Journals in Theory: Practices of Academic Judgment. This project aims to examine the way key journals transformed the discipline of literary studies from 1946 to now. It expects to generate new knowledge of how editorial practices of academic judgement institutionalised and legitimated new modes of reading, thinking and writing. Based on archival research on journals including Critical Inquiry, Tel Quel and The Australian Journal of Cultural Studies, the project's outcomes will show how, in brin ....Journals in Theory: Practices of Academic Judgment. This project aims to examine the way key journals transformed the discipline of literary studies from 1946 to now. It expects to generate new knowledge of how editorial practices of academic judgement institutionalised and legitimated new modes of reading, thinking and writing. Based on archival research on journals including Critical Inquiry, Tel Quel and The Australian Journal of Cultural Studies, the project's outcomes will show how, in bringing together new intellectual passions, governance structures and imagined readerships, journals bestowed on criticism its current working definition. Expected benefits include a better account of the relationship between conceptual innovation and institutional mechanisms for research integrity.Read moreRead less
Imagining histories of love: the making of textual worlds in Taiwan romance fiction. This project examines the crucial question of how romantic love is imagined in contemporary Chinese societies. It innovates by analyzing the images of love presented in Taiwan romance fiction, a major genre of unstudied texts that provides knowledge of the emotional worlds of tens of millions of people worldwide. Its novel methodology approaches romantic narratives as documents of a history of love, producing ne ....Imagining histories of love: the making of textual worlds in Taiwan romance fiction. This project examines the crucial question of how romantic love is imagined in contemporary Chinese societies. It innovates by analyzing the images of love presented in Taiwan romance fiction, a major genre of unstudied texts that provides knowledge of the emotional worlds of tens of millions of people worldwide. Its novel methodology approaches romantic narratives as documents of a history of love, producing new concepts of Taiwan and Chinese society and history in which love is envisioned as the central experience of human life. Major outcomes will be a substantial monograph, an edited volume and several scholarly articles.Read moreRead less
Mary Wroth: A Contextual Biography and Electronic Edition. This project will result in the biography of a remarkable early modern woman: Lady Mary Wroth. Wroth was an extremely talented writer who produced a huge prose romance, poetry and a pastoral play, and the project will also involve the production of an electronic edition of her writing. No biography of Wroth exists, and the contextual biography which I will write will offer many insights into early Jacobean society and culture. As a whole ....Mary Wroth: A Contextual Biography and Electronic Edition. This project will result in the biography of a remarkable early modern woman: Lady Mary Wroth. Wroth was an extremely talented writer who produced a huge prose romance, poetry and a pastoral play, and the project will also involve the production of an electronic edition of her writing. No biography of Wroth exists, and the contextual biography which I will write will offer many insights into early Jacobean society and culture. As a whole, the project will enhance Australia's strong research contribution to the key area of early modern studies.Read moreRead less
The material cultures of early modern women's writing: editing, reception and mediation. This project provides the first comprehensive account of how early modern women's writing was produced and circulated from its original appearance to the present day. Changing the ways in which we read and value women's writing, it will produce new knowledge about early modern texts and their afterlives.
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
Literature and politics in the 1620s. The methodology used in this project will illuminate other areas of literature, including our own, because literary history remains in need of sophisticated ways to understand how culture, politics, and society intersect.The 1620s did not cordon writing and performance off from matters of state, but rather saw them as being intertwined.
Australian Fiction 1989 to 2005, and its National and Global Infrastructures. This project is a systematic analysis of Australian fiction published between 1989 and 2005: after the Australian Bicentenary and into the new millenium. It will look in particular at the relationship between national literary culture and globalisation. It examines the cultural, social, educational, political and economic aspects of this literary field, and accounts for its production and distribution, as well as the w ....Australian Fiction 1989 to 2005, and its National and Global Infrastructures. This project is a systematic analysis of Australian fiction published between 1989 and 2005: after the Australian Bicentenary and into the new millenium. It will look in particular at the relationship between national literary culture and globalisation. It examines the cultural, social, educational, political and economic aspects of this literary field, and accounts for its production and distribution, as well as the ways in which it is evaluated and put to use. It will be the first study of its kind, an analysis of contemporary Australian literary production in the fullest sense.Read moreRead less
Public and Private Lies: Retelling the clash of duty, power and sexual indulgence in the Roman imperial court. The Australian public has a genuine and demonstrable interest in Ancient World Studies. This project offers them insight into how the ancient world constructed its political scandals. It examines the interrelationship of private acts and public conduct during the height of the Roman empire, and how personal morality was perceived to affect capability to govern. It provides a case study ....Public and Private Lies: Retelling the clash of duty, power and sexual indulgence in the Roman imperial court. The Australian public has a genuine and demonstrable interest in Ancient World Studies. This project offers them insight into how the ancient world constructed its political scandals. It examines the interrelationship of private acts and public conduct during the height of the Roman empire, and how personal morality was perceived to affect capability to govern. It provides a case study for the assessment of similar scandals in the modern world. By reading ancient perspectives on "sex", "power", and "privacy", we better understand our world and the potential for miscommunication across cultures. The project also promotes co-operation between metropolitan and regional universities in sharing resources in a national collaborative project.Read moreRead less
Bilingualism and Multilingualism in a National Movement: Ukrainian Writers in the Nineteenth Century. This analysis of the role of languages with different social and political roles in the formation of a modern Ukrainian literature will advance the study of Eastern Europe in Australia, foster international research links and open avenues for collaboration between humanities and social science scholars in Australia and countries of the former Soviet Union. It will contribute to research training ....Bilingualism and Multilingualism in a National Movement: Ukrainian Writers in the Nineteenth Century. This analysis of the role of languages with different social and political roles in the formation of a modern Ukrainian literature will advance the study of Eastern Europe in Australia, foster international research links and open avenues for collaboration between humanities and social science scholars in Australia and countries of the former Soviet Union. It will contribute to research training and enhance the standing of Australian scholarship in Slavic and East European Studies. By contributing to knowledge about the gestation of nations - political and cultural units into which most people today believe themselves to belong - the project will advance the national priority goal of understanding our region and the world.Read moreRead less
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