Imperialism, reform and the making of Englishness in Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë is usually thought to be imprecise about the time period of Jane Eyre. Working from a close chronology established from Brontë's historical allusions to West Indian slave rebellions, I propose to write a pioneering book about the novel and aspects of its reception, situating them and Brontë's juvenilia in relation to axes of reform politics in Britain in the 1820s and 1830s. I draw on innovative primary research on ....Imperialism, reform and the making of Englishness in Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë is usually thought to be imprecise about the time period of Jane Eyre. Working from a close chronology established from Brontë's historical allusions to West Indian slave rebellions, I propose to write a pioneering book about the novel and aspects of its reception, situating them and Brontë's juvenilia in relation to axes of reform politics in Britain in the 1820s and 1830s. I draw on innovative primary research on the articulation of gender, empire and Englishness in relation to these axes and address the implications of Brontë's invocation in 1847 of an earlier reform complex.Read moreRead less
Making and Unmaking Woman:Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris [Famous Women] in its medieval and Renaissance contexts. Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, [Famous Women] composed in the 1360s is the first attempt at female biography in the history of post-classical Western literature. It over-writes medieval misogyny with a humanistic vision of women. Contemporary criticism has generally treated the text contemptuously. Famous Women, it will be argued, is an example of the ideological comple ....Making and Unmaking Woman:Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris [Famous Women] in its medieval and Renaissance contexts. Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, [Famous Women] composed in the 1360s is the first attempt at female biography in the history of post-classical Western literature. It over-writes medieval misogyny with a humanistic vision of women. Contemporary criticism has generally treated the text contemptuously. Famous Women, it will be argued, is an example of the ideological complexities of humanism in its formative stages. It is the aim of this project to show that the text played a pivotal role in reassessing the conception of woman in early modern Europe. The project will produce the first major monograph on Famous Women.Read moreRead less
A Generic Study of Colette's Short Writing. The study uses "genre" as a key to a literary-historical account of Colette's short writing in its cultural context. The corpus is generically ambiguous, since it first appeared as "articles" in magazines and was later collected in volumes, thus acquiring a more "literary" status as "essays". Taking into account both the conditions of publication and the rhetoric of these pieces, I shall investigate the network of cultural relations in which they parti ....A Generic Study of Colette's Short Writing. The study uses "genre" as a key to a literary-historical account of Colette's short writing in its cultural context. The corpus is generically ambiguous, since it first appeared as "articles" in magazines and was later collected in volumes, thus acquiring a more "literary" status as "essays". Taking into account both the conditions of publication and the rhetoric of these pieces, I shall investigate the network of cultural relations in which they participate, and their command of their readership. This will show how Colette made a place for "women's knowledge" in public culture and what that place was.Read moreRead less
The Double Revolution : Decline and Renewal in French Narrative Art from Celine to Godard. This study will offer new insight into contemporary France - and increased knowledge of the ongoing development of a major world culture is a significant benefit in itself. France's long-standing status as a great centre of civilisation makes it a vital focal point for understanding the implications of global change. Australia's cultural connections to Europe remain crucial to the continuing construction o ....The Double Revolution : Decline and Renewal in French Narrative Art from Celine to Godard. This study will offer new insight into contemporary France - and increased knowledge of the ongoing development of a major world culture is a significant benefit in itself. France's long-standing status as a great centre of civilisation makes it a vital focal point for understanding the implications of global change. Australia's cultural connections to Europe remain crucial to the continuing construction of our own identity, and in this context too, the French example is highly salient. The study will also constitute a valuable Australian contribution to world research, enhancing the nation's already solid international reputation in French studies.
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Romantic Literary Celebrity and the Emergence of Modern Literary Culture, 1798-1910. This project will produce the first full-length study of Romantic literary celebrity (1798-1910). It will argue that a new form of literary fame emerged in the Romantic era, which required developed cultural and media markets. Romantic literary fame helped shape modern institutions of literary production and reception around tensions between popular cultures of celebrity and publicity and high-cultural concepts ....Romantic Literary Celebrity and the Emergence of Modern Literary Culture, 1798-1910. This project will produce the first full-length study of Romantic literary celebrity (1798-1910). It will argue that a new form of literary fame emerged in the Romantic era, which required developed cultural and media markets. Romantic literary fame helped shape modern institutions of literary production and reception around tensions between popular cultures of celebrity and publicity and high-cultural concepts of the literary artist. Using cultural history and cultural theory, the project examines transformations in the history of literary celebrity from its emergence to the modernist period by analysing intersections between literary culture and wider structures of sociability and sexuality.Read moreRead less