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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian fiction'
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Athique, Tamara Mabbott. "Textual migrations: South Asian-Australian fiction." Thesis, School of English Literatures, Philosophy and Languages - Faculty of Arts, 2006. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/621.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis responds to gaps in the scholarship of 'minority literatures' and makes a new contribution to diversifying the field of literary criticism. Given the prominence of South Asian diasporic fiction overseas, the study of South Asian-Australian fiction is now overdue. Given the growing recognition of multicultural and Asian-Australian literatures, the study of South Asian-Australian cultural production now requires attention. Working from the premise that a fictional text is a storytelling device open to a number of interpretations and a commodity with a degree of cultural capital, this thesis examines the tactics employed in and around selected works of fiction. Literary texts are marked by the politics publishing and academic theory. This thesis examines some of the 'invisible layers of intervention' that shape cultural production by indicating the placement of South Asian-Australian fiction within overlapping sets of academic, commercial and policy environments (Apter, 2001: 4). Having affirmed the importance of bringing a relatively invisible area of study into view, this thesis also considers the productive limits and limitations of literary categorisation. To this end, it draws on interviews with a number of writers who speak about their (self)-positioning. It remains crucial to consider the narrative detail of South Asian-Australian fiction: what types of stories do South Asian-Australian writers choose to tell and how do they craft them, what are the effects of such narratives and how are their complex cultural locations conveyed? The majority of this thesis is concerned with fleshing out these questions through detailed textual analysis that focuses on the w/rites of passage arising from the act of migration. Testing the utility of concepts drawn from postcolonial studies, theories of diaspora and critical multiculturalism, this thesis argues for an integrated theoretical approach to a set of texts that operate across local, national and transnational literary contexts.
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Dahlstrom, James. "Imagining Australia: The Struggle to Locate Australian Identity in Peter Carey’s Early Fiction." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/15356.
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In this thesis, I examine in Peter Carey’s early fiction the portrayal of Australia’s struggle to imagine a unique identity for itself. Three different, but overlapping, approaches will be woven together to serve as a lens through which his work can be read. First, it will be useful to situate the work within the context of Australian history and popular culture, which suggests an obsessive search for an “authentic” Australian identity, as well as the theoretical work on the social construction of such identities. Second, I will draw upon the work of Benedict Anderson, paired with that of Pheng Cheah, as a means of discussing the comparative process by which national identities are imagined and how those imagined identities emerge in cultural productions. In particular, I examine the typically unique characteristics and ideologies that are used as a basis when imagining national identities, as many of Australia’s are shared with both Britain and America. I will therefore engage with concepts like “totality,” “unisonance” and “seriality” as a means of discussing Carey’s work. Moreover, I will be utilising Louis Althusser’s concept of national ideology as a means of explicating Anderson’s and Cheah’s work. Finally, since the intersection between the national and the transnational is often conceived of in post-colonial language, especially in terms of Australia’s relationship to Britain and the United States, this thesis will draw on the work of post-colonial theorists like Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, Homi K. Bhabha, and Edward Said.
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Dallmann, Tino [Verfasser]. "Telling Terror in Contemporary Australian Fiction / Tino Dallmann." Frankfurt : Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1105292754/34.
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Beere, Diana. "Nurturing ideology: Representations of motherhood in contemporary Australian adolescent fiction." Thesis, Griffith University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366558.
Full textAbstract:
This study analyses the ways in which motherhood is represented in a corpus of contemporary, critically acclaimed Australian adolescent fiction. The 18 texts in the research corpus were those short-listed by the Children's Book Council of Australia for its annual Book of the Year: Older Readers award in the years 1992 to 1994 inclusive. The publicity, prestige and power attached to these awards means that short-listed books, taken to be 'good' books for children and adolescents, are often used as educational resources in Australian schools, particularly to support teaching and learning activities in literacy and English education. Recognising adolescent fiction as a potentially significant site of contestation over the social justice ideals that inform Australia's national curriculum documents, the study sought to document the ways in which these texts are implicated in the production and reproduction of ideologies of motherhood.
The study was informed by the understanding that meanings are not inherent to texts, but are constructed by readers as they adopt particular subject positions in relation to texts and enter into what, in effect, are social relationships with them. From this perspective, the analysis required attention not only to textual features of the research corpus, but also to the various other resources on which readers might reasonably draw to construct meanings. This meant attending to intertextuality, that is, the relationships between the fictional narratives on which the study focused and other cultural texts, including the visual and spoken texts of everyday life, and to the ways in which readers are encouraged or required to draw on these intertexts as meaning-making resources. The study recognised that readers' primary mean-making resources are common-sense ideologies, understood as the widely shared and taken-for-granted understandings about the social world that inform much of the everyday social action and interaction among members of a society.
The study was also underpinned by an understanding of motherhood as a social construct rather than an essentially biologically determined state, and therefore as having meanings that are subject to contestation and revision. To establish the range of contemporary understandings about motherhood on which readers might draw to make sense of textual representations of motherhood, the study drew on the findings of recent research into the discursive construction of motherhood, with particular attention to what currently prevails as common sense. These common-sense understandings about motherhood, together with the alternative discourses on which readers might draw to construct meaning, subsequently informed the analyses of the research corpus.
Given the size of the corpus, only six of the texts were selected for close attention. The analyses of these texts were supplemented with less detailed analyses of the remainder of the corpus, focusing on the themes that emerged most powerfully from the first six analyses. While some attention was given to the linguistic features of the texts, the analytical process focused most closely on their narrative features and the ways in which particular narrative strategies work to limit the range of possible meanings that readers can construct by rendering some meanings more 'obvious' than others. Particular attention was given to the focalising strategies through which fictional narratives exert much of their power to persuade readers to adopt certain subject positions rather than others, and hence to construct meaning in certain ways, with consequences in terms of the production and reproduction of ideologies.
The analyses revealed that prevailing common-sense ideologies of motherhood are not significantly challenged by the ways in which motherhood is represented in the research corpus. While there are points in some of the narratives that might serve as platforms from which to construct alternative understandings about motherhood, particularly for those readers who are equipped with critical reading strategies, the narratives never actively and unequivocally encourage readers to challenge common-sense understandings. Rather, their major contribution to contemporary ideological struggles over the meaning of motherhood is directed towards ensuring continued widespread acceptance of the discursively constructed 'truths' that work to legitimate a social order in which the lives of girls and women are regulated on the basis of their categorisation as potential or actual mothers. The study concluded that the texts in the research corpus are actively engaged in undermining contemporary social struggles for social justice and equity.
The study's findings have a number of significant implications for theory development, policy, practice and future research, both within and beyond the field of education, and these are discussed in the final chapter. In particular, the findings are relevant to literacy education, where they highlight the need for educators to develop and implement critical literacy pedagogies that draw students' attention to the textual workings of ideology. The findings suggest that what students need, arguably more than they need 'good' literature, are meta-level reading skills and strategies with which they can resist being manipulated by texts, whether they are fictional narratives of the kind analysed for this study or the various other written, spoken and visual texts that are typically encountered in everyday social life.<br>Thesis (PhD Doctorate)<br>Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>School of Cognition, Language and Special Education<br>Full Text
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Barker, Elaine M. "Civilization in the wilderness : the homestead in the Australian colonial novel, 1830-1860 /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1989. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARM/09armb255.pdf.
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Paton, Elizabeth, and n/a. "Creativity and the Dynamic System of Australian Fiction Writing." University of Canberra. Communication, 2008. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20090825.125448.
