Source title
The GuardianLanguage
EnglishResearch statement
Strongly written cultural criticism placing Australian literary output in its contemporary context can be a crucial riposte to the 'unremitting ideological war on knowledge, inquiry and, significantly, cultural memory' (Croggon 2016) waged by institutions and governments. In this portfolio, the researcher uses criticism to highlight the way that literature can be an intervention in broader national and international conversations.
Following Lukács on textual practice, the researcher asks: How can literary criticism advocate for and evaluate literary production, including film and theatre, while also intervening in contemporary conceptions of social and political life, and the environment?
Significance The works in this portfolio appear in nationally or internationally distributed publications. The Guardian Australia is a highly regarded, free online news outlet source connected to the global Guardian brand. As such, their commissioned reviews, profiles and features of Australian books, television and culture are read around the world and represent an important point of intersection between local and global cultural production. The Lifted Brow was a world renowned Australian Literary journal that ran from 2007-2020. This portfolio contains a representative sample of the researcher's regular column of cultural criticism which ran from 2012-2018 alongside contributions from Margaret Atwood, Jennifer Down, and Roxanne Gay.
. In 'The Australian Book' the researcher reads Kenneth Cooke's Wake in Fright through a postcolonial lens and explores why the novel is still relevant to our national imaginary.Publication classification
M Media articlePublisher
Guardian News & MediaPlace of publication
Sydney, N.S.W.
