Cirrus@Austlit

'Working in the archives of living writers provides exciting possibilities for extended interpersonal research as well as ethical challenges. This article explores the author’s experience of working in Helen Garner’s restricted archives and negotiating the demands of scholarly objectivity with an increasingly felt empathic engagement. The author traces a chronological path through the archives relating to Garner’s three substantial works of non-fiction: The First Stone (1995), Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2004) and This House of Grief (2014). She draws attention to some of the ways in which distance and objectivity can be influenced not only by contact with a living writer but also by the space in which the archive is encountered. With a deliberate focus on the lived experience of researching, rather than a scholarly examination of archival theory, the author offers a case study of how the interaction of archives and living subject can shape research and publication.'  (Publication abstract)

'In this article, I begin by sketching a brief biography of the Greer Archive when it was in the possession of its keeper and creator, explain how the University of Melbourne acquired the archive and describe how staff at UMA processed the collection once the 476 archival boxes arrived in Melbourne in 2014. The rest of the essay will focus on the Print Journalism series, one of the 20 series of about 25 planned series that have been listed to date. The series, which comprises 1268 items housed in 24 boxes, contains records relating to Greer’s writing for newspapers and magazines between 1959 and 2010. The Print Journalism series is analysed for evidence of Greer’s ability as a journalist and her ability as a recordkeeper. I conclude the paper by arguing that Greer’s methodical recordkeeping of her print journalism legacy is an implicit argument for the value of this writing. Without Greer’s archival labour, these non-anthologised, non-digitised, often small pieces of writing would be forgotten and the enormity of her print journalism output and its importance to both the archive and the work (and life) of the author would be lost.'  (Publication abstract)

'In the 1990s Germaine Greer began recording her audio diaries. At the same time the author was attempting to find a suitable buyer for her archive. While the intention of the audio diaries was to record Greer’s past doings, she was also revealing a more private domestic side of her everyday life. The Germaine Greer Archive sits at the intersection of history and invention and tells the many stories of Germaine Greer, herself stating, ‘The archive will put matters right for posterity… supposing posterity should be interested’.'  (Publication abstract)

'The Germaine Greer Archive was created by Greer in the 1970s to document her career and provide-counter evidence against false claims about her work and personal life. Later attempts to address gaps in the archive in relation to her television career were hampered by the poor record keeping of production companies and film and television archives. The archive documents both an attempt to create a complete record and the deliberate creation of a counter-narrative through arrangement and juxtaposition of records.'  (Publication abstract)

'This paper reflects on the place of books in archival collections and outlines the methodology used to incorporate Germaine Greer’s publications and personal library in the Greer Archive. Identification and inclusion of metadata documenting context, significance to the creator and relationships to other records in the Archive, demonstrate the value that can be added to bibliographic records.'  (Publication abstract)

'With this paper, I first of all acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the traditional owners of the land in Australia. I go on to mention early radical actions by lesbians and womyn, including setting up the Queen Victoria Women’s Hospital in 1896, and how lesbians and feminists in Victoria joined the worldwide Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) to fight for womyn’s rights from 1969 onwards. The paper explains why there was a need to set up a WLM Archives in the first place, the herstory of the Victorian Women’s Liberation and Lesbian Feminist Archives (VWLLFA) and the reasons for maintaining and adding to the collection into the new millennium.

'The Victorian Women’s Liberation and Lesbian Feminist Archives Inc was established in 1983 with the objective of collecting any and all of the material relating to the WLM in Victoria from 1969 onwards; to store, archive and preserve this material for posterity and make it accessible for research and other purposes.

'Now housed at the University of Melbourne Archives, the VWLLFA is a unique record of the enormous amount of political work lesbians and feminists in Victoria have done over the past 50 years.' (Publication abstract)