Humanities and Social Sciences

Literature Film and Art

Staff Directory

Teaching Responsibilities

• Literature, Film & Art (LFA)
• Sociology, Politics & Culture (SPC)

My particular specialisations are in contemporary women's literature, Australian culture, literature and film, feminist literary and film criticism, post-structuralist theories of representation.

Research Interests

My PhD, which was completed in 1990, was entitled 'Contemporary departures from realism: placing Australia' (copies housed in Heywood Library, Borchard Library, National Library Canberra). Much of this text has now been published in the form of articles. (see publications). Since then my research has continued to follow developments in Australian writing, but with a greater focus on women's writing. I have also become increasingly preoccupied with contemporary popular films, in particular those of New Zealand-Australian director Jane Campion. A University funded project on Australian women film-makers in 1995 led to the presentation and publication of several papers on Jane Campion's films and the development of a new teaching unit

Current Projects

• A book with Associate. Professor Dorothy Jones of Wollongong University. The working title is 'Female Subjects: Form, Desire and Place in Contemporary Women's Texts', The book is primarily focused around Australian women's novels, but also includes discussions of selected films as well as novels by other postcolonial women writers from Canada, New Zealand and India.
• An oral history project (with Dr Charles Fahey), entitled 'Identity and Place: a Cultural History of Regional Victoria, 1945-70'. Myself and research assistant Bronwyn Silver are currently conducting interviews with people who were either active in the cinema industry or keen attenders during this period. (We're still looking for interviewees so if you know of anyone, or if you yourself are interested, please contact me!).
• Images of Bendigo (project leader, Robbie Robertson). This is largely a photographic project which is both documentary and creative in its scope. My particular contribution is an analysis of Bendigo's 'goldfield' imagery, particularly its monuments to miners.
• Founding (and continuing) Editor of Beyond the Divide: An Interdisciplinary Arts Journal. The latest issue is subtitled 'Inventing the Signs' and includes articles by Harry Oldmeadow & Penny Collet from the Bendigo Faculty. Contributions for the next issue are being sought - the emphasis will be on 'The Republic and democracy'.

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Publications - Book Chapters

• 1998 'Carrying the Song: Jane Campion's The Piano' in Amanda Nettlebeck and Heather Kerr (eds), The Space Between: Australian Women Writing Fictocriticism, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, pp. 146-159.
• 1996 'Elizabeth Jolley's Writerly Selves', Gerry Turcotte (ed), Masks, Tapestries, Journeys: Essays in Honour of Dorothy Jones. Critacs, University of Wollongong, pp. 73-86
• 1992 Oscar and Lucinda: Shattering History's Self Reflection, in Fuery P (ed), Representation, Discourse and Desire: Contemporary Australian Culture and Critical Theory. Longman.
• 1991. 'Breaking the Realist Mirror - with a (female) difference', in Walker B and Bird D (eds), Elizabeth Jolley- New Critical Essays. Angus & Robertson.

Publications - Articles in refereed journals and books

• 1998 'Beyond National Imaginings: Adventuring in the Motherland in Sue Woolfe's Leaning Towards Infinity', Westerly, vol 43, no 1, Autumn., pp. 93-103.
• 1997 'Body Politics in Kiss of the Spiderwoman and The Crying Game,' Beyond the Divide, vol 1, no 2, pp.62-80.
• 1995 'Lips and Fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano,' Screen, vol 36, no 3, Summer.
• 'Gerald Murnane's The Plains: "A Convenient Source of Metaphors"' Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, pp. 25-40.
• 1994 'Camel Dream' and 'Metamorphosis' in Not Patting the Dog: An Anthology of Illawarra Woman's Graphics and Writing, Womangong Press, Wollongong, pp. 39-41.
• 'Away from the Gaze, Into the maze: Marian Campbell's Not Being Miriam,' Southerly, vol 54, no 2, June, pp. 47-57.
• 'Tactics in Evasion: Mark Henshaw's Out of the Line of Fire,' Southern Review, vol 27, no 2, June.
• 1992 'The Incestuous Father in The Well: An Hysterical Narrative', Journal of Australian Lesbian Feminist Studies, vol 1, no 2.
• 'Beyond Representation: Desire, Imagination and Creativity in Elizabeth Jolley's The Well', Westerly, 3.
• 'Gothic for Girls', Scarp: New Art and Writing, no 21, October, pp.23-24.
• 1991 'At the Beginning: Ania Walwicz's Writing', Southerly, vol 51, no 2.
• 'The Search for Father Time: Memory and the Uncertainity Principle in Janette Turner Hospital's Charades', New Literature Review, no 21.
• 1990 'Loving and Hating the Inland Reader: Postmodernist Ploy or Romantic Reaction?' in A Sense of Audience: Essays in Post-Colonial Literature: Span, no 30.
• 1988 'Inland with Gerald Murnane: An Interview', Meridian, vol 7, no 2, October.
• 'Gerald Murnane's Inland', Antithesis, vol 2, no 1.

