This volume explores the subterfuges, strategies, and choices that Australian women writers have navigated in order to challenge patriarchal stereotypes and assert themselves as writers of substance. Contextualized within the pioneering efforts of white, Aboriginal, and immigrant Australian women in initiating an alternative literary tradition, the text captures a wide range of multiracial Australian women authors’ insightful reflections on crucial issues such as war and silent mourning, e...

In Unveiling Desire, Devaleena Das and Colette Morrow show that the duality of the fallen/saved woman is as prevalent in Eastern culture as it is in the West, specifically in literature and films. Using examples from the Middle to Far East, including Iran, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Japan, and China, this anthology challenges the fascination with Eastern women as passive, abject, or sexually exotic, but also resists the temptation to then focus on the veil, geisha, sat...

No matter how practised we are at history, it always humbles us. No matter how often we visit the past, it always surprises us.Winner of the Ernest Scott Prize and Shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Non-fiction'A rare feat of imagination and generosity' —Mark McKennaWith every sentence they write, historians must walk the tightrope between discipline and imagination, empathy and evidence. In this landmar...

Children's literature takes many forms - works adapted for children in antiquity, picture books and pop-ups - and now includes the latest online games and eBooks. This vast and amorphous subject is both intimately related to other areas of literary and cultural investigation but also has its own set of concerns, issues and challenges. From familiar authors including Beatrix Potter and Roald Dahl, classic books such as Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, and The Secret Garden

From the iconic poems of Bonjo Paterson to todays international bestsellers by Peter Carey and Bryce Courtenay, Australian literature has reflected the changes in Australias national development until today it stands proudly on the world stage. At the same time, indigenous writing has come into its own, with authors such as Oodgeroo Noonuccol giving a powerful voice to the Aboriginal experience. AUSTRALIAS WRITERS AND POETS looks at the men and women who have created this rich literary tra...

In this powerful, compassionate work, one of anthropology’s most distinguished ethnographers weaves together rich fieldwork with a compelling critical analysis in a book that will surely make a signal contribution to contemporary thinking about violence and how it affects everyday life. Veena Das examines case studies including the extreme violence of the Partition of India in 1947 and the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In a major de...

Recent decades have seen a tremendous upsurge of interest among the indigenous peoples of Australia and New Zealand in their history. Life stories, land claims, genealogy, song, dance and painting have all made new contributions to the recovery and representation of the past.Telling Stories looks at the place of life stories and of memory in history: who tells life stories, the purpose for which they are told; the role of story and history in the politics of land claims; and the wa...

Grab the popcorn, sit back and let the story of Australian literature roll ... From Jean-Francois Vernay, "A Brief Take on the Australian Novel" offers a sweeping view of Australian writing since colonialism. Written from an outsider's perspective, this single-authored overview will appeal to readers through its playful, jargon-free and potentially contentious account of the Australian novel. Vernay offers a unique and insightful perspective on Australian literature. Like a film ...

Queering India is the first book to provide an understanding of same-sex love and eroticism in Indian culture and society. The essays focus on pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial gay and lesbian life in India to provide a comprehensive look at a much neglected topic. The topics are wide-ranging, considering film, literature, popular culture, historical and religious texts, law and other aspects of life in India. Specifically, the essays cover such issues as Deepa Mehta's rec...

Shohini Ghosh: Shohini Ghosh is Professor at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, a university in New Delhi. Tales of the Night Fairies, her documentary on the sex workers rights movement, made a strong intervention in debates on sex work. She writes on contemporary media practices and sexuality.

Australian history has changed drastically over the last fifty years and has found itself at the centre of heated and consuming public debates.So how do historians themselves read this history? Where do they see themselves in these momentous shifts in historical reading and writing? With contributions from prominent historians including Marilyn Lake, Tom Griffiths, Peter Stanley and Ann Curthoys, Australian History Now offers revealing and refreshing accounts of the ways A...

A comparative look at religion and spirituality in postcolonial China and IndiaThe Modern Spirit of Asia challenges the notion that modernity in China and India are derivative imitations of the West, arguing that these societies have transformed their ancient traditions in unique and distinctive ways. Peter van der Veer begins with nineteenth-century imperial history, exploring how Western concepts of spirituality, secularity, religion, and magic were used ...