Full textAbstract:
Given the growing interest in fiction writing in Australia, seen in the rise in the number of
festivals, writers' centres, how-to books, biographies and creative writing classes, it is
surprising that very little research has been done within Australia on the nature of literary
creativity itself. A review of international literature on creativity from areas such as the arts,
history, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, business and education shows movement
away from traditional and conventional ideas of creativity that focus primarily on the
individual, towards more contextual approaches that reconceptualise creativity as the result of
a dynamic system at work. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's tripartite model of creativity, which
includes a field of experts, a domain of knowledge and an individual author, has been
successfully applied to the arts and sciences in North America. It is argued that the systems
model is also relevant to Australian fiction writing, a term which is used here to include
novels in literature, popular fiction and genre fiction categories.
This thesis is primarily based on in-depth interviews with 40 published Australian fiction
writers. With over 400 publications between them, the individual writers interviewed
represent a broad cross section of Australian fiction categories at both the national and
international level. In addition to literary writers like Carmel Bird and Venero Armanno, this
sample also incorporates writers in other genres such as Di Morrissey and Nick Earls (popular
fiction), Paul Collins (science fiction and fantasy), Anna Jacobs (romance), Peter Doyle
(crime) and Libby Gleeson and Gary Crew (children's and young adult fiction). Although the
individual writers possess unique combinations of characteristics, biographies and processes,
their collective responses demonstrate common participation in systemic processes of
creativity.
By analysing these responses in terms of Csikszentmihalyi's systems model, this thesis
presents evidence that demonstrates a system of creativity at work in Australian fiction. The
analysis of the collected data provides evidence, firstly, of how writers adopt and master the
domain skills and knowledge needed to be able to write fiction through processes of
socialisation and enculturation. Secondly, it is also the contention of this thesis that the
individual's ability to contribute to the domain depends not only on traditional biological,
personality and motivational influences but also socially and culturally mediated work
practices and processes. Finally, it is asserted that the contribution of a field of experts is also
crucial to creativity occurring in Australian fiction writing. This social organisation,
comprised of all those who can affect the domain, is important not only for its influence on
and acceptance of written works but also for the continuation of the system itself. The
evidence shows that the field supports further writing as well as writing careers with many
authors becoming members of the field themselves.
In sum, the research demonstrates that, rather than being solely the property of individual
authors, creativity in Australian fiction writing results from individuals making choices and
acting within the boundaries of specific social and cultural contexts.
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Reid, Michelle. "National identity in contemporary Australian and Canadian science fiction." Thesis, University of Reading, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.413934.
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Wang, Labao. "Australian short fiction in the 1980s : continuity and change." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1999. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/27583.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis offers a critical survey and a comprehensive bibliography of the
Australian short story in the 1980s. Conceived partly as an continuation of Stephen
Torre’s study of Australian short fiction of the 1940-1980 period, it starts where
Torre’s thesis stopped, focusing on Australian short story writing published in the
ten years between 1981 and 1990. Torre has summed up the 1940-1980 period as
‘a time of development and innovation’ in the history of Australian short fiction. In
comparison, the 1980s is probably best described as a decade of unprecedented
expansion and diversification. During that time, Australian short fiction broke away
from its earlier domination by monolithic traditions and became a much more
eclectic and pluralistic form. Contributing to this eclecticism and plurality were five
different streams of story writing created by five separate groups of writers. Due to
constraints of space, the critical text of the thesis examines only four of them.
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Penazzi, Leonardo. "The fellow (novel) : and Australian historical fiction, debating the perceived past (dissertation) /." Connect to this title, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0070.
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Geddes, Robert John William. "The unsettled colony : contruction of aboriginality in late colonial South Australian popular historical fiction and memoir /." Title page, contents and conclusions only, 2000. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09arg295.pdf.
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Burns, Kathryn E. "This other Eden exploring a sense of place in twentieth-century reconstructions of Australian childhoods /." Connect to full text, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1691.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2007.<br>Title from title screen (viewed 25 March 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of English, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 2007; thesis submitted 2006. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.
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Serra, Pagès Conrad. "Men in David Malouf’s Fiction." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/668922.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this thesis is to assess David Malouf’s contribution to the field of gender and men studies in his fiction books.
In order to do so, I have proceeded by offering a close reading of each of his novels so as to emphasise those parts of the plot where gender and masculinities are more relevant, and from here engaging in a series of theoretical discourses as I saw convenient in the course of my analysis. We read his largely autobiographical novel Johnno in the tradition of the Bildungsroman. In this tradition, the main characters fulfil themselves when they meet the roles that society expects of them. Therefore, becoming a man or a woman means meeting these expectations. In Johnno, Malouf offers an alternative form of successful socialisation that redeems the main character, Dante as an artist but is also built on personal tragedy.
We use Judith Butler’s studies on the performativity of gender, Hélène Cixous and
Julia Kristeva’s ècriture feminine and their distinction between symbolic and semiotic language, Eve K. Sedgwick and René Girard’s studies on homosocial desire and triangulation, and Simone the Beauvoir and Pierre Bourdieu’s ethnographic research on women and Kabyle society, respectively, to read An Imaginary Life and Harland’s Half Acre. In An Imaginary Life, Malouf fictionalises the life of the poet Ovid in exile. In Rome, Ovid defies patriarchy and the Emperor writing a poetry that is uncivil and gay. In his exile in Tomis, Ovid decides to raise a feral Child against the advice of the women in the village, who end up using their power, based on folklore and superstition, to get rid of them. In Harland’s Half Acre, Malouf creates a male household where women are mostly absent, and a female one where the women are the main actors and men play a secondary role. When the main character of the novel, Frank Harland, finally recovers the family estate for his family’s only descendant, his nephew Gerald, the latter commits suicide. One of Malouf’s main concerns in his writings, the outcome of the novels privilege a spiritual sort of possession over one based on the
values of patriarchy, that is, bloodline succession by right of the first-born male child, hierarchical power relations and ownership: Ovid survives in his poems thanks to the human need for magic and superstition, and so does Frank in his art.
Michael S. Kimmel and R. W. Connell’s studies on men and masculinities, and historical research on Australian identity as it was forged during the colonial period and the World Wars help us read Fly Away Peter, The Great World, Remembering Babylon and The Conversations at Curlow Creek. In Australia, national identity and definitions of manhood are closely tied to frontier and war masculinities. In these novels, Malouf portrays the Australian legend: sceptical of authority, easy-going, egalitarian, larrikin, resourceful, etc. Unfortunately, the legend had a destructive effect on women and the feminine, and that is the reason why we recover from oblivion the important role that women played in the construction of Australia. Edward Said’s research in Culture and Imperialism, Homi Bhabha’s notions of hybridity and mimicry, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness provide us valuable tools to analyse class and ethnic issues when we ask ourselves what it means to be a man in Remembering Babylon.
Margaret M. Gullette’s studies on the representation of age bias in literature and Ashton Applewhite’s research against ageism provide the theoretical framework for Ransom, where Malouf tells the story of Priam’s ransom of his son Hector, urging us to wonder what kind of heroism is left to a man in his old age.
Finally, we offer a close reading of the outcome of the novels, where the agents of transformation are always male or involve male characters: Dante and Johnno, the eponymous hero of the novel; the Child in An Imaginary Life; Digger and Vic in The Great World; Gemmy in Remembering Babylon or Priam and Achilles in Ransom. In this way, we hope to better understand and more clearly render the world of men that Malouf portrays in his novels.<br>L’objectiu de la tesi és valorar la contribució de les obres de ficció de David Malouf als estudis de gènere i de masculinitats.
