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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Jane Austen and maternal disinheritance: The Leigh family archive. This project aims to research Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) mother’s family, the Leighs. Family relationships are central to Austen’s novels, but little is known about the women of her own family. The Leighs left extensive archival materials pertaining to their history, which Austen scholars have largely ignored. This project will use detailed archival research to recover and reposition the Leigh family in Austen biography, and read ....Jane Austen and maternal disinheritance: The Leigh family archive. This project aims to research Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) mother’s family, the Leighs. Family relationships are central to Austen’s novels, but little is known about the women of her own family. The Leighs left extensive archival materials pertaining to their history, which Austen scholars have largely ignored. This project will use detailed archival research to recover and reposition the Leigh family in Austen biography, and read Austen’s juvenilia and novels as informed by and contributing to this history. The project aims to better understand the influence of family history on Jane Austen’s novels, contributing to our knowledge of British women’s literature and history.Read moreRead less
Performing transdisciplinarity. This project aims to use the illustrated songbook, a performative genre which fuses image, music and text, to study the transdisciplinary nature of 18th-century print culture. Through multifaceted research on an exemplary songbook, this project will create a multimedia digital interface for linking deep disciplinary knowledge and the recreation of the sounds, sensibilities, and social mores of 18th-century France. The project's model of rich digital understanding ....Performing transdisciplinarity. This project aims to use the illustrated songbook, a performative genre which fuses image, music and text, to study the transdisciplinary nature of 18th-century print culture. Through multifaceted research on an exemplary songbook, this project will create a multimedia digital interface for linking deep disciplinary knowledge and the recreation of the sounds, sensibilities, and social mores of 18th-century France. The project's model of rich digital understanding has potential benefits for cultural institutions whose complex objects lie dormant or underused.Read moreRead less
Rioting and the literary archive. This project aims to examine writers' enduring engagement with the riot's destructive energy and its transformative potential. Riots have become a familiar feature of an increasingly volatile global politics, but contemporary responses to these events have a long history across a range of media and modes of writing. Literary writers have historically struggled in the aftermath of riots to make sense of and communicate the collective trauma felt by families and c ....Rioting and the literary archive. This project aims to examine writers' enduring engagement with the riot's destructive energy and its transformative potential. Riots have become a familiar feature of an increasingly volatile global politics, but contemporary responses to these events have a long history across a range of media and modes of writing. Literary writers have historically struggled in the aftermath of riots to make sense of and communicate the collective trauma felt by families and communities who suffer resulting injury, death, homelessness or unemployment. Drawing together writing from Britain, United States of America, Australia and the Middle-East, this project will provide an understanding of the resurgence of the riot in a contemporary global context.Read moreRead less
The Vandal Renaissance: Latin Literature in Post-Roman Africa (435-534CE). The project aims to investigate the Latin literature of the Vandal kingdom of North Africa. It expects to identify a vibrant literary culture that celebrated multicultural diversity, embraced the Classical tradition, and contributed to Christian theology, while helping form a distinct Vandal identity. Expected outcomes include a more detailed understanding of the intellectual influences on Vandal African authors, the mech ....The Vandal Renaissance: Latin Literature in Post-Roman Africa (435-534CE). The project aims to investigate the Latin literature of the Vandal kingdom of North Africa. It expects to identify a vibrant literary culture that celebrated multicultural diversity, embraced the Classical tradition, and contributed to Christian theology, while helping form a distinct Vandal identity. Expected outcomes include a more detailed understanding of the intellectual influences on Vandal African authors, the mechanics of Vandal court patronage, and the breadth of these authors' contribution to the history of Latin literature. The project will benefit Australian culture by providing a detailed historical example of the benefits and challenges of a multicultural society.Read moreRead less
Precarious Borders: The Nation-State and the Arab Diaspora Novel. This project aims to shed new light on diaspora voices in debates about the formation and narration of nations to argue for a more inclusive view of the nation and to challenge the dominance of canonical literature in these debates. Arab writing is closely tied to its diaspora, making it particularly significant for probing how fiction registers the transformative effects of migration on our grasp of the nation. Spanning four dias ....Precarious Borders: The Nation-State and the Arab Diaspora Novel. This project aims to shed new light on diaspora voices in debates about the formation and narration of nations to argue for a more inclusive view of the nation and to challenge the dominance of canonical literature in these debates. Arab writing is closely tied to its diaspora, making it particularly significant for probing how fiction registers the transformative effects of migration on our grasp of the nation. Spanning four diaspora sites and a century of writing, potential outcomes include a diaspora-focused approach to reassess the nation from a transnational perspective, a new awareness of the value of diaspora writers’ engagement with the nation, and the vital repositioning of Arab-Australian writing in this field of world literature.Read moreRead less
