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
Metaphor and Mind: Literary Texts, Cultural Transmission, and How We Think about the Mind. This project will make a significant contribution to national and international research on both literary language and the mind. Its wide applicability will boost Australia's international reputation in interdisciplinary research. The project is also of more general public interest in that it probes why, despite major advances in scientific understanding, we are as likely as Chaucer and Shakespeare were to ....Metaphor and Mind: Literary Texts, Cultural Transmission, and How We Think about the Mind. This project will make a significant contribution to national and international research on both literary language and the mind. Its wide applicability will boost Australia's international reputation in interdisciplinary research. The project is also of more general public interest in that it probes why, despite major advances in scientific understanding, we are as likely as Chaucer and Shakespeare were to describe the mind as 'wandering' or as a compartmentalised storehouse. In providing a new perspective to the study of the mind and metaphor, this project will reposition current debate about language use and cultural memory and contribute to knowledge of fundamental, wide-ranging relevance. Read moreRead less
Literature and Science in the Early Middle Ages. This project aims to investigate the interplay between early medieval science and the literary imagination. The project focuses on Anglo-Saxon England, which provides a fully developed and well-preserved vernacular literary record, beside a learned Latin literary culture. It aims to investigate an important reciprocal relationship at a transitional moment in Western culture: the ways scientific learning influenced the early medieval literary imagi ....Literature and Science in the Early Middle Ages. This project aims to investigate the interplay between early medieval science and the literary imagination. The project focuses on Anglo-Saxon England, which provides a fully developed and well-preserved vernacular literary record, beside a learned Latin literary culture. It aims to investigate an important reciprocal relationship at a transitional moment in Western culture: the ways scientific learning influenced the early medieval literary imagination, and how the literary imagination influenced early medieval science. Study of the relationship between science and literature provides an insight into how people have understood the world around them and their relationship with it, interpreted in the light of inherited knowledge and the imagination.Read moreRead less
Enduring diversity: a history of multilingualism in Italy. This project will question several assumptions which have shaped the official histories of language as well as the language policies of several major European countries. This will be a useful contribution to debates on social policy in a country like Australia with its varied migrant populations, since the place of languages other than English often arises in debates on education, immigration and provision of social services at State and ....Enduring diversity: a history of multilingualism in Italy. This project will question several assumptions which have shaped the official histories of language as well as the language policies of several major European countries. This will be a useful contribution to debates on social policy in a country like Australia with its varied migrant populations, since the place of languages other than English often arises in debates on education, immigration and provision of social services at State and Federal level. Italian is still the most widely spoken language in Australia after English, and a new understanding of the history of language in Italy will contribute to a deeper awareness of the realities and problems of migrants and their descendants here.Read moreRead less
The importance of the fictional character in literary theory and cultural practice. This project is a theoretical research project which aims to make significant and innovative contributions to research excellence in literature and the history of ideas. This research focuses on the fictional character, one of the central categories of literary theory. The benefits flowing from it will primarily be an enhanced understanding of the workings and the history of a category that informs every domain o ....The importance of the fictional character in literary theory and cultural practice. This project is a theoretical research project which aims to make significant and innovative contributions to research excellence in literature and the history of ideas. This research focuses on the fictional character, one of the central categories of literary theory. The benefits flowing from it will primarily be an enhanced understanding of the workings and the history of a category that informs every domain of cultural practice.Read moreRead less
Books as Media: The Cultural Economy of Literary Adaptation. The project will benefit three key Australian communities: (1) researchers; (2) cultural creators; and (3) cultural policy-makers. (1) The project builds upon Australia's existing research excellence in Media and Cultural Studies and cross-blends this with emerging research strengths in publishing studies and book history. (2) Australian authors, publishers and screen producers who seek access and exposure to international audiences wi ....Books as Media: The Cultural Economy of Literary Adaptation. The project will benefit three key Australian communities: (1) researchers; (2) cultural creators; and (3) cultural policy-makers. (1) The project builds upon Australia's existing research excellence in Media and Cultural Studies and cross-blends this with emerging research strengths in publishing studies and book history. (2) Australian authors, publishers and screen producers who seek access and exposure to international audiences will gain a detailed understanding of how adaptation's global economy functions. (3) The project informs Australia's cultural policy framework by focusing on enhanced marketing and promotion of Australian cultural content rather than input assistance schemes.Read moreRead less
