1,720,982 research outputs found
Introduction
No full textThe introductory essay to Online Special Issue 15 of the literary magazine Westerly. This special issue is titled 'Graphic Narratives: New Comics from Western Australia'
Ebooks, book history, and markers of place
Get PDFThis article considers how markers of place function differently in the print book ecosystem vs. the ebook ecosystem, using books associated with Australia and Western Australia as a case study. Although book historians have mostly failed to engage with ebooks as subject matter, they have considered in some detail the way in which markers of place function in the print book ecosystem. By surveying the scholarly output of book historians working with mapping technologies, it is possible to conclude that, in the print book ecosystem, there exist a handful of markers identifying the following categories: places associated with a book's setting, its author, its publication, its purchase, and its marketing and publicity. The latter three markers look substantially different in the ebook ecosystem than in the print book ecosystem. Furthermore, in the ebook ecosystem, changes to these three markers can mediate setting and author as markers of place
'Changes in Tone, Setting, and Publisher: Indigenous Literatures of Australia and New Zealand from the 1980s to Today'
Get PDFThis article examines four novels written since 1980 by two Aboriginal Australian authors and two Maori authors. Two of the four novels were written near the beginning of this period and feature settings that are contemporary with their publication; The Day of the Dog by Aboriginal Australian author Archie Weller was published in 1981, while Once Were Warriors by Maori author Alan Duff was published in 1990. The other two novels (That Deadman Dance by Aboriginal Australian author Kim Scott and The Trowenna Sea by Maori author Witi Ihimaera) are works of historical fiction written in the last decade. The shift in tone between the earlier novels and the more recent novels is particularly remarkable. Coupled with the shift in tone, the settings have changed. It is tempting to ascribe the shifts in tone and setting over this 30-year period to the changing social and political realities surrounding the issue of indigenous relations in the two nations. And these factors undoubtedly played an important role in the aforementioned shifts; indigenous authors writing today are responding to a different social and political reality compared to indigenous authors writing in the 1980s and early 1990s. What this explanation overlooks, however, are the concurrent changes in the publication of indigenous literature and how these might contribute to the types of changes noted above. Indigenous writers are now writing for an international literary marketplace. This article makes it clear that there are significant implications to the shift from indigenous literature being published by small to medium-sized local publishing houses, to indigenous literature being published by the local arm of a multinational conglomerate
A postcolonial perspective on regional literature in Australia
Get PDFWithin Australia, the concentration of the “field of cultural production” in Sydney and Melbourne results in the perception that the local and specific of these places constitutes the “universal.” Any attention paid to the local and specific in the cultural products of other Australian locations, such as Western Australia, therefore constitutes the “regional.” In an international or global context, however, Australia constitutes the “regional” rather than the “universal,” since the relatively greater concentrations of instruments of cultural production in places such as London and New York City indirectly confers upon them the latter title. Clearly, there is a parallel between the dynamic that governs Australia’s negotiations with the international literary community, and the dynamic that governs the negotiations of a more conventionally conceived region (such as Western Australia) with its national literary culture. Furthermore, there are parallels between this dynamic and the dynamic responsible for producing postcolonial literature, a literary movement that “asserted [itself] by foregrounding the tension with the colonial power, and emphasising ... differences from the assumptions of the imperial centre.” This chapter hopes that by emphasizing the postcolonial nature of Australian literature and analyzing Australian texts from a postcolonial theoretical perspective, it might diversify our understanding of Australian literature by supporting the introduction of a regional perspective. (Supplied by author)
Our Cup Runneth Over: Life-Stories from Fremantle Go National
Get PDFExplores the interaction between literary culture & the public sphere in Australia in a series of informative, witty, intelligent & thought-provoking essays. Unearths the fascinating & changing role that literature has played in Australias sporting, political, civic & cultural life
The conventions of the research that informs Australian cultural policy about writing and publishing
No full textThe public funding of the arts in Australia is a topic that has received considerable attention by researchers (Throsby, 2007). More specifically, the evolution of policy towards the book industry in Australia has been the subject of research for at least the last couple decades (Throsby, 2018). This type of research is meant to evaluate Australian cultural policy about writing and publishing, but of course there is also research that directly informs this policy—either shaping the terms of its funding or justifying its continued existence. Some of the more remarkable recent examples of the latter type of research include the ‘Visiting International Publishers (VIP) Program: Longitudinal Evaluation 2011–2016’, ‘The Australian Book Industry: Authors, Publishers, and Readers in a Time of Change’, and the ‘WA Writing Sector Review: Final Report and Recommendations’. Some examples of this type of research are commissioned specifically to inform cultural policy, while other examples have different origin stories but are later leveraged for the same purpose. Some examples are produced by academic researchers, while others are produced by the cultural policymakers themselves. Despite this diversity, there are certain established (usually unspoken) conventions to the research that informs Australian cultural policy about writing and publishing, and these conventions structure the operation of the publishing industry by influencing the inner and outer workings of the field
Thomas Keneally's Career and the Literary Machine
No full textThere is no doubt that Thomas Keneally’s Career and the Literary Machine will, for many years to come, be an indispensable resource for scholars writing about the works of Thomas Keneally. Of course, Keneally continues to produce new works – in 2020, for example, he published a new novel, The Dickens Boy – so, over time, Paul Sharrad’s scholarly monograph will be seen as increasingly incomplete. Indeed, the most recent of Keneally’s works that receives meaningful coverage in the book is the 2014 publication of the third volume in Keneally’s unique history of Australia; the series is titled Australians, and this volume is subtitled ‘Flappers to Vietnam’. Nonetheless, it is difficult to imagine a future scholar writing about any of the works produced in the first fifty years of Keneally’s career (Keneally’s first book was The Place at Whitton, which was published in 1964) without referencing Thomas Keneally’s Career and the Literary Machine; the depth and quality of the research is just that good.
Thomas Keneally’s Career and the Literary Machine, by Paul Sharrad. Anthem Press, 2019
Regional Literature and ‘The Liminal’: Exploring the Spaces In-Between National and International Literatures
Get PDFRegional literature, that often overlooked and much maligned cluster of writings whose origins are frequently said to be anywhere but here, has actually played an important role in the story of Australian literature. The theme of nationalism, which reigned as the master narrative of Australian literature from early in the history of white settlers in Australia until perhaps the 1970s, merged with or fragmented into (depending on your perspective) regionalism in the 1980s. In the 1990s, internationalism emerged from this transitional phase as the new master narrative of Australian literature. Regionalism seems to have acted as a liminal state in the evolution of an understanding of space, place and belonging. Yet, as this article will demonstrate, its relevance is not confined to the space of a decade, nor is regional literature without its contemporary proponents
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