Future fables: literature, evolution and artificial intelligence. The future of AI is a site of considerable philosophical and cultural anxiety in the West. Given the future of AI is currently only available to publics through literary or fictional tropes, it is vital that we investigate the historical evolution of these literary or fictional tropes of AI to understand its future direction. This project aims to understand (1) how the post-Darwinian literary imagination has shaped our current anx ....Future fables: literature, evolution and artificial intelligence. The future of AI is a site of considerable philosophical and cultural anxiety in the West. Given the future of AI is currently only available to publics through literary or fictional tropes, it is vital that we investigate the historical evolution of these literary or fictional tropes of AI to understand its future direction. This project aims to understand (1) how the post-Darwinian literary imagination has shaped our current anxieties about AI and (2) how literary and scientific writers after Darwin rethink the future of the human species by imagining the co-evolution of humans, animals and machines. Expected outcomes of the project include conceptual resources to understand the human-nonhuman relation and the future of AI.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101206
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$329,246.00
Summary
Provincial Poets and the Making of a Nation. This project aims to rediscover, document and analyse prominent regional voices swept aside by the powerful forces constructing national identity in nineteenth-century France in order to argue for a more positive view of provincialism and challenge the division between central and peripheral cultures. Expected outcomes of this project include a more inclusive and representative literary canon, a new awareness of the crucial role of regional poets in t ....Provincial Poets and the Making of a Nation. This project aims to rediscover, document and analyse prominent regional voices swept aside by the powerful forces constructing national identity in nineteenth-century France in order to argue for a more positive view of provincialism and challenge the division between central and peripheral cultures. Expected outcomes of this project include a more inclusive and representative literary canon, a new awareness of the crucial role of regional poets in the formation of the modern nation state, a new and advanced 'transregional' theoretical framework to revalue the potential of locality and place, as well as a wealth of novel evidence in support of public debates aimed at bridging the urban-rural divide in Australia, France and beyond. Read moreRead less
The Oulipo Group and literary invention. This project aims to explain the emergence of the Oulipo group, a new force in world literature based in France. The project will contribute to the broader search for points of fruitful contact between abstract reasoning and artistic practice. It will provide a new theoretical account of the Oulipo's writing practice, an explanation of how that practice relates to similar currents in contemporary writing around the world, and improved access to the group’ ....The Oulipo Group and literary invention. This project aims to explain the emergence of the Oulipo group, a new force in world literature based in France. The project will contribute to the broader search for points of fruitful contact between abstract reasoning and artistic practice. It will provide a new theoretical account of the Oulipo's writing practice, an explanation of how that practice relates to similar currents in contemporary writing around the world, and improved access to the group’s recent work via translation. Among the anticipated benefits are a deeper understanding of literary form and its historical development, and a mapping of the areas in which the Oulipo's innovative approach to writing is yet to be tried.Read moreRead less
The International Orwell: Case Studies from Eastasia, Oceania and Eurasia. This project aims to reorient our understanding of George Orwell via case studies of different zones demarcated in Nineteen Eighty-Four: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Its significance derives from uncovering and assessing for the first time Orwell's diverse, evolving international importance. The project will produce innovative area studies that integrate literary criticism, international political history, and studies i ....The International Orwell: Case Studies from Eastasia, Oceania and Eurasia. This project aims to reorient our understanding of George Orwell via case studies of different zones demarcated in Nineteen Eighty-Four: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Its significance derives from uncovering and assessing for the first time Orwell's diverse, evolving international importance. The project will produce innovative area studies that integrate literary criticism, international political history, and studies in publishing, translation and adaptation. These studies will fashion the new figure of an International Orwell. The expected outcome will be a radical re-evaluation Orwell's literary, cultural and political impact. The benefit will be a fuller understanding of the most important political writer of the last century. Read moreRead less