Per tal d’aconseguir-ho, hem dut a terme una lectura fidel de les seves novel·les tot emfasitzant aquells elements de la història on el gènere i les masculinitats són més rellevants, i a partir d’aquí hem emprat una sèrie de teories que consideràvem adients en la nostra anàlisi. Hem llegit la seva novel·la àmpliament autobiogràfica, Johnno en la tradició de la Bildungsroman. En aquesta tradició, els personatges principals es realitzen quan compleixen les expectatives que la societat espera d’ells. Així doncs, fer-se un home o una dona vol dir complir aquestes expectatives. A Johnno, Malouf ens dóna una forma alternativa de socialització exitosa que redimeix al personatge principal, Dante, però que també s’erigeix sobre una tragèdia personal.
Emprem la recerca de Judith Butler sobre la “performativitat” del gènere, l’ècriture feminine d’Hélène Cixous i Julia Kristeva i la distinció que fan entre llenguatge semiòtic i simbòlic, els estudis de Eve K. Sedgwick i René Girard sobre desig homosocial i el triangle amorós, i la recerca etnogràfica de Simone the Beauvoir i Pierre Bourdieu sobre la dona I la societat Kabyle, respectivament, en la nostra anàlisi d’An Imaginary Life i Harland’s Half Acre. A An Imaginary Life, Malouf narra la vida del poeta Ovidi a l’exili. A Roma, Ovidi desafia el patriarcat escrivint una poesia que és impertinent i divertida. Al seu exili a Tomis, Ovidi decideix criar un nen salvatge, contradient el consell de les dones del poble, que acaben utilitzant el seu poder, basat en les tradicions populars i la superstició, per lliurar-se’n. A Harland’s Half Acre, Malouf crea una llar principalment masculina on les dones hi són absents, i una de femenina on les dones porten les rendes de la casa i els homes hi tenen un paper secundari. Quan el personatge principal de la novel·la, Frank Harland, finalment recupera l’herència de la seva família i la vol entregar a l’únic descendent que queda de la família, el seu nebot Gerald, aquest es suïcida. Un dels temes més recurrents a les novel·les de David Malouf, el desenllaç de les novel·les privilegien una possessió de tipus espiritual per damunt d’una possessió basada en els valors del patriarcat, és a dir, la descendència basada en els fills legítims o de sang i els privilegis del fill primogènit, relacions jeràrquiques de poder i la propietat.
Emprem els estudis sobre homes i masculinitats de Michael S. Kimmel i R. W. Connell, la recerca històrica de la identitat Australiana tal com es va forjar durant el període colonial i les dues Guerres Mundials en la nostra anàlisi de Fly Away Peter, The Great World, Remembering Babylon i The Conversations at Curlow Creek. A Austràlia, la identitat nacional i les definicions de masculinitat estan estretament lligades a les masculinitats de fronteres i de guerra. En aquestes novel·les, Malouf representa la llegenda del típic Australià: escèptic de l’autoritat, relaxat, igualitari, malparlat, informal, amb recursos, etc. Malauradament, la llegenda va tenir un efecte molt destructiu en les dones i els valors femenins, i per això recuperem de l’oblit l’important paper que van jugar les dones en la construcció d’Austràlia. La recerca d’Edward Said a Culture and Imperialism, les nocions d’hibridització i mimetisme d’Homi Bhabha, i la novel·la Heart of Darkness, de Joseph Conrad, ens proporcionen eines valuoses per la nostra anàlisi de qüestions ètniques i de classe quan ens preguntem què vol dir ser home a Remembering Babylon.
Els estudis de Margaret M. Gullette sobre els prejudicis de la representació de l’edat a la literatura, i la recerca d’Ashton Applewhite contra els prejudicis de l’edat, ens proporcionen el marc teòric de la nostra lectura de Ransom, on Malouf explica la història de Priam, que rescata el cos del seu fill Hèctor de les mans d’Aquil·les, tot preguntant-nos quin tipus d’heroisme li queda a un home quan es fa vell.
Finalment, oferim una lectura atenta de la resolució de les novel·les, on els agents del
canvi són sempre masculins o impliquen personatges masculins. Per exemple, Dante i Johnno, l’heori epònim de la novel·la; el nen salvatge a An Imaginary Life; Digger i Vic a The Great World; Gemmy a Remembering Babylon o Priam i Achilles a Ransom. D’aquesta manera, esperem entendre millor i transmetre més clarament el món dels homes que Malouf ens representa a les seves novel·les.
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McGuire, Myles T. "Fruitful approaches: Queer Theory and Historical Materialism in contemporary Australian fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2022. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/230862/1/Myles_McGuire_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
"Fruitful approaches: Queer Theory and Historical Materialism in contemporary Australian fiction" investigates the application of Historical Materialist ontologies to gay-themed, contemporary Australian novels, examining these subjects through the lens of totality and reification.
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Flavell, Helen. "Writing-between : Australian and Canadian ficto-criticism /." Access via Murdoch University Digital Theses Project, 2005. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20051222.114143.
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Spencer, Beth University of Ballarat. "The Body as Fiction / Fiction as a Way of Thinking: On Writing A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents." University of Ballarat, 2006. http://archimedes.ballarat.edu.au:8080/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/12813.
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This thesis uses fiction as a research technology for investigating and thinking about issues to do with bodies and knowledge at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries. It includes sample material from a novel in progress -- A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents -- to illustrate some of the unique outcomes of this approach to exploring cultural history and writing cultural criticism. One of the advantages of fiction is that it allows me to create a discursive field in which it is possible for the very wide range of issues raised by my topic to coexist, work off each other and cross-fertilise. These include ideas regarding gender, sexuality, nurture and subjectivity; issues to do with the implants controversy, the cancer industry and the corporatisation of medicine (and hence various current debates within science and medicine); as well as movements in fashion history and popular culture -- all of which contribute to making up the datasphere in which and through which we continually reproduce ourselves as subjects. [...]<br>Doctor of Philosophy
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Spencer, Beth. "The Body as Fiction / Fiction as a Way of Thinking: On Writing A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents." Thesis, University of Ballarat, 2006. http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/62487.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis uses fiction as a research technology for investigating and thinking about issues to do with bodies and knowledge at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries. It includes sample material from a novel in progress -- A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents -- to illustrate some of the unique outcomes of this approach to exploring cultural history and writing cultural criticism. One of the advantages of fiction is that it allows me to create a discursive field in which it is possible for the very wide range of issues raised by my topic to coexist, work off each other and cross-fertilise. These include ideas regarding gender, sexuality, nurture and subjectivity; issues to do with the implants controversy, the cancer industry and the corporatisation of medicine (and hence various current debates within science and medicine); as well as movements in fashion history and popular culture -- all of which contribute to making up the datasphere in which and through which we continually reproduce ourselves as subjects. [...]<br>Doctor of Philosophy
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Spencer, Beth. "The Body as Fiction / Fiction as a Way of Thinking: On Writing A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents." University of Ballarat, 2006. http://archimedes.ballarat.edu.au:8080/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/15469.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis uses fiction as a research technology for investigating and thinking about issues to do with bodies and knowledge at the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries. It includes sample material from a novel in progress -- A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents -- to illustrate some of the unique outcomes of this approach to exploring cultural history and writing cultural criticism. One of the advantages of fiction is that it allows me to create a discursive field in which it is possible for the very wide range of issues raised by my topic to coexist, work off each other and cross-fertilise. These include ideas regarding gender, sexuality, nurture and subjectivity; issues to do with the implants controversy, the cancer industry and the corporatisation of medicine (and hence various current debates within science and medicine); as well as movements in fashion history and popular culture -- all of which contribute to making up the datasphere in which and through which we continually reproduce ourselves as subjects. [...]<br>Doctor of Philosophy
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Kemp, Joshua M. "Heartwood: Spiritual homebuilding and white-vanishing in Australian gothic fiction." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2022. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2549.
