Cirrus@Austlit

'This work responds to the theme of writing from the fringes by exploring the author’s experience of being doubly-diasporic across STEM and HASS scholarship, and by relating this situation to what Bruno Latour considers “being modern” and to what Michel Foucault describes as the modern paradox. This article does three things. Firstly, this work presents a piece of scholarly writing in an academic style that rereads and rewrites C. P. Snow’s Rede Lecture on science and humanities disciplines, which Snow infamously called “the two cultures”. Secondly, this article presents a piece of creative writing in the form of autobiographical metafiction, which also rereads and rewrites C. P. Snow’s 1959 Rede Lecture, but this time, by telling the author’s own story of double- diaspora or of two natures, two cultures. And finally this article considers how its academic and creative works open onto one another to repose the question of being modern (as in poststructuralism and STS) with a view to telling the author’s story and critique of being modern in such a way that these can be heard by STEM and HASS. Some implications of this work for metafiction and for creative writing as a mode of academic inquiry are discussed.' 

(Introduction)

'This essay includes collated contributions from practising writers, participants in a Creative Writing|Neuroimaging Exploratory Study, Ideasthetic Imagining – Mapping the Brain’s Microstates Using Magnetoencephalography (MEG), conducted at Swinburne University (2023, Melbourne, Australia). The study investigates neural activity in participants’ brains while undertaking a creative writing workshop. Participants write imaginatively from short and long-term memory. The research team utilises MEG neuroimaging technology to determine where and how the brain is processing information at distinct stages of the workshop. The creative writing workshop at the heart of the study involves imaginative approaches to life writing, transforming unresolved memories through creative practice. As participants engage in the workshop, the research team measures activity in target regions of the brain. The researchers then analyse the interaction between distinct regions of the brain at various stages. The following essay gathers the voices of the experimental group (practising writers), asking them to reflect upon their experience of writing a long-term memory, as they experienced it at the time and, subsequently, from a perspective other than their own. In this exercise, particular regions of the brain are activated (to a far greater extent) in the experimental group (practising writers) as opposed to the control group (non- writers).' (Publication abstract)

'This is a work of indigenous knowledge. It involves creating an experience into Country and culture. This experience is specifically linked to Gundabooka corroboree place, the Baarka river, to Bourke, and to the voices coming through 2CUZ-FM outback radio. The research aim is to see how Country speaks and what it says, which includes what it says through the cultural productions of Barkindji and other people in town. We are using a mass-media setting and technology – radio, and now print – to discuss and send out messages about Barkindjiness, Country, history and modernity. It’s about using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s preconceptions. By bringing poets Jen Crawford and Paul Magee into the discussion and space, we are investigating communication between Barkindji Country and Barkindji people with white society. The discussion was broadcast live.' (Introduction)

'This article emerged from a collaborative presentation at the 2023 AAWP conference in Canberra, “We Need to Talk …”, where we combined poetry and prose in a presentation titled “We need to talk about how poetry offers restitution of women’s historical voices”. Connections were forged between our research areas – Carson’s poetic biography of George Sand, Costi’s Cypriot women embroiderers, and Williams’ US pioneering women. We wove our voices around these different women’s stories, finding commonality and difference, and experimented with stitching together their three distinct poetic voices and research areas. Although this involved three disparate countries (France, Cyprus and USA) and disparate foci (novelist, embroiderers and pioneering women), there were common threads such as social activism. A female diplomat emerged as a fitting voice to carry this experiment; she would be posted to different countries long enough for cultural immersion, and for engagement in particular poetic projects. We named her Aka, after the first letter of our first names, as well as a pseudonym capturing the meaning of “also known as”, referring to how women working at the fringes often use aliases.' 

(Introduction)

'Does heterogeneity matter in creative expression? If so, what impact do creators and disability have on the development of emotive art? Art, of any medium, has the ability to transcend barriers, and therefore it was decided to establish a method to test the skills of gathered creative individuals, to look “beyond convention and prejudice” (Kanari & Souliotou, 2023, p. 294). This paper focuses on collaborative inquiry with members from the Critical Creative Reading and Writing Collective (CCRWC) who have produced and authored the work contained in this paper. Heterogeneity in creativity is significant when investigating the connection between the art, the artist, and the audience. Through methods of applying limitations to our creativity, we produced new pieces of art which demonstrated how limitations can alter the self-perspective of our own creative skills, which was made available through creative inquiry. The outcomes were shared, and positive feedback was sought regarding the differences between the pieces, as interpretation by others can provide new insights for future creativity. Our paper creates a narrative for heterogeneity in the creative space and the importance of continued inquiry when focusing on disabilities.' (Publication abstract)

