Love narratives in contemporary German literature since 1990. This study of love in contemporary German literature will lead to deeper insights into intimacy in one of our major European trading partners, as it undergoes a period of economic uncertainty and social change. It will enhance our understanding of the varied ways in which individuals, as well as national literatures in the western tradition, respond to the challenges of globalization. Through examining the semantics of modern love and ....Love narratives in contemporary German literature since 1990. This study of love in contemporary German literature will lead to deeper insights into intimacy in one of our major European trading partners, as it undergoes a period of economic uncertainty and social change. It will enhance our understanding of the varied ways in which individuals, as well as national literatures in the western tradition, respond to the challenges of globalization. Through examining the semantics of modern love and what love means to different sections of society (friendship, passion, marriage, sex etc.) in a contemporary European culture that bears many similarities to our own, this project will bring benefits to Australians' understanding of how the meaning of love evolves over time. Read moreRead less
Making the case: the case study genre in sexology, psychoanalysis and literature. Questions of sexual subjectivity continue to concern scholars in the humanities and social sciences today as they did in the 19th and early 20th centuries. An astonishing number of discourses around the self with regard to love, sex and desire originated in the European and American debates to be studied here. With its focus on the case study and its modalities this project will benefit Australian scholars working ....Making the case: the case study genre in sexology, psychoanalysis and literature. Questions of sexual subjectivity continue to concern scholars in the humanities and social sciences today as they did in the 19th and early 20th centuries. An astonishing number of discourses around the self with regard to love, sex and desire originated in the European and American debates to be studied here. With its focus on the case study and its modalities this project will benefit Australian scholars working in the fields of literary and cultural studies, psychoanalysis as well as historical studies. Mapping the circuits of knowledge through which the sexed subject became a topic to be written about in the West will led to a better understanding of the confluence of disciplinary knowledge, as well as their transnational dimensions.Read moreRead less
A difficult marriage: gender, politics and the romance in literary accounts of German unification. This project focuses on the interrelationships between gender, politics and the romance in literary accounts of German unification. Through an exploration of how the political ?marriage? between East and West Germany, with its conventionalised gender roles, is mapped onto literary marriages, the project examines the challenges and opportunities that unification has afforded men and women. It will y ....A difficult marriage: gender, politics and the romance in literary accounts of German unification. This project focuses on the interrelationships between gender, politics and the romance in literary accounts of German unification. Through an exploration of how the political ?marriage? between East and West Germany, with its conventionalised gender roles, is mapped onto literary marriages, the project examines the challenges and opportunities that unification has afforded men and women. It will yield insights into the ways in which unification has rewritten the scripts for femininity and masculinity and forced a transformation of intimacy. Its findings will enhance knowledge of gender relations in post-communist Europe and the relationships between gender, the nation and modernity.Read moreRead less
Saving the Appearances: Vision and Reason in the European Enlightenment. My proposal introduces a fresh perspective on the 18th century by defining vision and reason as cognate concepts. The complex dialogue relating to perception and knowledge established in this partnership turns mechanical reason into an ideal by the 17th century. By the 18th century, however, a new conception of vision emerges. Under the banner of 'Aufklarung' in Germany, an audacious attempt to end the separation of the sci ....Saving the Appearances: Vision and Reason in the European Enlightenment. My proposal introduces a fresh perspective on the 18th century by defining vision and reason as cognate concepts. The complex dialogue relating to perception and knowledge established in this partnership turns mechanical reason into an ideal by the 17th century. By the 18th century, however, a new conception of vision emerges. Under the banner of 'Aufklarung' in Germany, an audacious attempt to end the separation of the sciences and the arts is undertaken. Analysing archival materials relating to the 18th century, the proposal seeks to correct misconceptions about the nature and extent of the movement of "enlightenment" in Europe. Read moreRead less
Secret lives and the lives of secrets: secret police narratives. This project investigates the power of the secret and its role in transitional justice in post-communist contexts. It investigates the secret life of secret police narratives of the Stasi from the time when they were still secrets in an archive to their public afterlife when they are exposed in fictional and non-fictional writing.
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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Jean Rhys: Her Literary Career. In recent decades Jean Rhys (1890-1979) has become an iconic (post) colonial modernist author. With fresh major archival finds, close work on manuscript materials, and new scholarship on location, this project will reposition her literary career. Innovative approaches to Rhys’s affiliations with other writers and artists and her interest in popular cultures feature in the research methodology. The project addresses the ways that the reception of Rhys’s fiction ove ....Jean Rhys: Her Literary Career. In recent decades Jean Rhys (1890-1979) has become an iconic (post) colonial modernist author. With fresh major archival finds, close work on manuscript materials, and new scholarship on location, this project will reposition her literary career. Innovative approaches to Rhys’s affiliations with other writers and artists and her interest in popular cultures feature in the research methodology. The project addresses the ways that the reception of Rhys’s fiction over time and across cultures may be read, creative engagements with Rhys, and biographical responsibility. Projected publications include a scholarly monograph; articles; a digital knowledge site; and contributions to an international collaborative project on interculturality. Read moreRead less
Folio Shakespeare texts and their Quarto and Octavo antecedents. This project aims to use statistical methods to assess different versions of Shakepeare’s plays. The Shakespeare First Folio is the most important source for the texts of Shakespeare's plays, but the dates of some Folio and rival versions, and the nature of their transmission from an original manuscript, are disputed. There is uncertainty whether some highly divergent versions represent authorial revisions, or adaptations for readi ....Folio Shakespeare texts and their Quarto and Octavo antecedents. This project aims to use statistical methods to assess different versions of Shakepeare’s plays. The Shakespeare First Folio is the most important source for the texts of Shakespeare's plays, but the dates of some Folio and rival versions, and the nature of their transmission from an original manuscript, are disputed. There is uncertainty whether some highly divergent versions represent authorial revisions, or adaptations for reading, or for touring, or simply corruption through careless copying. This project plans to conduct a statistical analysis of the language of the 18 plays that appear both in the Folio and in previous Quarto versions, focusing on patterns of word use and orthography, to provide a better understanding of the Folio and new evidence about the texts of individual plays.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
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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