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This thesis represents the spiritual connection between a non-Aboriginal Australian and the Australian natural landscape through a creative work, Heartwood, and an exegesis, which engages with the white-vanishing trope in Australian Gothic fiction. It critically examines ways in which this trope has been used in Australian literature to, consciously or not, represent Aboriginal characters as Other, peripheral or absent, and sometimes appropriated their religious beliefs.
Heartwood (2021) is an Australian Gothic novel which features two white Australian characters and their spiritual connection to the landscape, in an attempt to articulate the white-vanishing trope but without othering or sidelining Aboriginal characters. The novel also attempts to explore a form of spiritual connection which does not impinge on or appropriate Aboriginal religious beliefs, a thematic concept rarely explored in Australian Gothic fiction.
This thesis utilised the Practice Based Research methodological approach in an attempt to gain new knowledge through the research and creative production of a novel, Heartwood. The subsequent exegesis explores how effective this creative work has been in seeking out this new knowledge. Since the emergence of Australian forms of Gothic fiction during colonisation, white Australian writers have explored the complex and fraught spiritual relationship between non-Aboriginal people and the landscape, often utilising corrosive narrative structures such as the lost-in-the-bush trope to do so. In these texts Aboriginal presence is sidelined or even completely ignored in favour of a primarily white Australian focus. When Aboriginal characters do appear, they have been depicted as demonic, ghostly or supernatural. Some academics believe because Aboriginal characters are depicted as inhuman, their connection to the landscape and sense of land ownership has been elided. Aboriginal religious beliefs have also been appropriated in these works to explore a non- Aboriginal sense of spirituality. Some of the most popular and critically acclaimed Australian novels of the twentieth century have been guilty of this, such as Voss by Patrick White and Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay.
This creative work, and the exegesis accompanying it, explore and ultimately seek to subvert the bias inherent in these traditions of Australian Gothic fiction. This is achieved by producing a story which refuses to appropriate Aboriginal religious and/or spiritual beliefs, as well as featuring Aboriginal characters who are not depicted as supernatural or ghostly. The novel also explores a spiritual connection between non-Aboriginal characters and the natural landscape of Western Australia’s Southern Forests region without impinging on the religious beliefs of Aboriginal people. The creative work re-emplaces Aboriginal presence into the text without appropriating an Aboriginal voice or point-of-view.
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Penazzi, Leonardo. "The fellow (novel) ; and Australian historical fiction, debating the perceived past (dissertation)." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0070.
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Novel The Fellow What is knowledge? Who should own it? Why is it used? Who can use it? Is knowledge power, or is it an illusion? These are some of the questions addressed in The Fellow. At the time of Australian federation, the year 1901, while a nation is being drawn into unity, one of its primary educational institutions is being drawn into disunity when an outsider challenges the secure world of The University of Melbourne. Arriving in Melbourne after spending much of his life travelling around Australia, an old Jack-of-all-trades bushman finds his way into the inner sanctum of The University of Melbourne. Not only a man of considerable and varied skill, he is also a man who is widely read and self-educated. However, he applies his knowledge in practical ways, based on what he has experienced in the
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Rolley, Anne-Maree. "Cast iron and making fiction : a novel and critical essay /." [St. Lucia, Qld.], 2004. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe19339.pdf.
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Skyes, Gillian E. "The new woman in the new world : fin-de-siècle writing and feminism in Australia." Phd thesis, Faculty of Arts, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/16473.
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Ham, Rosalie, and rosalieh@optusnet com au. "Representations of men and women of the bush in Australian fiction." RMIT University. Creative Media, 2007. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20080110.100527.
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At the heart of this exegesis is the city-bush gap and the rivalry and stereotypes that gap has generated. I acknowledge how and why our national identity evolved from the writing of the 1890s but I argue that most current artists, particularly novelists, have failed to incorporate the ongoing cultural, societal and industrial changes that have occurred since, particularly in the last thirty years. I assert that the majority of artists still refer to and draw inspiration from established, inaccurate myths and stereotypes rather than the bush and Australian characters of today. Through examining three texts, Kate Grenville's The Idea of Perfection (Picador, Sydney, 1999), Christos Tsiolkas's Loaded (Random House, Sydney, 1995) and Silences Long Gone (Picador, Sydney, 1998) by Anson Cameron, I also point out how most artists in general have failed to keep pace with changes in the bush city cross-culture. My exegesis attempts to give an account of some deficiencies in contemporary Australian literature. In the creative component of this project, Summer at Mount Hope (Duffy and Snellgrove, Sydney, 2005), I write, as did Anson Cameron in his book, Silences Long Gone, (Pan Macmillan, 1998) of a bush (in 1894) where city and bush rely on each other and technology pushes into the bush uniting city and bush, thus enhancing the economy, the cross cultural interdependence and advancing the commonality between the two. I replace stereotypical characters with less predictable characters whose traits sit easily in either bush or city culture and skew the Traditionalist role of bush and city.
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Kwast-Greff, Chantal. "Distorted bodies and suffering souls : women in Australian fiction, 1984-1994." Toulouse 2, 2001. http://www.theses.fr/2001TOU20031.
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Ma thèse étudie l'image de la femme dans la fiction contemporaine australienne écrite par des femmes, en se concentrant sur la distorsion des corps et la souffrance psychique. Les outils forgés par la psychanalyse et l'humanisme, et les théories féministes, me permettent de construire un sens de ces histoires d'anorexie, de boulimie, d'auto-mutiliation et de meurtre d'enfant, une mise en relation du corps et de l'âme. Ma thèse est que le corps déformé fonctionne comme un signe, à la fois réaction et langage, qui est interprété socialement comme folie. Les personnages féminins opprimés inscrivent leur souffrance psychique sur le canevas de leur corps. La stratégie mise en place pour “guérir” la femme considérée folle fonctionne davantage comme une stratégie pour la soumettre et la faire taire. Les écrivains-femmes que je considère constuisent le corps de leur texte comme palimpseste, de la même façon que le corps de la femme, mutilé, scarifié ou affamé est un palimpseste. Ces textes fonctionnent à la fois comme un discours de rébellion et d'acceptation du discours patriarcal en vigueur. Je propose de lire cette fiction comme une représentation d'un réel. La problématique centrale est alors celle du téléscopage de la fiction et du réel. L'identification-miroir des lecteurs transmuent ces narrations en “Bildungsroman”, le risque inhérent étant dans l'acceptation et le renforcement des stéréotypes sexistes et des comportements patriarcaux oppressifs. Je considère que le corps féminin dans les oeuvres considérées et dans le monde du réel reflété porte les marques et cicatrices de l'histoire des femmes, l'histoire de femmes qui se battent, l'histoire de femmes qui survivent. Et que les femmes qui se battent seront les femmes qui gagnent<br>This thesis is looking at female bodies and suffering in contemporary Australian fiction written by women. I am using the tools forged by psycho-analysis and humanism, and the feminist theories to work my way through the meanders of these narratives of anorexia, bulimia, and self-mutilation and baby-murder towards a deeper layer of meaning of body and soul, and offer an interpretation of this fiction in relation to the world of “real” women in contemporary white Australia. My thesis is that the body distorted functions as a sign, both reaction and language, which is interpreted as madness. The oppressed female characters inscribe the suffering of their souls on the canvass of their bodies. Ths strategies to cure “mad” women appear more as strategies to tame them than to heal them. The female writers I am looking at construct the body of their text as a palimpsest, in the same way as the body of the woman, mutilated, scarred or starved, is a palimpsest. These texts function as a discourse of defiance and acceptance of the discourses of patriarchy in force. The central issu is the conflation of fiction and reality. The mirror-identification of the reader transmutes these narratives into potential Bildungsromane. The risk lies then in the acceptance and re-inforcement of sexist / gender stereotypes. I argue that the female body bears the marks and scars of the history of women, the history of fighters and survivors. And that women who fight can become women who win
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Vlatkovic, Michelle. "Voice in Australian creative non-fiction: The project of my belonging." Thesis, Griffith University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/376833.
