Antonia Alexis Antonia Alexis i(8259677 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 More Than an Amanuensis : Ernestine Hill’s Contribution to The Passing of the Aborigines Eleanor Hogan , Antonia Alexis , Hugh Craig , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 3 no. 18 2018;

'The precise nature of the authorship of Daisy Bates’ controversial bestseller, The Passing of the Aborigines, has been contested since its publication in 1938. Bates was, by then, experiencing health limitations that would have prevented her from producing a coherent, major literary work without significant physical, emotional, financial and editorial support. Ernestine Hill, who provided much of the book’s editorial heavy lifting and writing, later claimed she should have been recognised as co-author, which Bates refuted. The conflicting perceptions and accounts of this authorial collaboration leave some tantalising threads to tease out. To what extent, if any, did Bates contribute to the writing process? Did Hill make as substantial a contribution to the writing and crafting of the book as she claimed?

'To investigate these issues, the authors turned to computational stylistics techniques to develop profiles for the authorial signatures of Daisy Bates and Ernestine Hill, in an attempt to assess their respective contributions in compositing and crafting The Passing of the Aborigines. The study showed that Hill, as Bates’ ghostwriter, created a new hybrid text type that blended her own more formal, professional journalistic style and Bates’ personal, anecdotal one. As far as we know this is the first time a computational stylistics analysis has attempted to assess the extent to which a ghostwriter’s own stylistic habits — reflected in the relative frequency of their usage of preferred sets of function words — are transferred to the text in question.'  (Publication abstract)

1 Who Wrote 'a Visit to the Western Goldfields'? : Using Computers to Analyse Language in Historical Research Peter Crabb , Antonia Alexis , Hugh Craig , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: History Australia , December vol. 11 no. 3 2014; (p. 177-193)
'Determining the authorship of unattributed writings can be a major issue for scholars. As this article demonstrates, computational stylistics provides a valuable methodology in helping to answer the question, 'Who wrote it?' Gold occupied much space in the newspapers of colonial Australia in the 1850s-70s. It kept many reporters very busy. Few, however, are known by name. An exception is Charles de Boos, a prolific reporter for the Melbourne Argus and especially the Sydney Morning Herald. Whilst it is possible to identify much of his work, questions arise over the authorship of other columns, such as the series 'A Visit to the Western Goldfields'. Stylistic analysis has confirmed that this series is not the work of de Boos, but that of another writer who remains anonymous. No methodology answers every question, but this example illustrates the potential of computational stylistics to be an important aid in many areas of historical research.' (Publication abstract)
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