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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Ken Gelder introduces the concept of proximate reading as: ‘a way of thinking about reading practices broadly speaking, but in particular, a way of conceptualizing reading and literary writing in contemporary transnational frameworks. Proximate reading opens up a number of aspects of reading and literary practice that are to do with the way readers negotiate place, position and what can be called literary sociality (that is, relations between readers, texts and the meanings that bind these relations together), where these things are understood and evaluated in terms of degrees of closeness and/or distance, that is, proximity.' (1)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
‘. . . An Asian Dummy with an Aussie Voice’ : Ventriloquism and Authenticity in Nam Le’s The Boat and Tim Winton’s The Turning
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 3 2014;'This paper presents a number of key similarities between Nam Le’s story ‘Halflead Bay’ in The Boat and Tim Winton’s 2004 collection of short stories The Turning. Indeed the scale and type of these similarities indicates more than a subconscious attempt at creating what could be considered a quintessentially regional Australian voice. There seems to be mimicry, counterfeit or the call of the lyrebird at play in this story. Picking up Ken Gelder’s ideas of citation and ventriloquism from his 2010 discussion of proximate reading, alongside Connor's discussion of ventriloquism in Dumdstruck, this paper considers the implications of Le’s attempts to ‘out-Winton’ Winton in ‘Halflead Bay.’ Of particular relevance here is Le’s own exploration of ventriloquism and accents in his Wheeler Centre presentation ‘Voices from Elsewhere’, as well the attention he pays to accents, location and problematic authenticity in The Boat’s opening story.' (Publication abstract)
-
‘Dramas of Encounter and Recognition’ : Gender and the Limits of ACARA’s Aspirations for the Teaching of Literature in Schools
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 231-245) 'In some respects, the aims of the National Curriculum Board's Shape of the Australian Curriculum : English (May 2009) could not have been more utopian: to 'help individuals participate in society', to enable 'young people to improve their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of their communities and their nation', and so on. By the time we get to ACARA's The Australian Curriculum: English (2010), these values are explicitly tied to personal modes of self-governance and self-restraint (where students 'recognise and regulate their emotions', 'develop personal and social competence as they learn to manage themselves', etc.) and to the more explicit task of 'nation-building', although the links between the study of English and these various values and ideologies remain vague and gestural. Nevertheless, self-improvement, self-regulation and social cohesion are among the primary ideals of these documents, which identify literary studies in particular (now working in tandem with literacy and English language study) as a key discipline through while they might be realised.' (Author's introduction, 231) -
Magwitch Madness : Archive Fever and the Teaching of Australian Literature in Subject English
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 129-152) '...Magwitch madness...has been inspired by Derrida's notion of 'archive fever' - the 'compulsive, repetitive and nostalgic desire for the archive, an irrepressible desire to return to the origin' (Derrida, 1998, p. 9). Like the convict Magwitch in Charles Dickens's novel, who is relocated to Australia, but remains imaginatively and materially linked to the centre of the Empire through his patronage of the boy Philip Pirrip (Pip), contemporary manifestations of Magwitch madness, whether they be in curriculum documents, media debates, text selection or pedagogical practices, are distinguished by a nostalgia for classic texts...and metaphorical and virtual proximity to the cultural capital that these classic works represent. ...
In this chapter, I will examine some contemporary manifestation of Magwitch madness in Some Australasian texts set for study in senior English. Thorough this analysis, I will pursue the connection between these texts and a more systemic manifestation of this condition in the recent debate around the teaching of Australian literature and in the Australian Curriculum: English. In the final section of this chapter, I will explore the implications of Magwitch madness for classroom practice, by drawing on data collected in four diverse Victorian secondary schools in 2010 as part of the project National Stories: Teaching Australian Literature in Secondary English. Through the examination of these various and inter-connected expressions of antipodean archive fever in text, curriculum and practice, this chapter will map some of the complexities and challenges of teaching Australian literature in twenty-first century classrooms.' (From author's introduction, 130, 131-132)
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Australian Voices : Presence and Absence in the Senior Literature Classroom
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 31-51) 'Recently I listened to an Indigenous educator respond to the draft Australian Curriculum and it would be hard to have been in that audience and not be infected by the sheer relief expressed, that at last the knowledges of Indigenous peoples will be brought into the curriculum in a consistent and self-conscious manner. This at least is the potential of the curriculum, as this educator saw it. While most of us at the forum were expressing disappointment about what we saw before us as an atomised, technicist approach to English in the consultation draft, with its attendant matrix of strands, standards and levels, here was a firm reminder of the nature of 'standpoint'. Despite many of the criticisms voiced about the Australian curriculum, and the sense of opportunity lost for an imaginative national discussion about what we value as important learning, I've heard no one question the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives...' (From author's introduction, 31)
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Transnational (Il)literacies : Reading the "New Chinese Literature in Australia" in China
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 25 no. 1 2011; (p. 83-89) 'Ommundsen talks about the transnational in Australian literary studies which was the lively critical debate at the time when her colleagues Alison Broinowski, Paul Sharrad and she in 2008 embarked on the ARC-supported project "Globalizing Australian literature: Asian Australian writing, Asian perspectives on Australian literature." As organizers of the 2008 conference of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature conference, the Wollongong team decided to focus on this articulation between the transnational/global and the national in Australian literary studies, hoping that the papers would shed further light on these debates, at the same time enriching the theoretical arguments underpinning their own project.' (Publisher's abstract)
