Cirrus@Austlit

'What constitutes Irish-Australian literature – if such a category exists – is by no means clear. This essay seeks to map the field and identify which Australian writers might be included. It does so while questioning how such a taxonomy could be constructed and how research on this under-explored area might proceed. Not only is the potential field large and amorphous, but it also presents formidable issues of ‘identity politics’. Because such study is performed in an era when identities are understood to be unstable and discontinuous, the article argues for an inclusive approach, noting that what constitutes ‘Irishness’ is internally contested. It asks questions about how émigré writers and their descendants and those who draw on the political and historical matter of Ireland have transformed such legacies. It also considers how those few writers who made the reverse journey engage with Irish literature and culture. The article speculates that such a study may potentially reconfigure understanding of the Australian literary tradition and the process of naturalising ‘the nation’, or at least complicate that narrative.'

Source: Abstract.

'The AustLit database (Kilner, 2002) contains bibliographical records for more than 882,000 works of Australian creative and critical writing and over 161,000 author and organization records. As an information resource, it is unsurpassed in comprehensiveness and breadth of coverage and is a central plank in Australia’s research infrastructure for the fields of cultural history and heritage. As a full-text repository, AustLit contains over a thousand items selected and digitized from original documents. These comprise seminal works of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Australian literature, a collection of early speculative fiction, a large corpus of early children’s literature, and selected criticism and scholarly works. Much of the creative writing full text is out of copyright, and we are soon to embark upon a digitization project to make available play-scripts written and performed in the first half of the twentieth century. In addition to this aspect of our activities, AustLit’s comprehensive bibliographical records link outwards to more than 80,000 full-text items that are available online. This selection, curation, and development of full-text collections make AustLit a valuable site for finding contextualized reading material and content that supports historical research and teaching.' (Introduction)

'Since its launch in 2007 BlackWords has enjoyed strong Indigenous leadership and a dedicated Indigenous team, allowing Indigenous storytellers, academics and researchers to determine its look, content, and scope. The BlackWords team of researchers and indexers is a community consisting of individuals from across institutions such as the University of Queensland, the University of Western Australia, Flinders University, the University of Sydney, the University of Wollongong and AIATSIS, each of whom has brought their own expertise and specialist interest to the database (BlackWords; Holt; Kilner 62). ' (Author's introduction)