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
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
Women Writers and the Production of British History 1763-1886. This project addresses the critical neglect of women who engaged in writing history in Britain during the nineteenth century. It will demonstrate the importance of women writers in the construction of a national identity in Britain and will seek to understand how women engaged with nationalist history-making and used various forms of historical writing to explore their heritage. The social and political issues that occupied women as ....Women Writers and the Production of British History 1763-1886. This project addresses the critical neglect of women who engaged in writing history in Britain during the nineteenth century. It will demonstrate the importance of women writers in the construction of a national identity in Britain and will seek to understand how women engaged with nationalist history-making and used various forms of historical writing to explore their heritage. The social and political issues that occupied women as writers of history remain pertinent today in relation to how societies generate public memory and the nature of the relationship between political exclusion and historical writing.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
Gothic Fiction and Imagined Worlds: Popular Literature, Emotion, and the transformation of experience in modernity. This project revises our understanding of Gothic Fiction, the most important prose genre of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Its ground-breaking argument and innovative methodology help develop Australia's international reputation in Romantic studies, while expanding the methodological repertoire of literary studies. The project adds to our culture by contributin ....Gothic Fiction and Imagined Worlds: Popular Literature, Emotion, and the transformation of experience in modernity. This project revises our understanding of Gothic Fiction, the most important prose genre of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Its ground-breaking argument and innovative methodology help develop Australia's international reputation in Romantic studies, while expanding the methodological repertoire of literary studies. The project adds to our culture by contributing to debates about the 'truth' status of (and relation between) emotions, literature, and imagined worlds. It adds to our understanding of the present, through its revisionary account of a key stage in the development of contemporary notions of experience, the fictive, imagined/virtual worlds, and the modern crisis of representation.Read moreRead less
Multiplying Worlds: Romanticism, Modernity, and the emergence of Virtual Reality. This project contends that virtual reality first emerges during the Romantic Period (1780-1830). Further, it argues that the contemporary prominence of virtual reality rests to a surprising degree on assumptions about the virtual that derive from this earlier period. To establish this aetiology of perhaps the most important phenomenon of the digital age, the project focuses on the production of virtual reality in E ....Multiplying Worlds: Romanticism, Modernity, and the emergence of Virtual Reality. This project contends that virtual reality first emerges during the Romantic Period (1780-1830). Further, it argues that the contemporary prominence of virtual reality rests to a surprising degree on assumptions about the virtual that derive from this earlier period. To establish this aetiology of perhaps the most important phenomenon of the digital age, the project focuses on the production of virtual reality in Enlightenment schemes for managing the real, popular entertainment, and Romanticism. It will make a major contribution to debates concerning Romanticism and (post)modernity, and to our understanding of the cultural histories that shape our reception of computer technologies.Read moreRead less
Reading Children in Early Modern Culture. This project will offer new understandings of childhood as a historically- and culturally-contingent construct that will impact on perceptions of childhood in twenty-first-century Australia. It will use local and international archives to uncover a variety of early modern texts that were produced for children but have not yet been considered in terms of child readership. It is important to explore the significant historical links between children and lit ....Reading Children in Early Modern Culture. This project will offer new understandings of childhood as a historically- and culturally-contingent construct that will impact on perceptions of childhood in twenty-first-century Australia. It will use local and international archives to uncover a variety of early modern texts that were produced for children but have not yet been considered in terms of child readership. It is important to explore the significant historical links between children and literature as it will enable us to access the history of this marginalized group and will result in a more nuanced understanding of the cultural processes of educating children and the important role of literature in defining childhood identities, issues that continue to be relevant today.Read moreRead less
Royal Ritual and the Order of the Garter: Tradition, Modernity and the Medieval in England, 1348-2002. The cultural history of the British monarchy can be characterised as a set of negotiations between the rival claims of tradition and modernity. The monarchy depends on its medieval past for cultural authority while also constantly seeking to reform and renew itself. This project analyses one of the monarchy's oldest rituals, the Order of the Garter, using its contested medieval origins and subs ....Royal Ritual and the Order of the Garter: Tradition, Modernity and the Medieval in England, 1348-2002. The cultural history of the British monarchy can be characterised as a set of negotiations between the rival claims of tradition and modernity. The monarchy depends on its medieval past for cultural authority while also constantly seeking to reform and renew itself. This project analyses one of the monarchy's oldest rituals, the Order of the Garter, using its contested medieval origins and subsequent history as a powerful symptomatic register of the strategies by which the monarchy adapts its traditional heritage to changing social contexts. Comprehending this dynamic will revise our understanding of the relationship between medieval culture, tradition and modernity.Read moreRead less
Women's Poetry and Classicism in Early Modern England, 1500-1700. The primary national/community benefit of the project is the charting of how women pursued sophisticated education and imaginative literary expression despite the gender-biased structures of exclusion prevalent in early modern England. The period from Isabella Whitney's first published book (1567) to Margaret Cavendish's (1653) sees nothing less than the first emergence of Englishwomen as publishing authors. It is of great importa ....Women's Poetry and Classicism in Early Modern England, 1500-1700. The primary national/community benefit of the project is the charting of how women pursued sophisticated education and imaginative literary expression despite the gender-biased structures of exclusion prevalent in early modern England. The period from Isabella Whitney's first published book (1567) to Margaret Cavendish's (1653) sees nothing less than the first emergence of Englishwomen as publishing authors. It is of great importance that this historical emergence be interrogated because it will help us understand how women rose from domestic silence to public voice, how they turned masculine classical resources to 'feminist' ends, and how the idea of the woman writer developed in England in the age of print. Read moreRead less
Sociability, print and public culture in romantic period Britain and Australia. This project illuminates the life in the early colony by exploring the history of the earliest Australian printed document that has so far been discovered, a playbill for a theatrical performance in Sydney dating from 1796. Placing the document in a rich and complex context of print, circulation, and sociability, the project affirms the importance of such ephemeral literature as testimony to the values of fellowship ....Sociability, print and public culture in romantic period Britain and Australia. This project illuminates the life in the early colony by exploring the history of the earliest Australian printed document that has so far been discovered, a playbill for a theatrical performance in Sydney dating from 1796. Placing the document in a rich and complex context of print, circulation, and sociability, the project affirms the importance of such ephemeral literature as testimony to the values of fellowship and community that were foundational to Australian culture and which continue to be relevant to the health of a modern democracy.Read moreRead less