School of Culture and Communication - Theses
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ItemBecoming worthy of the event: Left Bank trauma cinema, 1945-1962( 2012)Asking the question, ‘How can we articulate the conditions that make possible the catastrophic event without referring to any form of identity?’ this thesis considers the trauma cinema of three Rive Gauche filmmakers: Georges Franju, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais. The argument of the thesis is predicated on taking up and insisting upon the explosive and disorganising power of the traumatic event, made manifest in Le Sang des bêtes (Franju, 1949), Les Yeux sans visage (Franju, 1959), Les Statues meurent aussi (Marker and Resnais, 1953) and Muriel, ou le temps d’un retour (Resnais, 1963). The Lazarean characters that haunt these films bear witness to a radical temporal and ontological ‘ungrounding’; an ‘ungrounding’ that shatters identity and characterises catastrophe. This thesis argues that it is only in commencing with the difference that announces itself in the dissolution of identity and permanence that we can hope to create an adequate theorisation of the traumatic event. The transcendental empiricism of Gilles Deleuze provides the kernel for an in-depth analysis of catastrophe that presents an alternative to ‘deconstructive trauma studies,’ the dominant trauma paradigm within the humanities. The thesis returns to the epoch in which this methodology has its roots, the period between the end of the Second World War and the end of the Algerian War of Independence (1945-1962). It takes leave, however, from deconstructive trauma studies’ attempts to tether the traumatic event to systems of identity. Working within a Deleuzian paradigm, the thesis examines transcendental structure alongside empirical manifestation: virtual ‘becomings’ alongside actual history. Deleuze’s concepts of ‘difference-in-itself,’ ‘repetition-for-itself’ and ‘the event’ are drawn upon and extended into the field of trauma studies. The conditions of true genesis for the actual traumatic event, it is argued, are to be discovered not in identity, but in the incorporeal events and self-differentiating differences that emerge from the transcendental field of the virtual. During the event of catastrophe, these imperceptible forces inscribe themselves - via intensity or pure difference - in the flesh. The traumatic event illuminates in calamity the eruption of Deleuze’s ultimate form of repetition, which repeats only a force of pure difference. Through an intersection of Rive Gauche trauma cinema and Deleuzian philosophy, this thesis seeks to consider the differential changes that ground catastrophe, thus deepening our comprehension of the traumatic event and ethical responses to such occurrences.
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ItemBitter brothers: representations of the male misanthrope in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen( 2011)This thesis will explore representations of the male misanthrope in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. Drawing on theories such as Sigmund Freud’s notion of ‘The Uncanny’ and Thomas Schatz’s commentary on integration and order genre tropes in Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and the Studio System, this thesis will explore how the recurrent figure of the male misanthrope serves a critical function in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen. This character type, it will be argued, is used by the Coen brothers to comment upon the nature of masculinity in their narratives, which is universally bitter. It will be put forward that this character emerges from and distinguishes the Coen brothers’ bending and fusing of these conventions of genre that Schatz establishes, across their filmography. It will be argued that the male misanthrope is a consistent and prominent but overlooked character type in the Coens’ cinematic oeuvre. Far from being a stable character though, this thesis will argue that the male misanthrope appears in multiple forms. In the films selected for analysis here, the male misanthrope appears as five character types: the failed lover; the outlaw/flâneur; the authoritarian; the sidekick; and the intellect. Importantly, these representations of the male misanthrope, it will be argued, are socially detached figures. By the same token, these characters could also be described as embodying what Freud calls the uncanny, that is simultaneously “unheimlich” and “heimlich”, or “unhomely” and “homely” (1919). This aspect of the uncanny situates the filmmaking of the Coens as belonging to ‘familiar’ established cinematic codes and conventions while simultaneously taking leave from – or ‘unfamiliarly’ shifting away from – these familiar structures and functions in order to construct their representations of the male misanthrope. They are characters that are created from and emerge out of the fusion of these traditionally opposed genre structures identified by Schatz. The Coen brothers develop these characters in a way that allows each one to resemble ‘everyday life’ figures, such as: the broken hearted; the detached criminal; the egotistical boss; the loyal but annoying friend; and the intellectual. Representations of these seemingly ‘natural’ character types, however, are compromised by the Coens’ non-naturalistic, caricatured approach to genre, narrativity and characterisation. The Coens’ fusing of genre tropes identified by Schatz works to detach the viewer from the Coen brothers’ narratives while suturing the audience into the familiar style that could be more broadly referred to as ‘Coenesque’. The cinema of Joel and Ethan Coen, thus, emerges as a bitter, masculine, cut off world of failed lovers, outlaw/flâneurs, authoritarians, sidekicks and intellects. Their films, however, employ such character types to bend traditional notions of genre as a way of commenting upon masculinity as something that is inherently bitter and subject to change.
