(Editorial Introduction)
'This article examines Inez Baranay's novel Neem Dreams (2003), which offers a scathing critique of the biopiracy of traditional knowledge about plants. Drawing on the eminent Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva's philosophical insights into the question of biopiracy, the article analyzes how Baranay has foregrounded the issue of the commercialization of plants and their scientific properties. The article also explores how globalization, in the name of development, has promoted "secular recolonization" and the dominance of transnational capitalism, adversely affecting the economy and societies of the developing world. Critically analyzing Baranay's novel and her eco-feminist/fictional resistance to the issue of biopiracy, the article considers the implications of biopiracy and its misappropriation of traditional knowledge apropos the neem tree.'
'While much of the secondary literature suggests that comparison between Alexis Wright and authors like Patrick White is inherently reductive, I propose that comparison can yield important insights. That is, the methods used to consider Alexis Wright in the context of Australian settler authors have been reductive, but the act of comparison itself is not. Using the inclusion of Alexis Wright's Carpentaria (2006) and Patrick White's Voss (1957) on the French agrégation curriculum as the basis for comparison, I proceed to consider the shared cultural motifs, environments, and divisions that this dual inclusion might indicate. Focusing on the desert environment in each novel, I outline three major areas of confluence and difference: ecological diversity, cultural significance, and biblical and Hebraic visions. By analyzing the common significance of the desert in Carpentaria and Voss, crucial differences are revealed. The lenses on each desert differ, as do their purposes, suggesting two distinct—though connected—Australian traditions of belonging in and writing the land.' (Publication abstract)
'This article focuses on the English translation of No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison. I investigate the Boochani-Tofighian collaboration and argue that Omid Tofighian is not only a translator but also a collaborator in the English version of Boochani's text. I consider Tofighian's contribution an integral and indispensable part of No Friend but the Mountains and the Manus Prison Theory. In this article, I explore the collaborative aspects of the translation and the translation challenges through a focus on the frame narrative, which consists of both the "Translator's Note" and the supplementary essay that has the final "Translator's Reflections." I read this paratext in light of the other scholarly work of Tofighian. My article shows that Tofighian's intervention is the result of (1) untranslatability and (2) his responsibility as he transmits the message of an incarcerated Kurdish refugee to the Australian public.' (Publication abstract)
'This article explores the concept of the transcendent relational through the analysis of the encounter between the two main characters of Tim Winton's The Shepherd's Hut. The transcendent relational names a new understanding of transcendence characteristic of transmodernity, the sociocultural paradigm that has succeeded postmodernity. It draws on the synergies between caring individualism and immanent transcendence, both distinctive features of transmodern times (Rodríguez Magda). The study of Winton's novel proves that relationality of a higher order is needed for the experience of the dimension of reality that goes beyond the strictly human and the material. It is also symptomatic of a growing interest in transcendence that does not rule out institutionalized religion but, most characteristically, implies an intimate search outside creeds and dogmas.' (Publication abstract)
'With an analysis of Tracy Sorensen's The Lucky Galah (2018), I ask how we can respect and acknowledge Aboriginal ownership and sovereignty without appropriation, exoticization, or trivialization. I suggest that Sorensen does this in her novel by imagining the unknowable voice of an animal. The novel uses the viewpoint of a galah and the story of an Aboriginal woman who adopts her. Using Gerald Vizenor's idea of survivance, I discuss how animal voices offer a way to "walk with" other people and species through the devices of speculative fiction, continuing my work with science fiction that imagines ways of exchanging an acknowledgment of mutual personhood without perfect understanding of either one by the other, employing what I call the amborg gaze.' (Publication abstract)
