Empathy and evolution: the history of emotions and the literary and visual representation of animals. A study of emotions in human and animals is a key area of contemporary research in both the sciences and humanities. It has crucial implications for our future. This project will investigate how humans have represented the emotions in literary and visual discourses from the eighteenth-century to the present.
Vietnamese Women: Voices and Narratives of the Diaspora. Migration and multiculturalism are hotly debated issues in Australia today. Engagement with Asia being one of the 3 pillars of Australian national security, it is all the more vital to conduct research on how Asian migrants have successfully integrated into Australian society. The Vietnamese overcame early difficulties to settle successfully here. Women played a major part in this. Their story is a tribute both to their determination to ad ....Vietnamese Women: Voices and Narratives of the Diaspora. Migration and multiculturalism are hotly debated issues in Australia today. Engagement with Asia being one of the 3 pillars of Australian national security, it is all the more vital to conduct research on how Asian migrants have successfully integrated into Australian society. The Vietnamese overcame early difficulties to settle successfully here. Women played a major part in this. Their story is a tribute both to their determination to adapt to a new land and to Australia's willingness to accept new arrivals. This study will help address national and gender stereotypes, assist in fostering positive community relations, provide a deeper understanding of a significant refugee group, and contribute to strengthening Australia's social fabric.Read moreRead less
Cross-Cultural Lives: a Study of Narratives by Migrants Between Languages. This project examines recent autobiographies of non-English-speaking migrants to Australia and investigates ways in which immigrants into a new language are challenged to become different persons, and how particular individuals respond to this challenge. It combines the disciplines of literary, cultural and ethnic studies to address issues profoundly affecting Australia as a multi-ethnic society. It seeks to identify some ....Cross-Cultural Lives: a Study of Narratives by Migrants Between Languages. This project examines recent autobiographies of non-English-speaking migrants to Australia and investigates ways in which immigrants into a new language are challenged to become different persons, and how particular individuals respond to this challenge. It combines the disciplines of literary, cultural and ethnic studies to address issues profoundly affecting Australia as a multi-ethnic society. It seeks to identify some essential prerequisites for cross-culturally sensitive education programs, taking into account an individual's need for psychological and linguistic continuity. At the same time it opens a new theoretical perspective for literary and cross-cultural studies, based on close study of life-writing by migrants.Read moreRead less
Continental Theory in the Wake of Cognitive Literary Studies. In an era that is plainly 'post-theoretical', the recent pioneering attempts to bridge the gap between literary studies and the cognitive neurosciences have far-reaching consequences for the study of English literature. This project will address those consequences by implementing a comparative critical study of continental theory and cognitive poetics, and through this comparison enlarge and refine urgent debates about the future of t ....Continental Theory in the Wake of Cognitive Literary Studies. In an era that is plainly 'post-theoretical', the recent pioneering attempts to bridge the gap between literary studies and the cognitive neurosciences have far-reaching consequences for the study of English literature. This project will address those consequences by implementing a comparative critical study of continental theory and cognitive poetics, and through this comparison enlarge and refine urgent debates about the future of the humanities and the kinds of teaching practices carried out therein. The project will therefore provide important groundwork for future research carried out at the frontier of literature, critical theory and cognitive science.Read moreRead less
Building cultural citizenship: Multiculturalism and children's literature. This project will generate new knowledge - theoretical, methodological and pedagogical - through its interdisciplinary approach, which brings critical and cultural theories to bear on Australian children's literature from 1990 to 2003, and specifically on how this literature represents and advocates cultural values and meanings concerning migration, citizenship, multiculturalism and community relations. It will result in ....Building cultural citizenship: Multiculturalism and children's literature. This project will generate new knowledge - theoretical, methodological and pedagogical - through its interdisciplinary approach, which brings critical and cultural theories to bear on Australian children's literature from 1990 to 2003, and specifically on how this literature represents and advocates cultural values and meanings concerning migration, citizenship, multiculturalism and community relations. It will result in the first major study of the production and reception of multicultural literature for Australian children, and will make an important contribution to pedagogy by informing the fields of primary, secondary and tertiary education through the concepts it develops and the teaching resources it produces.Read moreRead less
