Reverse Diaspora: Australian Expatriate Writers in Britain since the 1830s. The changing relations between Australia and Britain are explored in this project through writers of literature and drama. Reverse Diaspora explores the aspirations, problems and achievements of eighty expatriate Australians who have chosen to live and work in Britain since the early nineteenth century. From one point of view they represent a 'brain drain'; from another they are exporters of Australian ideas, experience ....Reverse Diaspora: Australian Expatriate Writers in Britain since the 1830s. The changing relations between Australia and Britain are explored in this project through writers of literature and drama. Reverse Diaspora explores the aspirations, problems and achievements of eighty expatriate Australians who have chosen to live and work in Britain since the early nineteenth century. From one point of view they represent a 'brain drain'; from another they are exporters of Australian ideas, experience and talent. This study will increase knowledge and understanding of the lives, creative achievements and public impact of Australians abroad. It will enhance Australians' capacity to interpret their national culture in their region and the world.Read moreRead less
Linguistic individuation in the plays of Shakespeare and his peers, 1576-1599. The question of how differently each speaker or writer uses language is important in everything from plagiarism to the definition of artistic genius. The project makes Shakespearean drama before 1600 a definitive test case of this wider problem of individuality in language. Australians are inheritors of the Western tradition of individual self-determination and self-expression; the project will help clarify one of the ....Linguistic individuation in the plays of Shakespeare and his peers, 1576-1599. The question of how differently each speaker or writer uses language is important in everything from plagiarism to the definition of artistic genius. The project makes Shakespearean drama before 1600 a definitive test case of this wider problem of individuality in language. Australians are inheritors of the Western tradition of individual self-determination and self-expression; the project will help clarify one of the main assumptions behind this tradition. Australia is also an inheritor of the English-language culture of which Shakespeare is a key element, and the project will enrich the understanding of this culture through new light on his beginnings.Read moreRead less
Journalism on the Move: The Special Correspondent and Victorian Print Culture. This project brings the 'special correspondent' into critical focus as an important journalistic role in Victorian print culture and thereby recovers a significant part of Australia's cultural inheritance. Two of the 'specials' who form a focus for my study visited Australia and wrote about it; and the nineteenth-century debates that surrounded their highly popular, descriptive style of journalism continue today in co ....Journalism on the Move: The Special Correspondent and Victorian Print Culture. This project brings the 'special correspondent' into critical focus as an important journalistic role in Victorian print culture and thereby recovers a significant part of Australia's cultural inheritance. Two of the 'specials' who form a focus for my study visited Australia and wrote about it; and the nineteenth-century debates that surrounded their highly popular, descriptive style of journalism continue today in controversies surrounding the relationship between fact and fiction in Australian print culture. My project will bring these hitherto neglected connections to light and strengthen Australia's standing within the expanding international field of research in Victorian periodicals and newspapers.Read moreRead less
Shakespeare, the Early Modern Theatre and Computational Stylistics. The investigators aim to answer some central questions in Shakespearean drama through a collaborative study combining computational and traditional methods. They will explore areas not hitherto studied with computational means, such as the nature of collaboration in the drama writing of the period, and intertextual relations between source material and plays, as well as long-standing questions in authorship and dating. Statistic ....Shakespeare, the Early Modern Theatre and Computational Stylistics. The investigators aim to answer some central questions in Shakespearean drama through a collaborative study combining computational and traditional methods. They will explore areas not hitherto studied with computational means, such as the nature of collaboration in the drama writing of the period, and intertextual relations between source material and plays, as well as long-standing questions in authorship and dating. Statistical and corpus-based results will be aligned with scholarly-critical evidence to provide findings of exceptional authority, and to establish a new paradigm for humanities research. The main outcome will be a jointly authored book.Read moreRead less
The discourse of the South: the Mediterranean, South America and the Pacific in nineteenth-century British and American literature. The project investigates styles and traditions of English writing about southern Europe in the nineteenth century, and their influence on broader imaginative geographies. It tests the hypothesis that a paradigmatic north-south encounter, developed in British and American writing on the Mediterranean, created a 'discourse of the South' which shaped Anglo-American rep ....The discourse of the South: the Mediterranean, South America and the Pacific in nineteenth-century British and American literature. The project investigates styles and traditions of English writing about southern Europe in the nineteenth century, and their influence on broader imaginative geographies. It tests the hypothesis that a paradigmatic north-south encounter, developed in British and American writing on the Mediterranean, created a 'discourse of the South' which shaped Anglo-American representations of Latin America and the Pacific. It asks whether the discourse of the South, as a model for understanding geocultural difference, is more applicable to certain post-colonial contexts than the Orientalist paradigm, which dominates current thinking about differences of place and race in literature.Read moreRead less
Insect societies and social butterflies: natural history and sociability in the Romantic period. During the eighteenth century, the Pacific islands and New Holland replaced America as the testing ground for ideas about the state of natural man and the origins of society. In looking at Enlightenment ideas about the natural, the human, and the social, this project will help us to learn more about ourselves as the dominant species.
Optical Illusion in Victorian Culture. The aim is to undertake a major interdisciplinary study of optical illusion in Victorian culture, both as a form of popular entertainment and as a discursive field in which new modes of self-representation and knowledge were explored. By focusing on an extensive range of cultural forms including, optical treatise, literary texts, popular entertainments, new visual technologies, newspapers and the periodical press, this project will provide an invaluable his ....Optical Illusion in Victorian Culture. The aim is to undertake a major interdisciplinary study of optical illusion in Victorian culture, both as a form of popular entertainment and as a discursive field in which new modes of self-representation and knowledge were explored. By focusing on an extensive range of cultural forms including, optical treatise, literary texts, popular entertainments, new visual technologies, newspapers and the periodical press, this project will provide an invaluable historical context for contemporary speculations about the impact of new visual technologies on the increasingly blurred boundaries between different cultures, identities and modes of self-representation.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
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
Textual Ontogeny and the Understanding of Modernist Texts: A Case Study of Samuel Beckett's Novel, Watt. This research develops smart technology use: by creating a new method of literary editing that is best able to extend the capabilities of electronic text, this project enhances the understanding of modernist literature and the ability to use technology in innovative ways in the humanities. New ways to organise and edit complex networks of data and documentation (in this case extensive archiva ....Textual Ontogeny and the Understanding of Modernist Texts: A Case Study of Samuel Beckett's Novel, Watt. This research develops smart technology use: by creating a new method of literary editing that is best able to extend the capabilities of electronic text, this project enhances the understanding of modernist literature and the ability to use technology in innovative ways in the humanities. New ways to organise and edit complex networks of data and documentation (in this case extensive archival and published material) will be transferable to a wide variety of non-literary applications.Read moreRead less