Scholarly Editions of James Hogg's The Three Perils of Man and Edinburgh periodical writings and Walter Scott's miscellaneous short stories. This project will add significantly to scholarly knowledge of James Hogg, now recognised as one of the most important nineteenth century Scottish writers, and of his better known contemporary Walter Scott. The exciting and very recent discovery of the original manuscript of Hogg's most ambitious novel, The Three Perils of Man, the inclusion of Scott's final ....Scholarly Editions of James Hogg's The Three Perils of Man and Edinburgh periodical writings and Walter Scott's miscellaneous short stories. This project will add significantly to scholarly knowledge of James Hogg, now recognised as one of the most important nineteenth century Scottish writers, and of his better known contemporary Walter Scott. The exciting and very recent discovery of the original manuscript of Hogg's most ambitious novel, The Three Perils of Man, the inclusion of Scott's final, unpublished novella and the addition of a volume of Hogg's periodical writings have meant a major expansion of work already underway. The project will enhance the international reputation of Australian scholars through their participation in producing internationally recognised editions of important literary texts.Read moreRead less
The Image of Thought: Literature as a way of thinking. The idea that the arts offer important ways of thinking has, to an extent, recently fallen from view. A failure to recognise the value of the arts as distinct modes of thought, which challenge us to think and feel, impoverishes the community. Scholarly activity can build foundations upon which renewed recognition of this value becomes possible. So too, academics have a duty to communicate with the general community. To this end, this project ....The Image of Thought: Literature as a way of thinking. The idea that the arts offer important ways of thinking has, to an extent, recently fallen from view. A failure to recognise the value of the arts as distinct modes of thought, which challenge us to think and feel, impoverishes the community. Scholarly activity can build foundations upon which renewed recognition of this value becomes possible. So too, academics have a duty to communicate with the general community. To this end, this project will include the endeavour to produce newspaper reviews propagating ideas developed through scholarship, and the promotion of the role of literature through the organization of public forums.Read moreRead less
Transformative Utopianism: Contemporary Children's Literature Responding to Changing World Orders from Glasnost to 11 September, 2001. Political and cultural instabilities and conflicts from 1990 to the present have profoundly affected children's literature. Works of fiction in particular have deployed utopian and dystopian tropes to project possible futures to their implied readers. The project uses the concept of 'transformative utopianism' to suggest that these tropes do important social, cul ....Transformative Utopianism: Contemporary Children's Literature Responding to Changing World Orders from Glasnost to 11 September, 2001. Political and cultural instabilities and conflicts from 1990 to the present have profoundly affected children's literature. Works of fiction in particular have deployed utopian and dystopian tropes to project possible futures to their implied readers. The project uses the concept of 'transformative utopianism' to suggest that these tropes do important social, cultural and political work by challenging and reformulating ideas about power and identity, community, the body, spatio-temporal change, and ecology. In this way the project draws together multiple theoretical interpretations of texts to demonstrate the responsiveness of children's literature to broader ideological, social, theoretical and pedagogical contexts.Read moreRead less
From Local Stories to National Identity: Competing National Myths in Chinese Nativist Fiction. China's continuous and rapid economic upsurge means it will play an increasingly greater role globally but its influence in our region will even be greater. Understanding China is imperative for Australia, which can only be achieved through understanding the core Chinese social and cultural values. It is vital for Australian policy-makers to know how cultural identification within China functions and h ....From Local Stories to National Identity: Competing National Myths in Chinese Nativist Fiction. China's continuous and rapid economic upsurge means it will play an increasingly greater role globally but its influence in our region will even be greater. Understanding China is imperative for Australia, which can only be achieved through understanding the core Chinese social and cultural values. It is vital for Australian policy-makers to know how cultural identification within China functions and how the Chinese government uses culture (among other means) to hold the vastly different regions together. Cultural understanding demands an appreciation of literature, the importance of which in Chinese cultural life is often underestimated outside China.Read moreRead less