Cultural Memory | |
Leader |
Dr Louise D’Arcens Department of English, University of Wollongong louised@uow.edu.au
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Previous Leader |
Professor Stephanie Trigg (2005-2006) |
Scope | This theme groups together a series of related research programmes into early European culture. It focuses particularly on the persistence of this culture into the present as the major component of Australia's cultural memory. Given the current national interest in questions of identity, history and ownership of the past, it is of great contemporary relevance that the deeper historical roots of these questions are explored. Recent and innovative work on modern nationalisms based on myths about medieval ethnicities and origins has provoked enormous interest in a European context. There is room in a specifically Australian context to develop these interests further, building on existing work in such specific areas as the development of national identity in early modern France and the relationship between memory and identity in England. One specific area of considerable recent research interest has been popular religion, including saints' cults, witchcraft, millenarian ideas and their repercussions. Specific approaches have focused on notaries and inquisitional records; analyses of heretical texts; historiography; rhetoric; fictional representations (e.g. Catherine Jinks, The Inquisitor and The Notary); and the representation of witches in art. This area also includes studies of medieval conversion. A major component of this theme is research into the Australian reception of early European culture. This encompasses such topics as the cultural significance of early European manuscripts and artworks in Australian collections, royal ritual and its survival in monarchical and parliamentary traditions, the early European basis for Australian ideas about universities and education, and the deployment of early European imagery and narrative in contemporary Australian fiction (Catherine Jinks, Sophie Masson, Sara Douglass, Isobelle Carmody). The study and performance of early European music in contemporary Australia are also of major interest. |
Activities |
November 2-3, 2006: dual Theme Symposium with European/Australasian Connections, "Cultural Translations: Remaking the Early European Past in Australasia", State Library of Victoria, Convenors Peter Holbrook (University of Queensland) and Stephanie Trigg (University of Melbourne). Report from postgraduate attendee, Karen Hall. May 20-21, 2005: Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar (State Library of Victoria and University of Melbourne). Speakers: James Simpson, Valerie Krips, Wallace Kirsop. Programme. Report. Photographs: 1, 2, 3, 4. |
Location: http://www.neer.arts.uwa.edu.au/page/1710
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