Chinese Revolution and Chinese Literature, edited by Tao Dongfeng, Yang Xiaobin, Rosemary Roberts and Yang Ling, 2010
This volume has brought together essays to explore, analyse and interpret the revolutionary tradition in modern Chinese literature over the past century from various angles. The authors examine the bodily or carnal dimension, especially the hidden implication of sexual passion, in revolutionary literature, formulate feminist critiques of the conception of women in literary expressions of revolution, explore the function of revolution as historical discourse and in historiographical representation, and discuss the reworking of “revolutionary classics” in recent literary and artistic endeavours. Here, revolution (in history and in literature) is conceptualised neither as an unquestionably progressive and creative force for a new world, nor an absolutely pejorative concept that necessarily leads to socio-political turmoil and tragedy. Insofar as “postrevolutionary writings” cannot but reappropriate the revolutionary sprit as their unavoidable and inseparable traumatic kernel, studies in revolutionary literature and culture, too, go through the zigzag experience of revolution in order to scrutinise its complex implications.
Cultural compatibility in Educational Contexts: Japanese Native-Speaker Teachers in Australian Classrooms, Kumi Kato, 2010
Cultural compatibility in Educational Contexts examines the mechanism of control and efficacy underlying specific cultural contexts, intercultural value differences, consequential conflicts, which invisibly and unintentionally cause communication difficulties and negative performances. This specific study centres on Japanese language classrooms in Australia taught by native Japanese speakers. Comparative studies were carried out in classrooms in both Japan and Australia, and identified specific teaching strategies perceived to be effective in each cultural context. The book concludes by asserting that the notion of culture in the educational context goes beyond ethnic and linguistics differences; an awareness of cultural compatibility should be recognised as one of the professional responsibilities of all educators. This is particularly relevant to multicultural societies such as Australia, where both teaching and learning populations are increasingly diverse, as well as being applicable to other social contexts.
Maoist Model Theatre: The Semiotics of Gender and Sexuality in the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Rosemary A. Roberts 2010
Here is a convincing reflection that changes our understanding of gender in Maoist culture, esp. for what critics from the 1990s onwards have termed its ‘erasure’ of gender and sexuality. In particular the strong heroines of the yangbanxi, or ‘model works’ which dominated the Cultural Revolution period, have been seen as genderless revolutionaries whose images were damaging to women. Drawing on contemporary theories ranging from literary and cultural studies to sociology, this book challenges that established view through detailed semiotic analysis of theatrical systems of the yangbanxi including costume, props, kinesics, and various audio and linguistic systems. Acknowledging the complex interplay of traditional, modern, Chinese and foreign gender ideologies as manifest in the ‘model works’, it fundamentally changes our insights into gender in Maoist culture.
Girl Reading Girl in Japan. London and New York: Routledge. Aoyama, T. & Hartley, B. (Eds). 2010
Girl Reading Girl provides the first overview of the cultural significance of girls and reading in modern and contemporary Japan with emphasis on the processes involved when girls read about other girls.
The collection examines the reading practices of real life girls from differing social backgrounds throughout the twentieth century while a number of chapters also consider how fictional girls read attention is given to the diverse cultural representations of the girl, or shôjo, who are the objects of the reading desires of Japan’s real life and fictional girls. These representations appear in various genres, including prose fiction, such as Yoshiya Nobuko’s Flower Stories and Takemoto Nobara’s Kamikaze Girls, and manga, such as Yoshida Akimi’s The Cherry Orchard. This volume presents the work of pioneering women scholars in the field of girl studies including translations of a ground-breaking essay by Honda Masuko on reading girls and Kawasaki Kenko’s response to prejudicial masculine critiques of best-selling novelist, Yoshimoto Banana. Other topics range from the reception of Anne of Green Gables in Japan to girls who write and read male homoerotic narratives.
Significance of Cultural, language and identity to second and third generation migrants: the case of Finns in Australia, Tiina Lammervo, 2010
This research focuses on the significance of heritage culture and language among second and third generation informants. The study discusses how second and third generation Australian Finns have experienced language and culture contact, what their linguistic and cultural competence is and what their attitudes are towards their heritage and their ethnic or multicultural identity. These issues are also relevant to the future of Finnish language and culture in multicultural Australia.
Data consists of in depth interviews of selected diverse informants. The report discusses the relevance of background factors traditionally considered in acculturation research, informants’ language skills and features of language contact, the role of cultural elements in the lives of second and third generation migrants, and issues of identity.
The post-doctoral project was funded by the Academy of Finland and was undertaken at the Institute of Migration in Turku, Finland and the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
Urban modernity: Cultural Innovation in the Second Industrial Revolution (co-authored by) Miriam R. Levin, Sophie Forgan,Martina Hessler, Robert R.Kargon, Morris Low, 2010
“This insightful book about elites, cultural quarters, and international exhibitions in five cities across the globe provides a compelling account of how urban modernity was forged between 1850 and World War I. It is essential reading for anyone interested in how cultural influences shaped the new urban identities of a fast-changing world” Richard Roger, Professor of Economic and Social History, University of Edinburgh “Urban modernity is a remarkable collection of essays on the creation of the modern city, with exceptional chapters on Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo, and Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century. Focusing on the central role played by urban elites in shaping modernity, this well-integrated volume offers the best comparative summary I know of the roots of urban transformation in this period. It also offers an exceptionally thoughtful treatment of an essential yet often neglected point: the investment in preserving and telling the stories of the past. The authors brilliantly recognise that both pursuits were essential to the modern urban project”
Max Page, Professor of Architecture and History, University of Massachusetts Amherst, author of The City’s End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears, and Premonitions of New York’s Destruction.
Publications 2007