'The Australian Gothic is rooted in loss, alienation and angst, concerned with boundaries, transgression and the horror of the “unseen, or the half-seen – the repressed matter that threatens to return” (Doolan, 2019). As a genre which turns on “the perceived hostility of the natural environment, the violence of colonisation … and fears of the racial Other” (Doolan, 2019), it is also embedded in complex ideas about the uncanny, the haunting of borderlines and margins; liminal spaces in which conceptions of belonging, dispossession, and the body interact in uneasy ways; and abjection. While there is significant scholarship on the Australian (colonial) Gothic in relation to cinema and fiction, its connection to poetry is relatively neglected. In this paper we consider the broader implications of prose poems by Samuel Wagan Watson, Thomas Shapcott, Ania Walwicz and Meredith Wattison, as well as prose poems of our own, focusing on how the Australian Gothic may be understood as a form of neo-Gothic, and how the Australian neo-Gothic prose poem possesses an uncanny ability to subvert traditional colonial notions. In doing so, we argue that the Australian neo-Gothic prose poem, partly due to its hybrid form, is well suited to recognising that tragic colonial histories are simultaneously past and present in a postcolonial world – a form of haunting in which violent encounters may not be safely relegated to the past or contained within static visions of time and place.' (Publication abstract)

'The relationship between a writer and the more-than-human influences the writing of eco-narratives. Many middle-grade eco-fiction novels take an egocentric view, positioning humans at the narrative centre while relegating the more-than-human as either a backdrop or a cornucopia at humanity’s disposal. This paper explores how a sense of place fosters an ecocentric perspective by integrating empathetic mimesis and emotional qualia into the narrative fabric. The choice of middle-grade literature is deliberate, as this developmental stage is pivotal for shaping children’s evolving sense of self and their relationship with the world. Field research conducted in the critically endangered Mabi Forest in North Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands employed an iterative approach of research-led and practice-led research to enrich understanding of the region and forge a connection with place. Through immersive activities including photography, hiking and community engagement with a local revegetation group, this paper elucidates how such experiences inform a writer’s sense of place, subsequently shaping the portrayal of interconnectedness between the human and more-than-human within their written works. Writers that form an emotional connection with the more- than-human imbue the narrative with themes that encourage readers to adopt a more ethical stance and instil a sense of responsibility towards the care and preservation of our shared environment.' (Publication abstract)

'The popular Americanism, “no harm, no foul”, was first used in basketball when the play in question caused no physical harm. Today, the expression is used to suggest that, if no one has been harmed by a misdeed, the “foul” should be excused. Kate Clanchy’s controversial memoir, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me (2019), caused considerable psychological harm to readers – and significant reputational damage to both author and publisher. The critical discussion that ensued divided readers, with critics drawing attention to the ableist, classist, racist, and sexist undertones of the work, while Clanchy’s most vocal supporters argued that her critics were “abusive trolls” (Rajesh, 2021, para. 4) who condemned the book without reading it. Thus, this paper scrutinises the public commentary that surrounded the controversy to demonstrate that there was, indeed, “some harm, some foul”. The paper then assesses the value of harm- preventative measures available to practising Australian editors who work with problematic content in creative nonfiction texts. The paper concludes by offering an evidence-based probability of harm model for editing problematic content, with the overarching goal of minimising potential harm, and promoting safe and responsible editing practice.' 

(Publication abstract)

'Can storytelling be(come) post-human? If so, how? This article shares creative insights from a collaborative inquiry at the intersection of queer, neurodivergent, and ecological writing. Writing from the fringes of our various disciplines and levels of precarity within the academy, we came together as a collective of researchers who share an interest in creative methods and an orientation towards storytelling as “a political and heuristic tool” involving “human and nonhuman” processes (Wiame, 2018). We made use of new materialist and posthuman perspectives as we grappled with an empathy that neither anthropomorphises nor objectifies the nonhuman Other, and seeks to portray the agency of a world that does not centre on the human, or not only the human. We sought to rewrite the human as marginal. This work, informed by theories of writing and artmaking as ways of knowing, engaged in poetic inquiry and co/autoethnography. Responding individually to shared creative prompts, we explored possibilities of writing as nonhuman entities. We then compared our writings, observing rhizomatic connections and branchings-out to explore the challenges and possibilities of post- human storytelling. Our article describes these insights and signals unfolding directions for ongoing inquiry and the challenges of storying from the margins of the human.' (Publication abstract)