The Visual Mediation of a Complex Narrative: TGH Strehlow's Journey to Horseshoe Bend. TGH Strehlow's biographical memoir, Journey to Horseshoe Bend, is a vivid ethno-historiographic account of Aboriginal, settler and Lutheran communities of Central Australia in the 1920's. This project intends to construct an extensive digital hub elaborating key textual thematics of Aboriginal identity and sense of ?place?, supplemented with oral histories. Consistent with the Strehlow Research Centre's missio ....The Visual Mediation of a Complex Narrative: TGH Strehlow's Journey to Horseshoe Bend. TGH Strehlow's biographical memoir, Journey to Horseshoe Bend, is a vivid ethno-historiographic account of Aboriginal, settler and Lutheran communities of Central Australia in the 1920's. This project intends to construct an extensive digital hub elaborating key textual thematics of Aboriginal identity and sense of ?place?, supplemented with oral histories. Consistent with the Strehlow Research Centre's mission in the management and preservation of the Strehlow Collection's vast archival materials, the project will provide access to and foster engagement with Strehlow's works. The project will employ innovative visual methodologies in the production and mediation of Indigenous knowledge related to the text. Read moreRead less
Reverse Diaspora: Australian Expatriate Writers in Britain since the 1830s. The changing relations between Australia and Britain are explored in this project through writers of literature and drama. Reverse Diaspora explores the aspirations, problems and achievements of eighty expatriate Australians who have chosen to live and work in Britain since the early nineteenth century. From one point of view they represent a 'brain drain'; from another they are exporters of Australian ideas, experience ....Reverse Diaspora: Australian Expatriate Writers in Britain since the 1830s. The changing relations between Australia and Britain are explored in this project through writers of literature and drama. Reverse Diaspora explores the aspirations, problems and achievements of eighty expatriate Australians who have chosen to live and work in Britain since the early nineteenth century. From one point of view they represent a 'brain drain'; from another they are exporters of Australian ideas, experience and talent. This study will increase knowledge and understanding of the lives, creative achievements and public impact of Australians abroad. It will enhance Australians' capacity to interpret their national culture in their region and the world.Read moreRead less
Australia's Forgotten Culture: the Pulp Fiction Industry 1939-1959. Australia's Forgotten Culture systematically examines the Australian 'pulp' industry (1939-1959). In 1939 imported American cultural products were banned; this ban created a vacuum in the Australian market. Sydney publishers filled the gap with paperback books written by Australians for Australians. These books sold millions of copies and inspired a plethora of cultural products such as radio serials and comics; they were also ....Australia's Forgotten Culture: the Pulp Fiction Industry 1939-1959. Australia's Forgotten Culture systematically examines the Australian 'pulp' industry (1939-1959). In 1939 imported American cultural products were banned; this ban created a vacuum in the Australian market. Sydney publishers filled the gap with paperback books written by Australians for Australians. These books sold millions of copies and inspired a plethora of cultural products such as radio serials and comics; they were also successfully exported overseas. Carter Brown alone sold over 80 million books in dozens of languages. In 1959, the bans were lifted. Overnight the industries died. This project analyses a rich but lost period in Australian culture, one that has been ignored presumably because it was popular.Read moreRead less
From musume (daughters) to shojo (girls): representations of young women in modern Japanese literature. This will be the first comprehensive study of the transition of young women from musume (daughters) to shôjo (girls) in modern Japanese literature. Intended as a pioneering study of "girl power literature", it will identify neglected texts and authors, clarify the significant changes in literary representations of young women, and recognise the positive and creative aspects in these representa ....From musume (daughters) to shojo (girls): representations of young women in modern Japanese literature. This will be the first comprehensive study of the transition of young women from musume (daughters) to shôjo (girls) in modern Japanese literature. Intended as a pioneering study of "girl power literature", it will identify neglected texts and authors, clarify the significant changes in literary representations of young women, and recognise the positive and creative aspects in these representations. With its scope covering historical and contemporary, and popular and serious, the project will enhance Australia's understanding of Japanese literature, culture, and society. It will also be beneficial to studies of women, children, and adolescence in other communities including Australia.Read moreRead less
Hannah Arendt, Émigré Intellectuals, and the Ethos of World Literature. My project will bring an inspiring movement of ethical resistance to the dehumanising forces of fascism, nationalism, and parochialism to the Australian public's attention. It will help ensure that Australia, a nation that now successfully exports its literature to the world, is also at the centre of a fruitful dialogue about methods of research and interpretation appropriate to the study of the world's literatures. It will ....Hannah Arendt, Émigré Intellectuals, and the Ethos of World Literature. My project will bring an inspiring movement of ethical resistance to the dehumanising forces of fascism, nationalism, and parochialism to the Australian public's attention. It will help ensure that Australia, a nation that now successfully exports its literature to the world, is also at the centre of a fruitful dialogue about methods of research and interpretation appropriate to the study of the world's literatures. It will address the relative paucity of the historiography and theory of comparative literature in Australian Universities and suggest the educational and moral value of comparative literature studies for future generations of Australian students.Read moreRead less