Technology, identity and human relations: the posthuman subject in children's literature, television and film, 1950-2010. This project will produce a pioneering study of technology as represented in children's literature, television and film from 1950-2010, exploring how these narratives seek to legitimise particular ideologies about the relationship between technology, identity and social relationships.
Integrating the humanities into Antarctic studies. Antarctica is currently taking a key role in climate change debate. It is vital that we understand the cultural meanings we attach to the continent and the attitudes we bring to it. This project aims to create a rounded understanding of the Antarctic by integrating the humanities into what is currently a science-dominated research area.
Transnational Coetzee: Revisioning World Literature through the Margins. The reputation of J. M. Coetzee has undergone a dramatic global upsurge in the past 15 years, coinciding with his relocation to Australia and subsequent adoption of citizenship in 2002. This project aims to explore the proposition that the writings of the South African-born Coetzee possess profound and abiding transnational qualities, and then map the global shifts that this work has undergone in the new century. By examin ....Transnational Coetzee: Revisioning World Literature through the Margins. The reputation of J. M. Coetzee has undergone a dramatic global upsurge in the past 15 years, coinciding with his relocation to Australia and subsequent adoption of citizenship in 2002. This project aims to explore the proposition that the writings of the South African-born Coetzee possess profound and abiding transnational qualities, and then map the global shifts that this work has undergone in the new century. By examining these aspects through Coetzee's position in his adopted country, the project seeks to re-examine notions of Australian nationality and the parameters of its literary, cultural and political identity, moving them beyond an insular, border-defined understanding towards a wider international frame.Read moreRead less
Wild Man from Borneo: species, race, representation. This project addresses the representation of species boundaries in Western accounts of the orangutan in the 19th and 20th centuries. Darwinian theory raised the possibility that animals could ?evolve?. Orangutans seemed ?closest? to humans and therefore raised key questions about the border between humans and animals. These questions were addressed in a vast range of scientific, popular, imaginative and juvenile literature. Even when ecolo ....Wild Man from Borneo: species, race, representation. This project addresses the representation of species boundaries in Western accounts of the orangutan in the 19th and 20th centuries. Darwinian theory raised the possibility that animals could ?evolve?. Orangutans seemed ?closest? to humans and therefore raised key questions about the border between humans and animals. These questions were addressed in a vast range of scientific, popular, imaginative and juvenile literature. Even when ecological models of the environment shifted attention from evolutionary potential to ecological role, orangutans retained a special status as ?sentinel? species. This project will produce a monograph examining the construction, maintenance and erosion of ideas of species boundaries.Read moreRead less
Future thinking: utopianism in post-colonial literatures. This project examines the critical function of creative writers around the world in their society's imagination of the future. It investigates post-colonial literatures from a wide range of countries and regions to show the prevalence and power of hope, of ideas of liberation, self-determination and future possibility.
Transformative Utopianism: Contemporary Children's Literature Responding to Changing World Orders from Glasnost to 11 September, 2001. Political and cultural instabilities and conflicts from 1990 to the present have profoundly affected children's literature. Works of fiction in particular have deployed utopian and dystopian tropes to project possible futures to their implied readers. The project uses the concept of 'transformative utopianism' to suggest that these tropes do important social, cul ....Transformative Utopianism: Contemporary Children's Literature Responding to Changing World Orders from Glasnost to 11 September, 2001. Political and cultural instabilities and conflicts from 1990 to the present have profoundly affected children's literature. Works of fiction in particular have deployed utopian and dystopian tropes to project possible futures to their implied readers. The project uses the concept of 'transformative utopianism' to suggest that these tropes do important social, cultural and political work by challenging and reformulating ideas about power and identity, community, the body, spatio-temporal change, and ecology. In this way the project draws together multiple theoretical interpretations of texts to demonstrate the responsiveness of children's literature to broader ideological, social, theoretical and pedagogical contexts.Read moreRead less
Exploration and Nation: the Cultural Impact of Exploration Literature from the Cook Voyages to the 'Novara' Circumnavigation. This comparative analysis of the cultural impact of the Cook voyages and the lavishly state-sponsored "Novara" expedition will improve our understanding of the international entanglements that affected the course of our history. Examining the broad cultural impact of publications about Pacific exploration will offer valuable new insights into the cross-fertilisations betw ....Exploration and Nation: the Cultural Impact of Exploration Literature from the Cook Voyages to the 'Novara' Circumnavigation. This comparative analysis of the cultural impact of the Cook voyages and the lavishly state-sponsored "Novara" expedition will improve our understanding of the international entanglements that affected the course of our history. Examining the broad cultural impact of publications about Pacific exploration will offer valuable new insights into the cross-fertilisations between colonisation and the formation of 19th-century nation states. A detailed study of how European nations employed the publication industry in their competition for colonial control will illuminate the conflicts over the boundaries of nation and empire and enhance the understanding of prominent issues in Australian humanities research.Read moreRead less
Antarctic Imaginations: A Study of Creative Responses to the Continent for Science. Antarctica has for two centuries been the subject of numerous novels, poems and plays, both by writers who have never seen the continent, and by expeditioners and explorers themselves. Apart from a small number of canonical nineteenth-century texts, these representations of the continent have been subject to very little analysis. This project examines creative written responses to Antarctica, drawing on both publ ....Antarctic Imaginations: A Study of Creative Responses to the Continent for Science. Antarctica has for two centuries been the subject of numerous novels, poems and plays, both by writers who have never seen the continent, and by expeditioners and explorers themselves. Apart from a small number of canonical nineteenth-century texts, these representations of the continent have been subject to very little analysis. This project examines creative written responses to Antarctica, drawing on both published works and archival material, and focussing particularly on the cultural significance of Antarctica's construction as a ?continent for science?. Research outcomes will include innovative interdisciplinary contributions to Antarctic studies and English studies.Read moreRead less
Monumental Shakespeare: a transcultural investigation of commemoration in 20th-century Australia and England. Shakespeare represents a key conduit of Anglo-Australian cultural definition. This first internationally collaborative investigation of the popular, political and scholarly influences at work in the desire to commemorate Shakespeare in the 20th century - beginning with the tercentenary of his death in 1916 - will produce new knowledge about the embedding of Shakespeare into English and A ....Monumental Shakespeare: a transcultural investigation of commemoration in 20th-century Australia and England. Shakespeare represents a key conduit of Anglo-Australian cultural definition. This first internationally collaborative investigation of the popular, political and scholarly influences at work in the desire to commemorate Shakespeare in the 20th century - beginning with the tercentenary of his death in 1916 - will produce new knowledge about the embedding of Shakespeare into English and Australian cultural foundations. This transcultural investigation of the ways in which very different memorials - the National Theatre (London) and Sydney's Shakespeare Place - emerged from debates over appropriate forms for memorialisation will provide new understandings of the reproduction of Shakespearean heritage across nations, hemispheres and cities.Read moreRead less
The legacy of Tim Winton. While Tim Winton's fiction has received many prizes and has a wide readership, yet it has not received sustained critical attention. It is important that Winton's legacy is assessed and valued, acknowledging both his national and international popularity and the literary power of his writing.