Cross-Cultural Lives: a Study of Narratives by Migrants Between Languages. This project examines recent autobiographies of non-English-speaking migrants to Australia and investigates ways in which immigrants into a new language are challenged to become different persons, and how particular individuals respond to this challenge. It combines the disciplines of literary, cultural and ethnic studies to address issues profoundly affecting Australia as a multi-ethnic society. It seeks to identify some ....Cross-Cultural Lives: a Study of Narratives by Migrants Between Languages. This project examines recent autobiographies of non-English-speaking migrants to Australia and investigates ways in which immigrants into a new language are challenged to become different persons, and how particular individuals respond to this challenge. It combines the disciplines of literary, cultural and ethnic studies to address issues profoundly affecting Australia as a multi-ethnic society. It seeks to identify some essential prerequisites for cross-culturally sensitive education programs, taking into account an individual's need for psychological and linguistic continuity. At the same time it opens a new theoretical perspective for literary and cross-cultural studies, based on close study of life-writing by migrants.Read moreRead less
Mission texts and the representation of Africa in America 1870-1914. Australia is now firmly linked to America in cultural and political terms. This project helps us to understand how American attitudes to overseas expansion came about in the period when America was expanding its control on its own continent and in the world at large. Explanations of this to date have neglected to examine the role of religious organisations and texts in promoting the ideas of other peoples and cultures which fo ....Mission texts and the representation of Africa in America 1870-1914. Australia is now firmly linked to America in cultural and political terms. This project helps us to understand how American attitudes to overseas expansion came about in the period when America was expanding its control on its own continent and in the world at large. Explanations of this to date have neglected to examine the role of religious organisations and texts in promoting the ideas of other peoples and cultures which formed America's modern attitude to the world beyond its shores. As religion becomes increasingly recognised as a powerful factor in identity politics this project helps us to understand the roots of this connection and apply the knowledge to our current situation.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
An interdisciplinary investigation of literary tourism and literary subjectivity. Literary tourism is an under-exploited cultural resource in Australia, despite well-organised tourism industries, an established literary canon, identifiable literary landscapes and locales, and strong links between literature and popular culture. Australia has much to learn from British literary tourism, with its established systems and advanced image marketing; and from a deeper understanding of reader-tourist mo ....An interdisciplinary investigation of literary tourism and literary subjectivity. Literary tourism is an under-exploited cultural resource in Australia, despite well-organised tourism industries, an established literary canon, identifiable literary landscapes and locales, and strong links between literature and popular culture. Australia has much to learn from British literary tourism, with its established systems and advanced image marketing; and from a deeper understanding of reader-tourist motivations and behaviours. This research lays the methodological foundations for essential and genuinely interdisciplinary research into Australian literary tourism, and establishes a partnership that promises to deliver palpable national benefits in this and future projects, advancing understanding of our region and the world.Read moreRead less
A critical study of the works of V.S. Naipaul. This project aims to study V.S. Naipaul, whose books defy the protocols of post-colonial theory. Literature students have met Naipaul’s books with outright denigration and unnerving silence, leading to an absence of serious engagement with the genesis of his works and their relationship to post-colonial criticism. This project will emphasise post-colonial texts rather than post-colonial theory and criticism. It will use the Naipaul Tulsa archive to ....A critical study of the works of V.S. Naipaul. This project aims to study V.S. Naipaul, whose books defy the protocols of post-colonial theory. Literature students have met Naipaul’s books with outright denigration and unnerving silence, leading to an absence of serious engagement with the genesis of his works and their relationship to post-colonial criticism. This project will emphasise post-colonial texts rather than post-colonial theory and criticism. It will use the Naipaul Tulsa archive to uncover the difficulty in the material itself. A close reading of textual variants, their transmission and reception is expected to show a post-colonial writer's struggle with form, aesthetics and ideology.Read moreRead less
The role of public culture in the construction of contemporary Australian literature. Literature is not simply a body of texts; it is a cultural technology, affected by changing patterns of production and consumption. Witness the 'cult of celebrity', the phenomenal recent growth of literary festivals, literary internet sites, reading groups, changing patterns of literary marketing, education, employment and leisure. Academic scholarship, largely text-based, fails to engage with these public and ....The role of public culture in the construction of contemporary Australian literature. Literature is not simply a body of texts; it is a cultural technology, affected by changing patterns of production and consumption. Witness the 'cult of celebrity', the phenomenal recent growth of literary festivals, literary internet sites, reading groups, changing patterns of literary marketing, education, employment and leisure. Academic scholarship, largely text-based, fails to engage with these public and popular phenomena. Our project develops methods for describing and evaluating how these practices construct literary value and cultural identity, in ways that will bring academic literary analysis into a more informed, more creative engagement with public and popular culture in Australia.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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Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0238930
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,000.00
Summary
Austlit: The Australian Literature Gateway - Enhancement Stage Two. The Austlit: The Australian Literature Gateway Enhancement Stage Two Project will deliver enhanced functionality for researchers using the integrated resource discovery service developed in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, the Gateway will add new bibliographic, biographical and full text sources to the service, and map rich literary relationships based on this data, supporting the development of new research questions on the place of th ....Austlit: The Australian Literature Gateway - Enhancement Stage Two. The Austlit: The Australian Literature Gateway Enhancement Stage Two Project will deliver enhanced functionality for researchers using the integrated resource discovery service developed in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, the Gateway will add new bibliographic, biographical and full text sources to the service, and map rich literary relationships based on this data, supporting the development of new research questions on the place of the national literature in Australian culture. The Gateway's technical infrastructure will be developed to offer a sophisticated browsing interface, customised services to support specific research, and broader interoperability with other services, including flexible education and portal services.Read moreRead less
Styles of Meaning-making in Poetry by Victorian Scientists. While much has been written about the attitudes of canonical poets to science in Victorian Britain, the complementary perspectives of scientists who wrote poetry have been entirely overlooked. What is most striking about their poetry (and indeed that of neglected feminist poets of the 1880s and 1890s which the study will also examine) is the agreeable relations that it, unlike canonical Victorian poetry and most scholarship in the area, ....Styles of Meaning-making in Poetry by Victorian Scientists. While much has been written about the attitudes of canonical poets to science in Victorian Britain, the complementary perspectives of scientists who wrote poetry have been entirely overlooked. What is most striking about their poetry (and indeed that of neglected feminist poets of the 1880s and 1890s which the study will also examine) is the agreeable relations that it, unlike canonical Victorian poetry and most scholarship in the area, sees to exist between poetry and science. The substantial revisionary monograph I propose will focus upon the discursive modes that scientists brought to their poetry and the ontologies which underpin them.Read moreRead less
Shakespeare and film genres. The monograph will enhance the reputation of Australian academicians as world experts in topical and important original research. It will also complement the flow of outstanding Australian films, by showing that the industry is supported by important and relevant academic scholarship. The research will also indirectly show that Australia, like all countries, is part of a global cultural community which is not only internationally diverse and plural but also a produ ....Shakespeare and film genres. The monograph will enhance the reputation of Australian academicians as world experts in topical and important original research. It will also complement the flow of outstanding Australian films, by showing that the industry is supported by important and relevant academic scholarship. The research will also indirectly show that Australia, like all countries, is part of a global cultural community which is not only internationally diverse and plural but also a product of history which includes literary and dramatic history. Read moreRead less