Publications - Articles in non-refereed journals and books

• 1997 'The Woman Writer's Canvas', Work on Paper, Spring, pp.6-8.
• 1991 'Peter Carey. Oscar and Lucinda: Historical Fiction/ Fictional History', New Literatures Research Centre Occasional Papers Series, 1.
• 1990 'The State of Research in Australian Literature, 1989', Notes and Furphies, no 24: April.

Seminar and Conference Papers

• 1998 'More than Meets the Eye: The Mediation of Affects in Jane Campion's Sweetie', Cinema and the Senses Conference, UNSW Sydney, December.
• 'Memorial in the Flesh: Experiencing Maternal Disembodiment', Bodies: Cross-Cultural Perspectives Conference, Edith Cowan University, Perth, December.
• 1997 'Beyond National Imaginings: Adventures in the Motherland in Sue Woolfe's Leaning Towards Infinity', ASAL Conference, University of New England, Armidale, September.
• 1996 'Identity and Identification: Jane Campion's An Angel at My Table', Screen Conference, Glasgow, June.
• 1995 'Situating Australian Literature - Intersections with the Multidisciplines' (Panel Speaker), ASAL Conference, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, July.
• 'Partial Viewing: A Feminist Reading of Jane Campion's Sweetie', Sociology Seminar Series, Lancaster University, Lancaster, November/ Screen Seminar Series, School of Film and Television, Glasgow University, Glasgow, December.
• 1994 'Lips and Fingers: Jane Campion's The Piano,' Social Science Seminar Series, July, 1994./ Intellectuals and Communities: Cultural Studies Conference University of Technology, Sydney, 4-6 December, 1994./ Culture/Sex/Economies Conference, Melbourne University, 16-18 December,1994.
• 1993 'Narrative Uses of the Transvestite in Recent Cinema,' Social Science Seminar Series, May 1993. .
• 'Body Politics in Kiss of the Spiderwoman and The Crying Game,' Bring a Plate: Feminist Cultural Studies Conference, December 11-13, Melbourne University.
• 1992 'Lurking in the Shadows: the Hidden Figure of Incest in Contemporary Fiction', paper to ASAL Mini-Conference, February.
• 1991 'The Politics of Postmodernism' ASAL Writing Now Conference, Sydney, February.
• 'The Incestuous Father in The Well: An Hysterical Narrative', NLRC Seminar, Wollongong University, September.
• 1990 'Ania Walwicz: Reading and Writing and Boating', English Department Seminar Series, La Trobe University, December.
• 'The Search for Father Time: Memory and the Uncertainity Principle in Janette Turner Hospital's Charades,' New Literatures Research Centre Seminar Series, Wollongong, May.
• 'Dear Reader: The Lonely Thesis and the popular Press', ASAL Conference, Griffith University, June.
• 1989 'A New Look at an Old Question: Life and Art in Elizabeth Jolley's Fiction', ASAL Conference, Monash University, July.
• 'Postmodernist Re-presentations of the past: (Fictional) Perspectives on History', English Department Seminar Series, La Trobe University, August.
• 'Stammering into the foreign, Into Existence: Ania Walwicz's Writing', Postcolonial Literatures Conference, Macquarie University, October.
• Peter Carey Re-presenting History: Glass Churches, White Lies', Victorian Postgraduate Conference, Melbourne, November.
• 1988 'Perspectives on Gerald Murnane's Fiction', La Trobe University Seminar, June.
• 'A Jolley Parody', ASAL Conference, Sydney, July.
• 1987 'If On A Winter's Night a Traveller and its literary echoes, Tristram Shandy and Don Quixote'. La Trobe English Department Postgraduate Seminar Series, May.
• 'The Landman: a parody of Gerald Murnane's The Plains', ASAL Conference, Launceston, July.
• 'Gerald Murnane: Exploring the Unbounded Plains', Victorian Postgraduate English Conference, La Trobe University, October.

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