Research Areas
The Department's areas of research strength may be grouped under the rubric Literature and Cultural History. When categorised more specifically, research areas are either particular to the Department, interdisciplinary, or an aspect of a Humanities-wide area:
It is usual for this research to be published in international journals, in monographs, and in co-authored volumes. There is a strong tradition of graduate publication in the discipline.
Australian Society and Culture
This is an emerging area of research in the English Department and is at the forefront of new developments, bringing greater depth and recognition to research in Australian culture emerging from the Division. Broadly defined, current research in the field of Australian literature ranges across investigations of contemporary theatre, especially indigenous theatre, interest in women's writing and the Australian 'grafting' of international feminist theory, the limits of a national literature, and institutional and material histories of literature in Australia. A current Australian Research Council Discovery Grant funds a new history of Australian literary censorship and the first bibliography of books banned in Australia. Research in the field also extends into other research strengths, including research on Australian children's texts and feminism, and postcolonial, transnational and diasporic literatures whose frames continue to reframe Australian culture. Publication in the field extends significantly to creative and literary productions, which contribute directly to contemporary Australian literature, as well as research publication in international and national journals, monographs, book chapters, and as databases.
Staff whose research falls principally within this area: Dr Nicole Moore; Dr Marcelle Freiman; Dr Jane Messer
Early modern literature and culture
This established area of research in the Department focuses on early modern English literature and culture (including study of their medieval antecedents) focuses on the history of ideas, on gender and genre, on poetics and poetic language, and on the interaction between cultures of publication and the marketplace. While particular attention has been given to the canons of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Donne, and Thomas More, and to study of the romance, much has also been given to texts by writers hitherto marginalised because of their gender or religion. The Australian Research Council (ARC) currently funds a Discovery Project in this research area which will culminate in a major new study of the concept of luxury as understood in the early modern period.
Staff whose research falls within this area: Professor Tony Cousins; Dr Marea Mitchell; Associate Professor Peter Goodall; Dr Antonina Harbus; Dr Alison Scott
Youth Cultures
Within this broad area, the Department focuses on children's literature (infant to young adult), family film and film animation. Topics of particular interest, which are reflected in numerous publications by staff and graduate students as books, journal articles, or contributions to collections, include: ideology; subjectivity; Australian children's literature and culture; visual media. A current research project, in collaboration with Deakin University and QUT, and funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, explores the impact on children's literature of global shifts in politics and culture since the end of the Cold War. Further research emerging from this project will involve concepts of the posthuman and ecocriticism.
Staff whose research falls within this area: Professor John Stephens; Dr Robyn McCallum; Dr Mio Bryce (Department of Asian Languages)
Global/Postcolonial/Feminist Studies.
Research within the Department focuses on the political and social impacts of literary theories, particularly in relation to class, race, and gender. Work that is firmly grounded in historical context also analyses ways to think about the world now that 'grand narratives' are seen as inadequate. Working with arguments within recent debates about multiculturalism, globalism, postcolonialism, marxism and feminism, staff and higher degree research students aim to integrate literary analysis into broader debates on cultural change and its implications.
Staff whose research falls within this area: Dr Marea Mitchell; Dr Nicole Moore; Dr Paul Sheehan
Visual cultures
Research conducted in the Department in the area of visual culture focuses on the history of optical illusion, screen practice and the relationship between textual and visual media. In the area of nineteenth century literature and culture, there has been a particular focus on Victorian photography and literary nostalgia, optical illusion and popular visual spectacles, dreams and illusion. Supported by the Australian Research Council, this research has been published in monographs, articles, and disseminated more broadly at international and national conferences. Research in the fields of both modernism and children's literature also has a strong visual emphasis with articles published on the relationship between literature and cinema, post-modern and post-human themes in science fiction and fantasy films, as well as the politics and aesthetics of book illustration in children's literature both within Australia and in cultures such as China, Japan, Korea and Indonesia.
Staff whose research falls within this area: Dr Helen Groth; Dr Paul Sheehan; Professor John Stephens; Dr Robyn McCallum
Creative Writing
This is an emerging area of research in the department. It contributes to the developing academic discipline of Creative Writing nationally and internationally through published articles that theorise creative writing as both practice and pedagogy and through creative writing publications. This research brings together literary theory and writing practice and includes a special interest in the place of creative writing in academia, as research in the field of Creative Arts, and in the social impact of creative writing in the public domain. Since 2001 the area has developed a record of creative writing publications of short fiction, creative non-fiction, children's fiction, drama and poetry by staff, graduate and postgraduate students. Future directions include furthering existing relationships between our research and creative industry partners such as the Sydney Writers Festival.
Staff whose research falls principally within this area: Dr Marcelle Freiman; Dr Jane Messer