Jonathan Rayner Jonathan Rayner i(A67175 works by)
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 Sun-lit Noir : Australian Thrillers Jonathan Rayner , 2021 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Genre Film 2021;
1 The Swizzle Stick : Peter Weir and Hollywood Genres Jonathan Rayner , 2014 single work interview
— Appears in: Peter Weir : Interviews 2014; (p. 148-160)
1 Meditative Tangents : Fred Schepisi's 'The Eye of the Storm' (2011) Jonathan Rayner , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , no. 4 2012; 'This essay examines Fred Schepisi’s 2011 film adaptation of Patrick White’s novel The Eye of the Storm. The process of bringing White’s novel to the screen is complicated by White’s own allusive response to Shakespeare’s King Lear, which erects parallels to Lear’s tragedy within its narrative of the members of a wealthy, emotionally scarred Australian family reuniting at the death of its over- bearing matriarch. In translating the work of the first Australian Nobel Prize-winning author to the screen, Schepisi and his collaborators engage with two over-arching and competing cultural canons: the national importance, fame and famous difficulty of White’s prose work, and the status and significance of Shakespeare’s texts and their adaptations. At times both play and film strive to articulate their meanings via references and similarities to Lear, and to varying degrees exhibit deference towards or disregard for their Shakespearean inheritance within an Australian context. The film of The Eye of the Storm therefore constitutes a test-case for the difficulties and opportunities presented by literary adaptation from complex and culturally elevated sources, but it also exhibits, like the novel, a subversive urge to transplant and translate an English icon to an antipodean setting. It engages with two texts, one nested within the other, and in adapting, editing and extrapolating from them produces a third at once faithful, disrespectful, divergent and nationally specific, which popularises White and naturalises Shakespeare.' (Author's abstract)
1 Untitled Jonathan Rayner , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , 24 August vol. 5 no. 2 2011; (p. 203-207)
— Review of Celluloid Anzacs: The Great War Through Australian Cinema Daniel Reynaud , 2007 single work criticism
1 Gothic Definitions : The New Australian "Cinema of Horrors" Jonathan Rayner , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 25 no. 1 2011; (p. 91-97) This paper examines ‘ the pervasive presence of horror materials, in both thematic and stylistic terms, within the Australian feature film industry from its re-establishment at the end of the 1960s to the present.’ (p. 91)
1 Untitled Jonathan Rayner , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 55 2010;
— Review of Diasporas of Australian Cinema 2009 anthology criticism
1 Adapting Australian Film : Ray Lawrence from Bliss to Jindabyne Jonathan Rayner , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 3 no. 3 2009; (p. 295-308) 'This article offers a reconsideration of the films and career of Ray Lawrence, a critically acclaimed Australian director whose most recent film Jindabyne was a national and international successes in 2006. Although to date his output consists of just three feature films completed since 1985, Lawrence's work can be seen to embody, unite and typify several disparate ideals, debates and tendencies present within Australian film-making over the past twenty years.' (Author's abstract)
1 Live and Dangerous? The Screen Life of Steve Irwin Jonathan Rayner , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 1 no. 1 2007; (p. 107-117)

'This article examines the star status and screen persona of the late Steve Irwin. Through reference to his appearances in television series, but principally in relation to his performance in his only feature film (Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, 2002) it offers an analysis of the nature and construction of his star image, its integration within other incarnations of Australian cultural identity, and its significance in national terms. This star persona is compared with other character types and embodiments of national identity propagated by the Australian cinema. On the basis of this analysis, the significance, pervasiveness and popularity of the Irwin image as a national icon, consumed by an international audience, is considered within its global media context.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.
1 Conflict and Conspiracy : Public and Personal Memory in Australian Film Jonathan Rayner , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Post Script , Winter-Summer vol. 24 no. 2-3 2005; (p. 82-93)
1 When/Where/Why/How Can I Teach Australian Film? Reflections on the Integration of Australian Film in British University Degrees Jonathan Rayner , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , Winter vol. 19 no. 2 2004; (p. 43-66) 'This paper offers a series of reflections on the curricular, institutional and disciplinary implications of teaching the study of Australian cinema within British higher education. ...'
1 Western Australia: Australian Western - Moral Landscapes in Australian Film Jonathan Rayner , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , Summer vol. 15 no. 1 2000; (p. 27-40)
X