Insect societies and social butterflies: natural history and sociability in the Romantic period. During the eighteenth century, the Pacific islands and New Holland replaced America as the testing ground for ideas about the state of natural man and the origins of society. In looking at Enlightenment ideas about the natural, the human, and the social, this project will help us to learn more about ourselves as the dominant species.
Transnational Coetzee: Revisioning World Literature through the Margins. The reputation of J. M. Coetzee has undergone a dramatic global upsurge in the past 15 years, coinciding with his relocation to Australia and subsequent adoption of citizenship in 2002. This project aims to explore the proposition that the writings of the South African-born Coetzee possess profound and abiding transnational qualities, and then map the global shifts that this work has undergone in the new century. By examin ....Transnational Coetzee: Revisioning World Literature through the Margins. The reputation of J. M. Coetzee has undergone a dramatic global upsurge in the past 15 years, coinciding with his relocation to Australia and subsequent adoption of citizenship in 2002. This project aims to explore the proposition that the writings of the South African-born Coetzee possess profound and abiding transnational qualities, and then map the global shifts that this work has undergone in the new century. By examining these aspects through Coetzee's position in his adopted country, the project seeks to re-examine notions of Australian nationality and the parameters of its literary, cultural and political identity, moving them beyond an insular, border-defined understanding towards a wider international frame.Read moreRead less
Complexions of Empire: racial ideology, West Indian slavery and British romanticism. The aim is to undertake a major interdisciplinary study of British culture and colonialism in the 18th century, with a particular focus on identity formation, the development of racial ideology, and the rhetoric of abolitionism. By focussing on the representation of the West Indies and West Indian social identity and customs, in the context of social conditions in England, the project will advance our current un ....Complexions of Empire: racial ideology, West Indian slavery and British romanticism. The aim is to undertake a major interdisciplinary study of British culture and colonialism in the 18th century, with a particular focus on identity formation, the development of racial ideology, and the rhetoric of abolitionism. By focussing on the representation of the West Indies and West Indian social identity and customs, in the context of social conditions in England, the project will advance our current understanding of the dynamic of metropolitan/colonial relations.Read moreRead less
War, Literary Culture and Masculinity in Romantic Period Britain, 1750-1850. The Romantic period represents a formative moment in the history of Australia and my reconsideration of Romantic culture and war has relevance for understanding this history. Australia's own experience of war first originated with the frontier wars of 1788-1838. My research into British Romantic military and naval war writing will provide key insights into the military culture that dominated this formative moment of Aus ....War, Literary Culture and Masculinity in Romantic Period Britain, 1750-1850. The Romantic period represents a formative moment in the history of Australia and my reconsideration of Romantic culture and war has relevance for understanding this history. Australia's own experience of war first originated with the frontier wars of 1788-1838. My research into British Romantic military and naval war writing will provide key insights into the military culture that dominated this formative moment of Australian military history. War has, more broadly, been pivotal in the formation of Australian nationhood and identity. My project will contribute to our understanding of the role of war in Australian culture by providing fresh insight into the historical role of war writing in constructing modern forms of identity.Read moreRead less
Folio Shakespeare texts and their Quarto and Octavo antecedents. This project aims to use statistical methods to assess different versions of Shakepeare’s plays. The Shakespeare First Folio is the most important source for the texts of Shakespeare's plays, but the dates of some Folio and rival versions, and the nature of their transmission from an original manuscript, are disputed. There is uncertainty whether some highly divergent versions represent authorial revisions, or adaptations for readi ....Folio Shakespeare texts and their Quarto and Octavo antecedents. This project aims to use statistical methods to assess different versions of Shakepeare’s plays. The Shakespeare First Folio is the most important source for the texts of Shakespeare's plays, but the dates of some Folio and rival versions, and the nature of their transmission from an original manuscript, are disputed. There is uncertainty whether some highly divergent versions represent authorial revisions, or adaptations for reading, or for touring, or simply corruption through careless copying. This project plans to conduct a statistical analysis of the language of the 18 plays that appear both in the Folio and in previous Quarto versions, focusing on patterns of word use and orthography, to provide a better understanding of the Folio and new evidence about the texts of individual plays.Read moreRead less