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ItemTerrorising the imagination: moral pornography and sadomasochistic aesthetic in contemporary literature( 2012)The thesis provides a close textual analysis of two American novels – A Recent Martyr (1987) by Valerie Martin and Two Girls, Fat and Thin (1991) by Mary Gaitskill. Using Angela Carter’s definition of ‘moral pornography’, I critically examine each author’s depiction of sadomasochism, and especially their use of what can be described as an overarching sadomasochistic aesthetic. One of the main aims of this thesis is to build on Carter’s definition in light of recent debates on pornography. I will show what ‘moral pornography’ looks like and what form it takes in contemporary literature through the novels of writers I believe are subverting the power dynamics that influence sexual activity. An important hinge to the argument is the historical connection between religion and capitalism that manifests in sadomasochistic behaviour, an idea that is explored through the work of Jessica Benjamin and Lynn Chancer. The texts will also be discussed in relation to the debates on pornography that were taking place when each was written and the current debates on the same topic that have surfaced in the last decade. This thesis will counter anti-pornography criticism and instead investigate the ways literature is a subversive medium to explore and challenge the problematic equation of power and sexuality. This occurs through specific narrative techniques that allow for the shifting identifications of the reader, allowing them to pass through many different subject positions, as well as the ability to reassess their position towards such roles. Ultimately, the thesis argues that sadomasochism, in particular, the representation of female masochism should not always be viewed as degrading or regressive nor be relegated to good or bad categories. This is because, as an aesthetic strategy, sadomasochism has the potential to explore the complex power relations that exist at the very heart of society.
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ItemWriting Cambodia: representations of the ‘other’ in contemporary short fiction and ‘The Real Cambodia’( 2011)The critical component of this thesis, ‘Writing Cambodia: Representations of the ‘other’ in contemporary short fiction’, is concerned with the problematic relationship between two of the dominant discourses of otherness theory –postcolonial and psychoanalytic theory – and the practice of creative writers drawn to topics of otherness. Focusing on ten short stories about Cambodia by Cambodian and non-Cambodian writers – Anonymous, Soth Polin, Bith Pollie, Brian Fawcett, Joel Arnold, Santel Phin, Madeline Thien, Sharon May and Chakriya Phou – I argue that theories that emphasise ‘contact’ allow for a more productive intercultural analysis of representation. Using Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of ‘contact zones’ in combination with Shameem Black’s notion of ‘border-crossing fiction’ and Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s term ‘transgressive texts’, I argue that otherness in cross-cultural contemporary short fiction can be mapped through the lens of ‘intersubjectivity’. I utilise Marcia Langton’s model, which focuses on authenticity, stereotype and contact. This is used as a practical and critical tool for discussions of contact and otherness in the production and realisation of short stories about Cambodia. The creative component of this thesis comprises six short stories from a collection of 15 titled ‘The Real Cambodia’. This linked collection of stories about Cambodia, tourism and its effects, demonstrates a practical application of contact theories, in particular that of border-crossing fiction, by fictionally exploring the consequences and outcomes of writing about an ‘other’ culture. Using multiple viewpoints, the stories look at otherness through themes of sex work, alienation, racism, poverty, war and love. The selection of stories from ‘The Real Cambodia’ are a practical demonstration of fiction that crosses borders, contributing to a literary community of Cambodian and non-Cambodian authors who are writing about Cambodia and challenging traditional forms of representation.
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ItemGhosts of Ned Kelly: Peter Carey's True History and the myths that haunt us( 2011)Ned Kelly has been an emblem of Australian national identity for over 130 years. This thesis examines Peter Carey’s reimagination of the Kelly myth in True History of the Kelly Gang (2000). It considers our continued investment in Ned Kelly and what our interpretations of him reveal about Australian identity. The paper explores how Carey’s departure from the traditional Kelly reveals the underlying anxieties about Australianness and masculinity that existed at the time of the novel’s publication, a time during which Australia was reassessing its colonial history. The first chapter of the paper examines True History’s complication of cultural memory. It argues that by problematising Kelly’s Irish cultural memory, our own cultural memory of Kelly is similarly challenged. The second chapter examines Carey’s construction of Kelly’s Irishness more deeply. It argues that Carey’s Kelly is not the emblem of politicised Irishness based on resistance to imperial Britain common to Kelly narratives. Instead, he is less politically aware and also claims a transnational identity. The third chapter explores how Carey’s Kelly diverges from key aspects of the Australian heroic ideal he is used to represent: hetero-masculinity, mateship and heroic failure. Carey’s most striking divergence comes from his unsettling of gender and sexual codes. The paper argues that Australians continue to invest in Kelly because he provides an opportunity to stabilise an identity threatened by changing perspectives on history; in Kelly, we see the changing shape of our ideal selves.
