Location
Mildura riverfront public spaceStart date
2018-11-17End date
2018-11-17Language
engNotes
A literary river walk constituted of seven situated readingsResearch statement
‘Reading/Writing the Mallee’ posits that participatory creative practices can expand existing literary knowledge and access insights that might be otherwise unavailable to scholars of literary history. It’s particular focus on regional literary history seeks to explore the significance of local reading – that is, reading about a region, situated in that region – to the making of literary knowledge. It also posits that literary knowledge, accessed in this way, has the potential to inform broader literary cultural and institutional practices. The central research questions driving the project are: • How can participatory creative practices generate new literary knowledge? • How might this new literary knowledge inform the planning, design and implementation of regional literary practices, institutions and programming? Our project is innovative in the field of literary studies scholarship for its inclusion of participatory creative methodologies at the heart of its process. While scholarship is established on the critical significance of reading practices, and the diversity of such practices in both private and public contexts (ie book groups and mass reading events), this project is unique by deploying this critical evaluation of reading (and placing emphasis on the reader rather than the writer or the critic, as the producer of meaning) as a primary method of eliciting literary knowledge that then informs critical scholarly practice. Our creative practices are, by nature, public, involving a range of stakeholders from institutions (public libraries and community centres), government (Mildura Rural City Council), and multiple local readers and writers, over a suite of place-based community events around the Mallee.Publication classification
J2 Minor original creative workEditor/Contributor(s)
Magner BRecognition, awards & prizes
$2000 Mildura Rural City Council Arts GrantPublisher
Mildura Rural City CouncilPlace of publication
Mildura, Vic.
