requires a deeper entanglement on the part of the reader. The different levels previously referred to are embodied in the various Others who people White¿s novels: ethnic Others as members of the Australian multicultural society and the Aborigines as colonial Others, as well as gender Others, who