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The Notebook of Belonging engages with and contributes distinct values in relation to connection, belonging and narrative. Its ‘Voice’ situates an ontological approach originating from familial and cultural traditions. Multifaceted, it speaks to Western intellectual values, Aboriginality and the transformative nature of silence.
Primarily a practise-based creative nonfiction project, the Notebook of Belonging has an embedded exegetical commentary. The exegetical cannot be sliced away at either end without weakening the centre; the centre is not as strong without the exegetical. In this way, there are tensions and there are alignments in how book learnt interacts with oral story. The authority of book knowledge in relation to oral traditions is contested here.
The Notebook of Belonging presents knowledge imparted in oral story-telling whereby belonging and connection exist through a shared understanding of the interconnected nature of life and being. Oral story uses silence, repetition and reflection. The use of silence, repetition and reflection imparts knowledge in a non-linear and circular process. Replicating this non-linear, circular approach, the Notebook of Belonging is composed of a fragmented, discontinuous narrative, moving back and forth through time, recounting events in a non-linear order, where the multidimensional nature of time and story are always in dialogue, as they are in life.
The intention is to show a constellation of belonging both conceptual and tangible; situated between European and Kamilaroi understandings. The idea of creating a constellation using a discontinuous narrative is also informed by Walter Benjamin’s One-Way Street (2016). Benjamin showed how a fragmented text creates subliminal connections between textual passages, complimented by explicit themes, formal echoes and rhymes; all of these may be structured in such a way to convey a constellation of meaning to the reader (Benjamin, 2016, p. 7). Individual fragments work as philosophical miniatures rather than snap shots. Moments from life recounted in the Notebook of Belonging focus on connection not rupture, informed and in response to Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida (2010) which presents the concept of the studium and the punctum in relation to the photographic image. The studium is the public broad range of meaning associated with the image. The punctum, on the other hand, is the private association the viewer has with the image. It is conjured by the spectator’s own experience. It is unexpected and consequently remembered (Barthes, 2010, p. 26).
Other writers encountered in this research include: Nicholas Rothwell, Ngarta Jinny Bent et al, Kim Scott, Jeanette Winterson, and Helene Cixous. Their works investigate oral story as well as the power of narrative and literature.<br>Thesis (Masters)<br>Master of Arts Research (MARes)<br>School of Hum, Lang & Soc Sc<br>Arts, Education and Law<br>Full Text
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Bach, Lisa [Verfasser]. "Spatial Belonging: Approaching Aboriginal Australian Spaces in Contemporary Fiction / Lisa Bach." Gießen : Universitätsbibliothek, 2020. http://d-nb.info/121614284X/34.
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Byrski, Elizabeth. "Visible signs of ageing : representing older women in Australian popular fiction." Thesis, Curtin University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/251.
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At the start of a new millennium, after thirty years of writing journalism and non-fiction, I began my first novel. I had always wanted to write fiction but the need to earn a living had kept me working to short deadlines with the reassurance of a pay cheque. It was when I was in my mid-fifties and searching for intelligent popular fiction featuring women of my own age as the central characters, that I drew a blank. This started me thinking; popular fiction was packed with younger women, but older women as central characters were noticeably absent, they were absent too from the other products of popular culture. As a freelance writer my first thought was that I had found a gap in the market that I might fill, but as time passed the project became more complex and, to me, much more important. Almost ten years have passed and I have now written five novels about the lives of older women all of which are Australian bestsellers; some are now published in France, Germany, Canada and Britain. This exegesis accompanies the five novels which I submit for examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Supplication. The exegesis links the novels and places them in the context of representations of ageing women in popular feminist fiction. While copies of all the novels are provided only Gang of Four (2004) and Bad Behaviour (2009), are required reading.This thesis documents my own journey as a writer and a feminist and explains how I moved from non-fiction and journalism to the novel to explore the lives of older women in twenty-first century Australia. In the first chapter I discuss ageism and the double standard of ageing applied to women, their invisibility and negative stereotypical representations in popular culture, and I consider fictional representations of women in classical and contemporary fiction. Chapter 2 explores women‘s relationship with fiction as readers, and the development of the consciousness raising feminist fiction of the late sixties and seventies. It also explores the relationship between feminism and consumer culture and the impact of post-feminism on women‘s fiction and on older women. In Chapter 3 I examine how these understandings informed the writing of the novels and compare them with second wave feminist realist fiction of the seventies. I argue that my texts can be read as a form of the feminist consciousness raising novel for older women in the twenty-first century.Throughout this thesis I have used the terms that are most widely used in studies of ageing to define age groups: the adjectives "older" and "ageing" denote women between the approximate ages of 50 – 65, while "old" and "aged" describe women of 65 years and over. For ease of reading and to reduce repetition I use the term ―consciousness raising‖ to describe a process, and the abbreviation "CR" to describe consciousness raising novels.
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Davies, Jasmine Yvette. "The candidate : a novella and examination of Australian Gothic crime fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2010. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/37294/1/Jasmine_Davies_Thesis.pdf.
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Australia is a land without haunted castles or subterranean corridors, without ancient graveyards or decaying monasteries, a land whose climate is rarely gloomy. Yet, the literary landscape is splattered with shades of the Gothic genre. This Gothic heritage is especially evident within elements of nineteenth century Australian sensation fiction. Australian crime fiction in the twentieth century, in keeping with this lineage, repeatedly employs elements of the Gothic, adapting and appropriating these conventions for literary effect. I believe that a ‘mélange’ of historical Gothic crime traditions could produce an exciting new mode of Gothic crime writing in the Australian context. As such, I have written a contemporary literary experiment in a Gothic crime ‘hybrid’ style: this novella forms my creative practice. The accompanying exegesis is a critical study of a selection of Australian literary works that exhibit the characteristics of both Gothic and crime genres. Through an analysis of these creative works, this study argues that the interlacing of Gothic traditions with crime writing conventions has been a noteworthy practice in Australian fiction during both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and these literary tropes are interwoven in the writing of ‘The Candidate’, a Gothic crime novella.
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Kucharova, Sue. "The torch collector." Thesis, View thesis, 1999. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/30737.
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The Torch Collector is a Magical Realist novel set in Sydney. It is a story of non conformity, history, hope. The story moves between three recognisable but not clearly identifiable spheres. A past, a present and the non identified other, which could be called the unreal, magical, other-worldly or third-dimensional The genderless protagonist collects torches which enable him/her to transgress the boundaries between the spheres of existence. S/he moves freely across filling the gaps in her/his identity created by her/his cross-cultural background. The novel examines life on the fringe of contemporary Australian society. The Torch Collector's position appears to be voluntary, defined by his/her relationship to the torches. This vital relationship prevents the protagonist from fully engaging in conventional life. It is also a story of Sydney. A city which hides its cross-cultural spirituality underneath a highly urban and technological facade.