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ItemThe Utopian fallacy of Web 2.0: community, ideology and exploitation on the social web( 2011)In the social sciences, the concept of community has proven to be both notoriously difficult to define and immensely powerful. Community represents an ideal model for human interaction; an Utopian structure which organises and defines our everyday lives as human beings. In the study of social web phenomena, "community" plays a central role in the discussion and characterisation of network technologies which allow groups of people, both vast and small, to communicate, share information and collectively create digital products. With the advent of Web 2.0 and the extensive literature discussing it that has followed, academic and popular discourse has become reliant on the ephemeral idea of "community" to conceptualise web-based communication platforms. I argue that this is due to the continuing influence of countercultural writers such as Howard Rheingold who shaped the early ideology of the Internet. Cyberlibertarianism, the Utopian philosophy of these early proponents of the Internet, suggests that a combination of technological determinism, radical individualism and a free market economy will create a new socio-economic climate where community will flourish. I theorise that the increasingly uncritical use of the term "community" has the potential to fundamentally alter the way in which we think about Web 2.0 technologies. Using Herbert Marcuse's theory of technological rationalism, I argue that the ideal of "community" has contributed to the obscuring of the less communitarian and more exploitative aspects of some web technologies. By critically analysing a range of recent literature focused on Web 2.0 platforms, as well as presenting my own analysis of sites such as Facebook and YouTube, I will reassess the role of community in the networked society. Supplementing Marcuse's theories with more recent work on the potentially exploitative nature of new media, I will synthesise new ways of situating the role of community in the capitalist model of the network society.
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ItemAfter language: Alain Badiou and the linguistic turn( 2011)This thesis aims to explore whether and how theorists in the humanities today can talk about truth and universality after the critical and linguistic turns in philosophy. To approach this problem it examines the work of Alain Badiou, who explicitly seeks a theory of truth which is contemporary with these developments. Whether we are talking about analytic or continental philosophy, language came to dominate philosophical enquiry in the past century. In making the heretofore overlooked or obfuscated link between language and thought apparent, this put into question the nature and limits of reason, the autonomy of the knowing subject, and the representational or realist conception of truth. Moreover, it left in doubt the viability of philosophy itself (outside the perennial or self-effacing investigation of language) insofar as it seemed to rest on the solidity of these very tenets. For Badiou, the outcome of this trajectory is a pervasive sense of the finitude and limits of reason, and of the end or completion of philosophy. He seeks to reverse this by interrupting the linguistic turn with his own turn to mathematics. In particular, Badiou is able to discern in mathematics a mode of thought subtracted from its linguistic or finite determination, and able to grasp the real in a way unaccounted for by critical or linguistic philosophy. On this basis (the separation of thought from language or finitude as evidenced in mathematics) Badiou develops a theory of truth as infinite and eternal, whilst nonetheless realised in and through language. In this way, Badiou’s thought aims to account for the linguistic turn, and for critical philosophy more generally, whilst nonetheless subverting them internally. This leaves us with a compelling and original notion of truth, and of the role of truths in historical change, and in addition resituates philosophy as not so much the discoverer of truths, but their standard-bearer and compiler.
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ItemThe continuing power of the dramatic text in the late plays of Tom Stoppard( 2011)Beginning with a brief overview of Stoppard’s career as a playwright, this thesis addresses both the critical misreadings and relative neglect that have befallen Stoppard’s later works. The Introduction explores the reception contexts of the plays over the last twenty years, including Aleks Sierz’s “in-yer-face theatre” and Hans-Thies Lehmann’s “postdramatic theatre”. The thesis argues that while Stoppard’s work belongs to neither of these categories it nevertheless makes a significant contribution to critical understandings of the contemporary British theatre scene. By performing a close reading of three late Stoppard plays, Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), and Rock’n’Roll (2006), this thesis demonstrates the contribution these plays make to contemporary literary and theatre practice. This thesis uses Frederic Jameson’s work on “The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” to explore the way these three Stoppard plays refuse to resolve the dialectics they explore. Instead they require the audience/reader of the plays to think contradictory ideas both “positively and negatively all at once”, simultaneously, as a matter of ethical, if not political, urgency. The chapters on Arcadia explore the ways in which this play in particular has been misread by critics, as a result of the initial critical categorisation of Stoppard as an Absurdist/post-Absurdist writer, before offering a completely new reading of the play. The chapter on the Invention of Love further examines Stoppard’s postmodernist approach to history, and explores the way this play deconstructs itself by foregrounding its own contradictions in the text. Finally the chapter on Rock’n’Roll examines how in this play a postmodernist foregrounding of contradiction is, in and of itself, a form of political activism. In keeping with Hans-Thies Lehmann’s argument that ‘the politics of theatre is a politics of perception’, this chapter further explores how Stoppard’s use of postmodern irony has the potential to bring the experience of the “Other” home to the audience/reader in new and dramatic ways.
