New Electronic Archives for Australian Literature. Information capacity in Australian literary studies has been dramatically expanded by national investment in electronic archives, while trends in the discipline increasingly demand empirical support for claims about literary history and literary value. At the same time, research about Australian literature remains primarily theoretical, insufficiently informed by newly available data. This project aims to further enrich the new data sets, and to ....New Electronic Archives for Australian Literature. Information capacity in Australian literary studies has been dramatically expanded by national investment in electronic archives, while trends in the discipline increasingly demand empirical support for claims about literary history and literary value. At the same time, research about Australian literature remains primarily theoretical, insufficiently informed by newly available data. This project aims to further enrich the new data sets, and to use them in an innovative return to the classical issues in Australian literary criticism and history. It will provide demonstration applications of data in new electronic archives.Read moreRead less
Wild Man from Borneo: species, race, representation. This project addresses the representation of species boundaries in Western accounts of the orangutan in the 19th and 20th centuries. Darwinian theory raised the possibility that animals could ?evolve?. Orangutans seemed ?closest? to humans and therefore raised key questions about the border between humans and animals. These questions were addressed in a vast range of scientific, popular, imaginative and juvenile literature. Even when ecolo ....Wild Man from Borneo: species, race, representation. This project addresses the representation of species boundaries in Western accounts of the orangutan in the 19th and 20th centuries. Darwinian theory raised the possibility that animals could ?evolve?. Orangutans seemed ?closest? to humans and therefore raised key questions about the border between humans and animals. These questions were addressed in a vast range of scientific, popular, imaginative and juvenile literature. Even when ecological models of the environment shifted attention from evolutionary potential to ecological role, orangutans retained a special status as ?sentinel? species. This project will produce a monograph examining the construction, maintenance and erosion of ideas of species boundaries.Read moreRead less
The emotional register of liberal culture in the long nineteenth century. This project aims to advance our understanding of liberal culture, a concept central to the humanities and to modern social and political discourse. It will address the problem of liberalism's perceived rationalism by investigating the role of emotion as a core characteristic of liberal culture during its formation and subsequent development over the course of the long nineteenth century. The project will focus on periodic ....The emotional register of liberal culture in the long nineteenth century. This project aims to advance our understanding of liberal culture, a concept central to the humanities and to modern social and political discourse. It will address the problem of liberalism's perceived rationalism by investigating the role of emotion as a core characteristic of liberal culture during its formation and subsequent development over the course of the long nineteenth century. The project will focus on periodicals as a vital medium for the cultivation and dissemination of progressive liberal ideas and values, as well as for the expression and discussion of the emotions. The project will benefit scholars in political, literary, and cultural studies and contribute to current debates in Australia about liberal culture and its sustainability.Read moreRead less