-
Transnational (Il)literacies : Reading the "New Chinese Literature in Australia" in China
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 25 no. 1 2011; (p. 83-89) 'Ommundsen talks about the transnational in Australian literary studies which was the lively critical debate at the time when her colleagues Alison Broinowski, Paul Sharrad and she in 2008 embarked on the ARC-supported project "Globalizing Australian literature: Asian Australian writing, Asian perspectives on Australian literature." As organizers of the 2008 conference of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature conference, the Wollongong team decided to focus on this articulation between the transnational/global and the national in Australian literary studies, hoping that the papers would shed further light on these debates, at the same time enriching the theoretical arguments underpinning their own project.' (Publisher's abstract) -
Australian Voices : Presence and Absence in the Senior Literature Classroom
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 31-51) 'Recently I listened to an Indigenous educator respond to the draft Australian Curriculum and it would be hard to have been in that audience and not be infected by the sheer relief expressed, that at last the knowledges of Indigenous peoples will be brought into the curriculum in a consistent and self-conscious manner. This at least is the potential of the curriculum, as this educator saw it. While most of us at the forum were expressing disappointment about what we saw before us as an atomised, technicist approach to English in the consultation draft, with its attendant matrix of strands, standards and levels, here was a firm reminder of the nature of 'standpoint'. Despite many of the criticisms voiced about the Australian curriculum, and the sense of opportunity lost for an imaginative national discussion about what we value as important learning, I've heard no one question the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives...' (From author's introduction, 31)
-
Magwitch Madness : Archive Fever and the Teaching of Australian Literature in Subject English
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 129-152) '...Magwitch madness...has been inspired by Derrida's notion of 'archive fever' - the 'compulsive, repetitive and nostalgic desire for the archive, an irrepressible desire to return to the origin' (Derrida, 1998, p. 9). Like the convict Magwitch in Charles Dickens's novel, who is relocated to Australia, but remains imaginatively and materially linked to the centre of the Empire through his patronage of the boy Philip Pirrip (Pip), contemporary manifestations of Magwitch madness, whether they be in curriculum documents, media debates, text selection or pedagogical practices, are distinguished by a nostalgia for classic texts...and metaphorical and virtual proximity to the cultural capital that these classic works represent. ...
In this chapter, I will examine some contemporary manifestation of Magwitch madness in Some Australasian texts set for study in senior English. Thorough this analysis, I will pursue the connection between these texts and a more systemic manifestation of this condition in the recent debate around the teaching of Australian literature and in the Australian Curriculum: English. In the final section of this chapter, I will explore the implications of Magwitch madness for classroom practice, by drawing on data collected in four diverse Victorian secondary schools in 2010 as part of the project National Stories: Teaching Australian Literature in Secondary English. Through the examination of these various and inter-connected expressions of antipodean archive fever in text, curriculum and practice, this chapter will map some of the complexities and challenges of teaching Australian literature in twenty-first century classrooms.' (From author's introduction, 130, 131-132)
-
‘Dramas of Encounter and Recognition’ : Gender and the Limits of ACARA’s Aspirations for the Teaching of Literature in Schools
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Teaching Australian Literature : From Classroom Conversations to National Imaginings 2011; (p. 231-245) 'In some respects, the aims of the National Curriculum Board's Shape of the Australian Curriculum : English (May 2009) could not have been more utopian: to 'help individuals participate in society', to enable 'young people to improve their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of their communities and their nation', and so on. By the time we get to ACARA's The Australian Curriculum: English (2010), these values are explicitly tied to personal modes of self-governance and self-restraint (where students 'recognise and regulate their emotions', 'develop personal and social competence as they learn to manage themselves', etc.) and to the more explicit task of 'nation-building', although the links between the study of English and these various values and ideologies remain vague and gestural. Nevertheless, self-improvement, self-regulation and social cohesion are among the primary ideals of these documents, which identify literary studies in particular (now working in tandem with literacy and English language study) as a key discipline through while they might be realised.' (Author's introduction, 231) -
‘. . . An Asian Dummy with an Aussie Voice’ : Ventriloquism and Authenticity in Nam Le’s The Boat and Tim Winton’s The Turning
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 3 2014;'This paper presents a number of key similarities between Nam Le’s story ‘Halflead Bay’ in The Boat and Tim Winton’s 2004 collection of short stories The Turning. Indeed the scale and type of these similarities indicates more than a subconscious attempt at creating what could be considered a quintessentially regional Australian voice. There seems to be mimicry, counterfeit or the call of the lyrebird at play in this story. Picking up Ken Gelder’s ideas of citation and ventriloquism from his 2010 discussion of proximate reading, alongside Connor's discussion of ventriloquism in Dumdstruck, this paper considers the implications of Le’s attempts to ‘out-Winton’ Winton in ‘Halflead Bay.’ Of particular relevance here is Le’s own exploration of ventriloquism and accents in his Wheeler Centre presentation ‘Voices from Elsewhere’, as well the attention he pays to accents, location and problematic authenticity in The Boat’s opening story.' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 19 Jun 2017 13:14:27
https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/JASAL/article/view/9615/9504
Proximate Reading : Australian Literature in Transnational Reading Frameworks
JASAL
JASAL
Subjects:
- Elizabeth Costello : Eight Lessons 2003 single work novel
- Troy Revisited : Homer's Iliad and David Malouf's Ransom 2009 single work criticism
- The Boat 2008 selected work short story
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