Cirrus@Austlit

'The 2017 Marriage Law Postal Survey marked a historic moment for the gay community in Australia, as it resulted in same-sex unions being recognised under law. For novelists, this historic change served as the impetus to re-evaluate the position of gay men as queer subjectivity became more articulable through the market and was no longer excluded from the social mainstream or, in Marxist terminology, totality. This presents a challenge: how do writers dispense with outdated taxonomies of oppression, while still identifying the unique ways in which those who exist along axes of sexual difference continue to be exploited and oppressed? This article examines The Pillars (2019) by Peter Polites and The Adversary (2020) by Ronnie Scott to identify ways in which this nascent dimension of gay life is being depicted in fiction, arguing that gay fiction in Australia can meaningfully represent, and critique, its relation to capitalism. ' (Publication abstract)

'The synergies between creative writing instruction and stylistic analysis have been noted for more than a decade in the Stylistics literature – see for example Michael Burke (2010: 7; 2013), Jeremy Scott (2013a; 2013b: 99), et al – but there remain very few case studies of the implementation of such an approach. The undergraduate unit KWB211: Stylistics, taught at the Queensland University of Technology, takes a Stylistics approach to the teaching of creative writing to an undergraduate cohort, and furthermore uses the Freirean notion of problem posing as a methodological and philosophical basis for its pedagogic approach. This paper presents a case study of the content and approaches of KWB211: Stylistics. It argues that the natural synergies between the field of Stylistics and the field of Creative Writing can inform the teaching of literary technique to a cohort of undergraduate writers, and that Stylistics can be made to be a practitioner-facing example of literary theory especially when using a problem posing approach to instruction.'  (Publication abstract)

'Meet Mark Heron ... twenty-something, burned out and recently washed up at the West End house they call Heartbreak Lodge. Meet his new neighbours ... Steve, who won a local art prize and hasn't been able to finish a painting since; Agenes who looks like Malibu Barbie but dresses like a 40s schoolmarm; Dave, optimist, idealist, connoisseur of 'Star Wars' memorabilia and hard core porn; Sarah, compassionate mystic with a checkered past; Speedy a try-sexual Vietnam vet; Trix, rave chick diva and professional nutcracker; Errol ex-Olympic fencer, sliding into old age and dementia. Mark's life becomes interwoven with his fellow tenants, their stories overlaying to form pieces of a whole,. As events unfold that threaten to turn their world upside down, Mark finds he must either go under ... or learn to knit water. This novel deals with urban loneliness. It does not shy away from the difficult questions, the philosophies of life, or from its secrets. It is intelligent, insightful and above all movingly honest. The judges were impressed by Craig Bolland's deft characterisations, his perceptiveness and the gentle humour with which he reveals aspects of the human condition.' (Publication summary)