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Hughes, Carolyn Mary. "The paradoxical taboo : white female characters and interracial relationships in Australian fiction /." St. Lucia, Qld, 2004. http://www.library.uq.edu.au/pdfserve.php?image=thesisabs/absthe18008.pdf.
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Huggan, Graham. "Territorial disputes : maps and mapping strategies in contemporary Canadian and Australian fiction." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/29115.
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This dissertation represents an attempt to reflect and account for the diversity of maps and mapping strategies in contemporary Canadian and Australian fiction. Its methodology, outlined in the opening chapter, draws on a combination of geographical and literary theory, placing particular emphasis on semiotic and other post-structuralist procedures (reconstructing the map as model; deconstructing the map as structure). The map is first defined as a representational model, as an historical document, and as a geopolitical claim. Its status as model, document or claim brings into play a series of mapping strategies including appropriation, division and marginalization. Attention is paid to the ways in which feminist, regional and ethnic writers have questioned these definitions and resisted or adapted these strategies. Basic principles for a "literary cartography" are thus established deriving from conceptual definitions, social and political implications, and diverse fictional applications of the map.
"Grounds for comparison" are then established between English and French writing in Canada, and between the literatures of Canada and Australia, by outlining a brief history of maps and mapping strategies in those areas. Three significant precursors of the contemporary period of literary cartography are discussed: Patrick White, Margaret Atwood, and Hubert Aquin, leading to an overview of patterns and implications of cartographic imagery in contemporary Canadian and Australian fiction from 1975 to the present. The layout for this overview is fourfold: "Maps and Men" discusses the map as a constrictive or coercive device which reinforces the privileges of a patriarchal literary/cultural tradition; "Maps and Myths" examines the map as a mythic paradigm for the revision or transformation of "New World" history; "Maps and Dreams" exposes the map as an oneiric construct allied to the exercise, but also to the potential critique, of colonial authority, and "Maps and Mazes" outlines the map as a self-parodic analogue for the labyrinthine structure and diversionary tactics of the contemporary (post-colonial) literary text.
Generalizations inevitably made in this overview are offset by a more detailed analysis, from a comparative perspective, of a number of specific texts. Topics for discussion in this section include the deterritorialization of "cartographic space" in contemporary fictions by women in Canada and Australia, the de/reconstruction of "New World" history in Canadian and Australian historiographic metafiction, and the promulgation of alternative hypotheses of synthesis or hybridity in the spatially and culturally decentralized ("international "/"regional ") text. The dissertation concludes by considering the wider implications of these revisionist "cartographic" procedures for post-colonial literatures and for the future of post-colonial societies/cultures seeking to free themselves from the conceptual legacy of their colonial past.<br>Arts, Faculty of<br>English, Department of<br>Graduate
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Barry, Michael, and n/a. "The long fall : Australian speculative fiction for adolescents as 'literature of anxiety'." University of Canberra. Creative Communication & Culture Studies, 2001. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060607.165243.
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Ungari, Elena. "Australian national identity/ies in transition in the fiction of Patrick White." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683214.
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Thamm, Shane Peter. "My private pectus : the construction of masculinities in Australian young adult fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2008. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/17221/1/Shane_Thamm_Thesis.pdf.
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In recent decades, male protagonists in Australian realist fiction for young adult readers have increasingly become more others-regarding, emotionally intelligent, and self-aware. (John Stephens 2000; Perry Nodelman 2002). Psychologist Roger Horrocks (1995) claims these protagonists are less “tendentious and more realistic” than male protagonists of the past. These boys, despite not bearing the hallmarks of hegemonic masculinity, develop subjective agency and ultimately propose new ways for young men to construct their gender identity.
Using Phillip Gwynne’s (1998) Deadly Unna? and David Metzenthen’s (2000) Boys of Blood and Bone as case studies, and my own novel My Private Pectus as creative practice, I explore the construction and deconstruction of hegemonic, complicit, and alternative masculinities in Australian realist young adult fiction. I also analyse the construction of the New Age Boy—a label used by John Stephens for young male protagonists who develop positive self esteem because of their perceived gender differences compared to boys of the hegemonic masculine type.
By critiquing the manner in which masculinities are constructed in each case study, and supporting my critique through the literature of leading gender theorists, I question the seemingly homogenous manner in which the New Age Boy gains agency.
This question is further explored through my creative practice, as I put into dialogue a protagonist who also recognises his gender differences, but instead of proposing a new and better masculinity, he tries to adhere to and reap the rewards of hegemonic masculinity.
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Thamm, Shane Peter. "My private pectus : the construction of masculinities in Australian young adult fiction." Queensland University of Technology, 2008. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/17221/.
Full textAbstract:
In recent decades, male protagonists in Australian realist fiction for young adult readers have increasingly become more others-regarding, emotionally intelligent, and self-aware. (John Stephens 2000; Perry Nodelman 2002). Psychologist Roger Horrocks (1995) claims these protagonists are less “tendentious and more realistic” than male protagonists of the past. These boys, despite not bearing the hallmarks of hegemonic masculinity, develop subjective agency and ultimately propose new ways for young men to construct their gender identity.
Using Phillip Gwynne’s (1998) Deadly Unna? and David Metzenthen’s (2000) Boys of Blood and Bone as case studies, and my own novel My Private Pectus as creative practice, I explore the construction and deconstruction of hegemonic, complicit, and alternative masculinities in Australian realist young adult fiction. I also analyse the construction of the New Age Boy—a label used by John Stephens for young male protagonists who develop positive self esteem because of their perceived gender differences compared to boys of the hegemonic masculine type.
By critiquing the manner in which masculinities are constructed in each case study, and supporting my critique through the literature of leading gender theorists, I question the seemingly homogenous manner in which the New Age Boy gains agency.
This question is further explored through my creative practice, as I put into dialogue a protagonist who also recognises his gender differences, but instead of proposing a new and better masculinity, he tries to adhere to and reap the rewards of hegemonic masculinity.
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Burns, Kathryn E. "This Other Eden: Exploring a Sense of Place in Twentieth-Century Reconstructions of Australian Childhoods." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1691.
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This thesis explores the sense of place formed during childhood, as remembered by adult Australians who reconstruct their youth through various forms of life writing. While Australian writers do utilize traditional tropes of Western autobiography, such as the mythology of Eden and the Wordsworthian image of the child communing with Nature, these themes are frequently transformed to meet a uniquely Australian context. Isolation and distance from Europe, and the apparent indifference of our landscape towards white settlement, have received much critical attention in Australian studies generally and, indeed, broadly influence the formation of children’s sense of place across the continent. However, writers are also concerned with the role of place on a more local level. Through a comparison of writing from Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria, this thesis explores regional landscape preoccupations that create an awareness of local identity, variously contributing to or frustrating the child’s sense of belonging. Western Australian writing is dominated by images of isolation, the fragility of white settlement in a dry land lacking fresh water, and a pervasive beach culture. A strong sense of the littoral pervades writing from this region. Queensland’s frontier mythology is of a different flavour: warm and tropical, nature here is exuberant, constantly threatening to overwhelm culture, already perceived as transient due to the flimsy aspect of the “Queenslander” house. Writing from Victoria, to some extent, tends to more closely follow English models, juxtaposing country and city environments, although there is a distinctly local flavour to many representations of urban Melbourne and its flat, grid-like organization. As Australian society becomes more concentrated on the coastal fringe, the beach is an increasingly significant environment. Though more prominent in writing from some regions than others, coastal imagery broadly reflects the modern Australian’s sense of inhabiting a liminal zone with negotiable boundaries.
