Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature
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Resonating Opinions and Identities: Using Poetics Methods to Explore Non-Aboriginal Attitudes towards Aboriginal Reconciliation in Australia
Get PDFThis article reports findings from an ongoing research project into non-Aboriginal attitudes towards Aboriginal reconciliation in Australia and Canada. The two countries share important details in their histories of mistreatment of Indigenous peoples as well as in their postcolonial attempts at reconciliation. Our research uses focus groups and an expressly poetic framework of analysis to explore quotidian or “less public†discourses about Aboriginal reconciliation in both countries. The public poetics approach used here lends itself to simultaneous exploration of both referential and textural elements of participant discourses within the focus groups. This leads to the finding that non-Aboriginal people in both countries conceive of aboriginal reconciliation as a highly transactional phenomenon – whose leading parties are a non-Indigenous “us†and an Indigenous “them†in each case
Nights of Average Nerves: Popular Culture and Me
Get PDFIn this article an Australian poet and critic reflects on his own aims and aesthetics, set against a world that uncritically praises pop culture and largely ignores poetry. The article considers the difference between “popular culture†and “pop culture,†and the reasons why poetry has fallen from general view, arguing that it is partly because of the strengths of poetry – which always needs a link to the general community and had it until the advent of Modernism – and partly because of the problems built into contemporary evaluations of poetry. Thus the article shifts between personal values and general issues related to poetry in our time, and advocates a return to a traditional valuing of shared emotions rather than of wilful complexity
Dangers in the Desert: Jean Arasanayagam’s “The Sand Serpentsâ€
No full textThis essay analyses Jean Arasanayagam’s depiction of domestic labour abroad (through the consciousness of Nanda during a taxi ride) in “The Sand Serpents.†Unlike the western dream, migration to the Middle East is a means of investment in Sri Lanka for a domestic help. The ultimate dream is to return home. The contrasting images of openness and constriction bring out Nanda’s responses to homeland and desert land; success and failure. The renewed perspective of home privileges normalcy and routine over money and excitement. The essay discusses areas of collision between the workspace of a domestic maid and the private space of the employer that condition power relations and behaviour patterns. The language of communication is rendered irrelevant. Ultimately the story affirms Nanda’s self-knowledge and rootedness in her own homeland
The Hamlet Mash-Up
Get PDFShakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most famous works of art in the world, and has inspired countless interpretations, allusions, references and discussions. The author describes his creation of a video collage of Hamlet material, that shows, rather than claims, the ubiquity of Hamlet, and points toward what Shakespeare could look like after the advent of the Internet. Hamlet’s value as Hollywood shorthand is discussed, and some of the throwaway Hamlet references are seen to be more complex than they may first appear. Projects of a similar nature are discussed and encouraged