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ItemAnoynmous and other stories( 2011)This Masters of Arts submission consists of 30,000 words. It is split into a collection of short stories and a dissertation. The dissertation consists of five essays, much of it focusing on the fiction, diaries and letters of Franz Kafka. The first essay is concerned with the madness of decision and Kafka’s struggle with indecision. The next essay, ‘The Prosecution of Sound’, compares a scene of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest with Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ and takes interest in the role of the witness when someone falls from articulate language. The third essay ‘Syntax of Noise, Syntax of Silence’ investigates the idea that syntax can be found for sounds falling outside of language. ‘Reading with Incompetence’ is a review of the hundred years of Kafka criticism and discusses how the author tried to preserve his enigma and prevent the misrepresentation of his fiction. The final essay, ‘The Art of the Imbue’, is concerned with how an entity may become imbued with an illogical power. I discuss this with reference to the fiction of Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Hofmannsthal and Kafka. My methodology is probably best described as poststructuralist, as it leans on the thought and writing of Nietzsche, Blanchot, Foucault, Sontag, Deleuze and Guattari. While Kafka is a focus of the dissertation, I am most concerned with uncertainties surrounding language and writing. I am very interested in problems and anxieties encountered when writing fiction, including: How to begin? How to decide? How to write without language? How to recognise, feed or curb subjectivity? How to trust an insight? How to be comfortable in your idiocies? The conclusions, or non-conclusions, may not be revelatory for anyone who has attempted to persevere with a creation. The creative component is a collection of short stories exploring anxieties around language, crises of perception and moments of inheriting doubt.
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ItemUnsettling Australia: modernity and mobility in some recent Australian fiction( 2011)This thesis explores motifs of modernity and mobility in recent Australian fictions by Joan London, Rodney Hall, Gail Jones, and Michelle de Kretser, demonstrating how these interrelated themes “unsettle” the notion of national identity. Recent Australian criticism advocates methods of reading beyond the strictly local category of the national, instead reflecting the ways in which influences from across the modern world inform literary and national identity. Since part of this critical project has been to assert that transnational mobility has underpinned Australia’s modernity since colonial settlement, analysing instances of mobility in these contemporary novels unsettles modernity as perpetual present and advancement, for the project necessarily involves referring back to the past. Drawing on critical articulations of transnationalism, postcoloniality, and an Australian uncanny, in conjunction with arguments for a multi-temporal notion of modernity, I use the notion of “unsettlement” to articulate the terms and framework for the spatial and historical anxieties that this multi-temporal and multi-spatial modernity presents, considering it as a postcolonial predicament. Not only is Australia as a literary setting unsettled through the depiction of journeys to and from the nation but, since modernity must always be defined in relation to the past that precedes it, these authors’ depictions of modernity in effect reanimate Australia’s history. “Unsettlement,” in the novels examined, reveals the space of the modern nation to be destabilised by the dislocations of global mobility and striated by the continuing effects of its colonial past. The first chapter pursues the figure of the travelling colonial woman, whose mobility destabilises the boundaries between home and away, and enables an alternative, gendered and fluid narrative of modernity. As a historical fiction, London’s Gilgamesh (2001) also animates the unsettling of Australia’s past, invoking an ancient epic in order to unsettle the boundaries between the “Old” world and “New.” The second chapter focuses on Hall’s The Day We Had Hitler Home (2000), in which travel mobilises the proximity of two distinct historical locations (National Socialist Germany and colonial Australia) to unsettle each nation’s mythological origins. The third chapter argues that Jones’s Black Mirror (2002) and Dreams of Speaking (2006) develop an underlying poetics of the unmodern through their concern with subjectivity, memory, and both personal and national traumas. These novels disrupt a coherent narrative of modernity as progress and renewal, presenting it instead as an unsettling condition, but one that is also empathetically engaged with the past and with others. The final chapter, on de Kretser’s The Lost Dog (2007), examines unsettlement as a condition of modernity within the national space and argues that the diasporic, double consciousness performs an unsettled, lived tension between the past home and the present inhabitation.