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Weeda-Zuidersma, Jeannette Weeda-Zuidersma Jeannette. "Keeping mum representations of motherhood in contemporary Australian literature : a fictocritical exploration /." Connect to this title online, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0054/.
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Voskuyl, Heather. "Plainsong or polyphony? : Australian award-winning novels of the 1990s for adolescent readers /." Electronic version, 2008. http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/dspace/handle/2100/923.
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Anderson, Anastasia. "Synathesia : a novel." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2001.
Find full textAbstract:
It is important, if we are to know each other, that you also know my alphabet, because from the moment I hear your name - and ever after - I will associate you with a colour. Do not be offended; without it I would have bugger all chance of remembering what your name is. And please do not assume the colour of your name is in some way a reflection of your character: it is nothing more than the outcome of a
struggle between the letters that make it up, of which the first will almost always win. Like, I have this friend, Colin, and his name is pink. And when I told him this he looked bemused and said, but he hated pink; what did this say about him? And I hid my irritation with a smile
and explained it said nothing about him, other than that his name was made up of a combination of letters that when placed in that order looked pink. I said if he was a Graeme, he would be black-blue with green; if he was a Graham, he would be black-blue with brown; but he
was a Colin, and so he was pink, and nothing short of a deed poll would change it. Of course not everyone reacts like Colin, stodgy old stick that he is. It would be easier if they did. Once, when I was in Europe, my alphabet
became so strong I could not write postcards. Every time I tried, the colours of the words would clash, and I could not go on. And my 1st boyfriend, who was with me, said I should go with the urge to make the colours match, that by doing so I would be saying what I really wanted to. He was always saying things like that, and most of the time I
ended up believing him. But not even the Ecstasy we were on could convince me he was right that time. It was all I could do not to say: for Christ's sake, the colours are arbitrary! Months later, when I was coming to terms with the end of our relationship, that incident seemed to sum up everything that was wrong with him and me. I almost passed my current lover up because of that. My alphabet was
the first thing he knew about me, and the envy with which he spoke of it annoyed me. Then on Valentine's Day he sent me a song, with the lyrics transcribed in my colours, and I began to understand why he wanted to see what I saw. For all the hours he put in, he could not capture how my alphabet looks to me, the endless variation triggered
by the arrangement of its letters into words. For the more I look at a word, the more colours I see. In the first instance, I see one. Within half a second, I see other colours come to life, each struggling for recognition. Within half a second more, I see the colours separate, each
letter standing on its own. But as long as they are a part of a word, some of them will always be screened: 30% for this one, 10% for that. Being a sometime copywriter, this makes sense to me. I like it to make sense. I like it to stand up to scrutiny, even when I cannot explain it. One day someone asked me: why don't all your
colours turn to brown? And I thought for a moment, for it had never occurred to me to look at it this way, but in the end all I could say was: when you look at a rainbow, do its colours all turn to brown? I cannot tell you why, but every letter, every word has a colour all its own, and every number too. Look, I'll show you: 0 is the colour of water; 1 is white; 2 is dark purply blue; 3 is orange; 4 is purple; 5 is pink; 6 is yellowy lime; 7 is orangey brown; 9 is dark blue; 10 is red and so on -after 10 they tend to be a combination of the numerals that make them 2 up. So why is 10 red, you ask, instead of white and the colour of water? Well, again I cannot say, except the word 'ten' is red, and sometimes the colour of a numeral and its spelling influence each other. You see, I might be unusual, but I am not immune to learned association.
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Bell, Pamela. "Art that never was : representations of the artist in twentieth-century Australian fiction." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7310.
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This thesis traces the development of the artist figure as a leading character in twentieth-century Australian novels. In Australia there have always been complex interconnections between the worlds of art and literature, perhaps the most obvious being the cluster of artists and writers centred on the journal Vision, co-edited by Norman Lindsay’s son Jack with Kenneth Slessor, who was heavily influenced by Lindsay. Slessor’s poem “Five Bells”, an elegy for his artist friend Joe Lynch, later became the subject of a mural painted for Sydney Opera House by John Olsen. Although this and other connections between poetry and art are of interest, this thesis concentrates on fiction only.
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Booth, Sharron. "Venturing into silences:The silence of water (novel) - and - Convicts, women and Western Australian stories (essay)." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2020. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2312.
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This thesis examines the harsh impact of convict transportation on Western Australian life and literary production with a novel, “The Silence of Water”, and an accompanying essay. The Swan River Colony (Western Australia) was established in 1829 with the express intention never to accept convicts; however, almost 10,000 men were transported there from Britain between 1850 and 1868. “The Silence of Water” depicts the life of one convict, Customs and Excise officer and former tailor Edwin Thomas Salt, who was convicted of the murder of his wife, Mary Ann, in Edinburgh in 1860. The case attracted attention in newspapers across Britain partly due to the “extreme provocation” Edwin was said to have suffered because of Mary Ann’s drinking. Edwin’s death sentence was commuted and he was transported to Western Australia in 1862. Edwin later received a conditional pardon that allowed him to live as a free man. In Western Australia he married twice, had more children and worked sporadically as a tailor. He died in Fremantle in 1910. A literate man with no prior convictions, sometimes a drunk and a bully, Edwin Salt differs from the convicts usually depicted in Western Australian fiction. Through the characters of Edwin Salt, his Australian daughter and granddaughter, “The Silence of Water” explores themes of exile, incarceration, family dislocation, secrets and intergenerational silences.
The accompanying essay claims complex convict characters are largely missing from Western Australia’s literature and suggests how “The Silence of Water” claims a place for convicts and the women associated with them in Western Australia’s founding colonial narrative. It also discusses key research frameworks, methods and literary strategies. Chapter one examines how the convict figure functions across a range of novels from 1880 to 2015 and finds that Western Australia’s convict figure differs markedly from that seen in novels from other Australian states. Chapter two examines two research methods used to write the novel: engagement with the archives and engagement with place. It demonstrates how exploration of Edwin Thomas Salt broadened to focus on the women associated with him, driven by a feminist theoretical framework. Chapter three discusses some literary strategies selected for “The Silence of Water” and their rationale, drawing on the work of contemporary Western Australian fiction writers. Overall, the thesis illuminates an under-explored area of Western Australian cultural production and contributes new knowledge about Western Australia’s convict era, the consequences of which are still visible today.
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Hawryluk, Lynda J., University of Western Sydney, of Arts Education and Social Sciences College, and of Communication Design and Media School. "Call waiting." THESIS_CAESS_CDM_Hawryluk_L.xml, 2001. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/6.
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This thesis examines the life and career of Bret Easton Ellis, and the influences of his work on the author's development as a writer. Part one encapsulates a novel written specifically for this thesis. 'Call waiting' is a harsh look at modern friendships, the role of work in these relationships and the proliferation of shallow communication through the advent of email. A critical reflection follows, examining the process that led to the novel's creation. Three specific areas are focussed on: the direct influence of Ellis' novel 'The rules of attraction' on the overall themes of 'Call waiting', the realisation of the project and the various editing changes and narrative developments that arose during the writing of the novel, and an examination of the inspiration behind the novel's creation. Part two considers Ellis' role in the literary world of the 1980s, his own complicity in the creation of a career as a celebrity author, and the carefully manufactured persona Ellis presents to the world. In Part three the thesis is concluded with a close analysis of the publication of Ellis' controversial novel 'American psycho'. This chapter explores the negative publicity the novel attracted and the possible causes of the ensuing backlash against the author.<br>Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Kucharova, Sue. "The torch collector /." View thesis, 1999. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030905.143557/index.html.
