Regimes of reading. The project analyses the ways in which reading and interpretation have been socially organised across a range of cultures, from ancient Rome to the contemporary world of virtual reality. It focuses in particular on conflict between different practices of reading in order to highlight the cultural assumptions underlying the uses of texts.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101359
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Imagining diversity: race and ethnicity in popular fantasy. How do fantasy worlds represent and reconstruct real world approaches to racial and cultural difference? This project examines the ways reader and writers of popular culture think and talk about race and ethnicity, offering insight into contemporary discourses of diversity and an essential window into Australia's multicultural society.
The new medical body in contemporary Chinese imaginaries. Advances in organ transplant, blood transfusion, and related practices not only affect understandings of the human body in medical and scientific communities, but in society at large. This project will analyse contemporary Chinese literature, cinema, art, and popular media to better understand the impact of medical innovations on Chinese culture.
Past Tense: 'acts of memory' in contemporary Australian memoir. This project examines the turn to autobiographic expression - particularly fragmentary forms of memoir - by the intelligentsia in Australia in the fin de siecle of the twentieth century. Why and how did these styles of writing proliferate? How did they shape ideas and express uncertainties about national identity and citizenship during a phase of national commemoration, self-consciousness, jubilation and unease? In a monograph, 'Pa ....Past Tense: 'acts of memory' in contemporary Australian memoir. This project examines the turn to autobiographic expression - particularly fragmentary forms of memoir - by the intelligentsia in Australia in the fin de siecle of the twentieth century. Why and how did these styles of writing proliferate? How did they shape ideas and express uncertainties about national identity and citizenship during a phase of national commemoration, self-consciousness, jubilation and unease? In a monograph, 'Past Tense', and a series of articles and conference presentations these questions will be considered using a comparative, cross cultural approach which will make a contribution to understanding identity debates in contemporary Australian society.
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Insights from the Invisible Drama: Shakespeare, Lost Plays and Theatre History, c.1585-1613. Early modern English theatre has been understood almost exclusively in terms of plays that were printed or survived in manuscript. Traditional theatre history narratives have ignored the evidence pertaining to over 700 plays written and performed in Shakespeare’s London but which are now lost or survive only in fragments. This project will consult unpublished archival evidence and under-analysed historic ....Insights from the Invisible Drama: Shakespeare, Lost Plays and Theatre History, c.1585-1613. Early modern English theatre has been understood almost exclusively in terms of plays that were printed or survived in manuscript. Traditional theatre history narratives have ignored the evidence pertaining to over 700 plays written and performed in Shakespeare’s London but which are now lost or survive only in fragments. This project will consult unpublished archival evidence and under-analysed historical records to produce new knowledge about plays, playwrights, companies, venues, and repertory practices in England during Shakespeare’s professional career (c.1585 to 1613). By addressing this gap, this project will generate new understandings of Shakespeare’s theatrical marketplace.Read moreRead less
Gifts of Friendship: intimacy and exchange in cross-cultural contact. This project will investigate an apparently contradictory phenomenon: the existence of explicit policies of friendship-making within Euro-American imperial exploration and colonial settlement. Focusing on the Pacific islands in the period 1767-1830, it will look at the interaction of European and Polynesian traditions and practices of friendship, particularly in relation to practices of exchange. The project will examine a hug ....Gifts of Friendship: intimacy and exchange in cross-cultural contact. This project will investigate an apparently contradictory phenomenon: the existence of explicit policies of friendship-making within Euro-American imperial exploration and colonial settlement. Focusing on the Pacific islands in the period 1767-1830, it will look at the interaction of European and Polynesian traditions and practices of friendship, particularly in relation to practices of exchange. The project will examine a huge body of archival evidence, which initial findings suggest will prove to be much more self-conscious and anxious about the ethical and ideological implications of cross-cultural friendship-formation than current understandings of the operations of colonial discourse would allow.Read moreRead less
Communications and National Identity in Early Modern France. This project addresses a fundamental question in current debates over nationhood - on what ideological and discursive bases nations are formed - by studying the roots of modern national consciousness in early modern France. It will examine the survival, indeed the reinforcement of particularist ideas about the French people and France within the universalist context of Enlightenment thought. Drawing on data bases constituted in the i ....Communications and National Identity in Early Modern France. This project addresses a fundamental question in current debates over nationhood - on what ideological and discursive bases nations are formed - by studying the roots of modern national consciousness in early modern France. It will examine the survival, indeed the reinforcement of particularist ideas about the French people and France within the universalist context of Enlightenment thought. Drawing on data bases constituted in the investigators' earlier research, it will study representations of the nation and national character in literary, philosophical, educational and political writings, and the role of the rapidly expanding communications system in the dissemination of these ideas.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
The Cultural Impact of Irregular Marriage in the Age of British Colonialism, 1660-c.1860. Marriage has always been central to our understanding of relations between literature, society and culture. This project significantly revises that understanding by focussing on the irregular marriage practices which thrived in Britain and its colonies from 1660 to c.1860. It demonstrates, for instance, how the novel genre became respectable partly by marginalising irregular marriages; how Gretna Green we ....The Cultural Impact of Irregular Marriage in the Age of British Colonialism, 1660-c.1860. Marriage has always been central to our understanding of relations between literature, society and culture. This project significantly revises that understanding by focussing on the irregular marriage practices which thrived in Britain and its colonies from 1660 to c.1860. It demonstrates, for instance, how the novel genre became respectable partly by marginalising irregular marriages; how Gretna Green weddings came to typify modern romance in drama and fiction; and how marriage regulations underpinned literary portrayals of civil society in the Australian penal colony. It will deliver a groundbreaking monograph which accounts for marriage's role in modern literary culture in new terms.Read moreRead less
Minds, Bodies, Machines: a cultural and intellectual history of technologies in the 21st century. This project benefits the intellectual and cultural life of the nation by establishing a unique dialogue between the I.T. community and University researchers in the humanities and social sciences. Using an
interdisciplinary methodology to explore technologically-driven social change across a period of more than two hundred years, the project will generate new and fresh ways of thinking about emerg ....Minds, Bodies, Machines: a cultural and intellectual history of technologies in the 21st century. This project benefits the intellectual and cultural life of the nation by establishing a unique dialogue between the I.T. community and University researchers in the humanities and social sciences. Using an
interdisciplinary methodology to explore technologically-driven social change across a period of more than two hundred years, the project will generate new and fresh ways of thinking about emerging areas of intense debate and controversy, such as humanoid robotics and artificial intelligence. The dialogue we propose will foster an environment of enhanced innovation, one in which knowledge translates directly and indirectly into social and economic benefits.Read moreRead less