A textual and critical study of Charlotte Brontë. This project aims to reinterpret Charlotte Brontë’s original novels, which are stranger, more unsettling, and more artistically and socially challenging than the available editions lead readers to believe. This strangeness, so apparent in her manuscripts, is moderated in all print versions of the novels because Brontë’s punctuation was radically altered by the printers who altered them for the first editions, with profound effects on the novels a ....A textual and critical study of Charlotte Brontë. This project aims to reinterpret Charlotte Brontë’s original novels, which are stranger, more unsettling, and more artistically and socially challenging than the available editions lead readers to believe. This strangeness, so apparent in her manuscripts, is moderated in all print versions of the novels because Brontë’s punctuation was radically altered by the printers who altered them for the first editions, with profound effects on the novels and their interpretation. This project will restore the original versions in a new scholarly print/digital edition, reproduce them along with the print versions in an innovative online critical archive of Brontë texts and contexts and analyse them in a book-length reinterpretation of the novels. In collaboration with prestigious international cultural institutions including The British Library, Morgan Library and Brontë Parsonage Museum, this project will create new ways for the general public to engage closely with some of the most important and least accessible documents of western literary heritage.
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Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101275
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$321,380.00
Summary
Samuel Beckett and the French Literary Tradition: Bilingualism as Method. Moving between French and English, Samuel Beckett's bilingual writing practice offers a unique record of how the artistic imagination engages with the experience of migration. To date, studies of Beckett concentrate on his involvement with the Anglophone expatriate communities and the French literary coteries of post-war Paris. They neglect, however, the impact of Beckett's grounding in the French literary tradition from t ....Samuel Beckett and the French Literary Tradition: Bilingualism as Method. Moving between French and English, Samuel Beckett's bilingual writing practice offers a unique record of how the artistic imagination engages with the experience of migration. To date, studies of Beckett concentrate on his involvement with the Anglophone expatriate communities and the French literary coteries of post-war Paris. They neglect, however, the impact of Beckett's grounding in the French literary tradition from the sixteenth century onwards. By filling this gap, this project aims to quantify how French and English cultural heritages are processed differently in the French and English versions of his works. The project will illuminate how national literatures are reshaped through cultural translation.Read moreRead less
New transnationalisms: Australia's multilingual literary heritage. This project will record, analyse and theorise Australian literary activity in four key languages other than English: Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese. The outcomes will significantly increase knowledge of the transnational dimensions of Australian writing in these languages and wider access to this writing through bilingual anthologies.
Technology, identity and human relations: the posthuman subject in children's literature, television and film, 1950-2010. This project will produce a pioneering study of technology as represented in children's literature, television and film from 1950-2010, exploring how these narratives seek to legitimise particular ideologies about the relationship between technology, identity and social relationships.
Sex in a Strange Country: Literary Obscenity in Twentieth-Century Australia. As recently as February 2004, Australian newspapers were again raising the question of how obscenity is defined. This project is the first comprehensive literary treatment of Australian obscenity censorship. It places the Australian case in context for similar studies in the UK and US, and particularizes it as an instance of colonial regimes. The publications that result will enhance the knowledge base of key stakeholde ....Sex in a Strange Country: Literary Obscenity in Twentieth-Century Australia. As recently as February 2004, Australian newspapers were again raising the question of how obscenity is defined. This project is the first comprehensive literary treatment of Australian obscenity censorship. It places the Australian case in context for similar studies in the UK and US, and particularizes it as an instance of colonial regimes. The publications that result will enhance the knowledge base of key stakeholders in that debate, from the Australian Film and Literature Classification Board to writers and other cultural producers, to public policy debates, and scholarship in the fields of literary, legal and cultural history in Australia.
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