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Brooklyn, Bridget. "Something old, something new : divorce and divorce law in South Australia, 1859-1918." Title page, contents and summary only, 1988. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phb872.pdf.
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Wanning, Sun, and n/a. "The literature of fact : a study of the representations of Chinese society in some Australian fiction and non-fiction writings." University of Canberra. Communication, 1991. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20061109.174027.
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The present study argues for a generic approach to the
study of the representation of Chinese society in a selection of
Australian fiction and non-fiction writings, based on the
assumption that how China is represented is as important as
what is represented. The three works that will be used to
represent travel literature, journalism and the novel are: The
East Is Red by Maslyn Williams, Real Life China by Richard
Thwaites, and the Avenue of Eternal Peace by Nicholas Jose,
all of which have been written by contemporary Australian
writers. The study re-examines the obligations and meanings
inherent in each of these genres, and discusses .these writers'
individual ways of experimenting with the genres in which
they write in order to cope with the complexity, ambiguity,
and the fictionally of reality. These works are analysed in
detail within two frameworks: the writers' relationships to
their writings, and the relationship between the text and the
external world, leading to the realization of the increasingly
important role writers' consciousness plays in reshaping and
fictionalizing their personal experience, as well as the
recognition of the increasingly important role fictionalization
plays in the representation of Chinese society in both fiction
and non-fiction writings.
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Jarvey, Ali Marie. "On the corner of north and nowhere. A novel ‐ and ‐ Going back to go forward: An invitation to get lost. A critical essay." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2016. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1931.
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This thesis comprises a young adult (YA) novel called On the Corner of North and Nowhere and an exegesis entitled ‘Going Back to Go Forward: An Invitation to Get Lost’.
On the Corner of North and Nowhere follows 18‐year‐old Nev Isles, who lives and works at Cleary’s, her grandmother’s art retreat in the Perth Hills. She dwells happily in an old cottage by herself, until her mother decides that she wants to move there too. Rather than live with her again, Nev runs away with her friend, Cole, set for the WA roads she travelled as a child and the mining town of Newman, where her father lives. The trip forces Nev to relive the slow fracturing of her relationship with her mother. Newman offers little reward. Her father has a girlfriend and wants to move from the town. As Nev grows homesick, she gravitates towards Cole. He encourages her to follow her instincts home, even though he cannot stay long himself: after they return to Perth, he has to leave for America to deal with his own family issues.
Nev and Cole’s journey back to the city is set against some of the most beautiful and isolated stretches of WA road. They find that they would rather stay lost in these landscapes, than return to chaos. It is only after a brief stay at a beach camp on the corner of north and nowhere, that they decide it is time to return home to face their troubles and inevitable separation.
While On the Corner of North and Nowhere is not autobiographical, it originates from my childhood, adolescent and adult experiences with WA places. ‘Going Back to Go Forward: An Invitation to Get Lost’ critically examines the composition of my manuscript, with distinct reference to these origins. It is written in two chapters, which are connected by the work and praxis of selected creative arts practitioners, whose experiences with place and literature in their youths also compel them to write as adults.
Chapter one investigates the prevalence of Edenic landscapes in WA literature, focusing on authors, such as Dorothy Hewett and Tim Winton, who aim to reconstruct lost paradise from their youth, in their fiction and nonfiction. Cleary’s, by comparison, is constructed as an unconventional Eden that subverts the trope, thus supporting Nev’s eventual return to paradise and her maturation. Finally, chapter two investigates the influence of Betsy Hearne and Roberta Trites’ narrative compass model, which encourages female scholars to reflect on a resonant story from their youth, towards an understanding of how it impacts their research. Recognising the narrative patterns in my compass was fundamental to the development of On the Corner of North and Nowhere, as it enabled me to craft second and subsequent drafts of the manuscript, with attention to rites of passage in Australian YA literature.
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Van, Langenberg Carolyn. "With tender contempt /." View thesis, 2000. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20051122.103129/index.html.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 2000.<br>"A thesis submitted to fulfil the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Western Sydney, Nepean" Bibliography : leaves 327-348.
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Perrin, Steve. "The plughole of time." Thesis, View thesis, 2003. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/30107.
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This thesis is comprised of a survey of all the varying influences behind the author's art making. All pre-occupations are included, the concepts of childhood memory; the use of imagination; the ability to comprehend and put together an old fashioned story in varying forms; as well as considering the notion of blurring historical and actual fact with personal elements of fantastical fiction. These themes have all been threaded delicately through the motif of time-travel, the author's personal favourite of literary genres. The main aim has been to make an attempt to re-create the feelings of childhood.Whilst embracing whimsy, the absurd and the time travel genre, this project hopefully shows a struggle and is an allegorical comment on the author as an artist, who having lost a little of his faith in the world and his abilities, becomes seduced by a new focus.
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Hawryluk, Lynda J. "Call waiting." Thesis, View thesis View thesis, 2001. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/6.
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This thesis examines the life and career of Bret Easton Ellis, and the influences of his work on the author's development as a writer. Part one encapsulates a novel written specifically for this thesis. 'Call waiting' is a harsh look at modern friendships, the role of work in these relationships and the proliferation of shallow communication through the advent of email. A critical reflection follows, examining the process that led to the novel's creation. Three specific areas are focussed on: the direct influence of Ellis' novel 'The rules of attraction' on the overall themes of 'Call waiting', the realisation of the project and the various editing changes and narrative developments that arose during the writing of the novel, and an examination of the inspiration behind the novel's creation. Part two considers Ellis' role in the literary world of the 1980s, his own complicity in the creation of a career as a celebrity author, and the carefully manufactured persona Ellis presents to the world. In Part three the thesis is concluded with a close analysis of the publication of Ellis' controversial novel 'American psycho'. This chapter explores the negative publicity the novel attracted and the possible causes of the ensuing backlash against the author.
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Ritchie, Nicol James Samuel. "‘Passion Du Sens’ for an Australian Novella-Bildungsroman: an Australian fiction writer’s purpose-driven exploration of the novella-Bildungsroman form." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/15493.
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This thesis consists of a novella and an accompanying exegesis. The exegesis is a critical reflection on the process of creative writing and research that resulted in The Deaths (the novella-Bildungsroman here included). The fiction-writing process also hinged on the periodic specialist-reader feedback of my supervisor, which was brought to bear at various major draft stages. The practical impact of this feedback is also reflected in the exegesis. The exegesis is by no means offered as exhaustive, or prescriptive; it is not a manifesto on how to write a novella-Bildungsroman (or, more specifically a novella-Künstlerroman/artist’s-novel). Rather, taken with the fictional product, this praxis-oriented writing may indirectly, or, in principle, inform a literary creative writing process through the cycles of planning, composition, revision, research and re-development. Read in conjunction with the novella, the exegesis may provide apprentice novellaists with a working definition of a particular contemporary Australian novella-Bildungsroman: one that is flexible, genre-focused, research-driven and evidence-based. It is hoped that writers will find useful the practical insights into the dominant structural forces and modalities that shaped The Deaths as a hybrid genre (novella-Bildungsroman), and those less central, sub-generic, elements which also pertain to The Deaths. Similarly, the literary-critical principles engaged with to address the challenges of realising this novella-Bildungsroman may be useful for contemporary Australian creative writers of ‘literary’ fiction.
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Thistleton-Martin, Judith. "Black face white story : the construction of Aboriginal childhood by non-Aboriginal writers in Australian children's fiction 1841-1998 /." View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20031024.100333/index.html.
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