Research Theme 6

Lives, Literature, Languages

Convenors: Harold Koch, Paul Pickering and Gillian Russell

Description | Events

Language

Investigating the general characteristics of language as a human faculty and social product and particular aspects of its patterns of structure (sounds, grammar, meaning), historical change, usage in conversation, learning by native and second language users, etc. Applications of linguistic knowledge in academic and social spheres (as in language policy): such as the teaching of languages (with their associated cultures and literatures), language documentation, forensics, community development, professional discourse, the study of literature, and reconstruction of linguistic history. Multilingual discourse, communication between people both within everyday conversation and across different work settings.

Literature

The study of literature, writers and literary history in the major languages of Europe including in its overseas territories, notably in the Pacific, and former colonies and the Middle East. Exploring and explaining the significance and influence of literature as a register of culture and civilisation, a criticism of society and a representation of lives.

Lives

Study of the various ways in which human lives may be recalled and commemorated, including exploration of cross-cultural experience of people living with two or more languages and cultures. Public memory as documented through biography, portraiture, monuments, memorials, memoirs, and other forms of verbal and visual testimony (including those involving new technological media). Contestation of memories, as shown for example in the history wars and in fluctuating national (including cultural) identities.

Transcultural, transnational and translation issues

These topics bridge the above three subthemes, and link directly to theme 7. Cultural and linguistic investigation of our classical heritage and its continuing infl uence on Western thought. The theory and practice of translation, including translation into English of major works of literature and scholarship from a range of languages.

Events

5 September 2007

Third HRC Seymour Lecture in Biography: Biography and the Struggle for the Soul of Australia
Professor Jill Roe

Jill Roe AO is a well-known historian with a special interest in historical biography. She chaired the editorial board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (1996-2006) and is a past President of the Australian Historical Association. In this lecture she will examine Manning Clark’s 1962 proposition, that the story of Australia is a story of the struggle between the forces of Catholicism, Protestantism and the Enlightenment, through the prism of biography. She will look at developments in biography in Australia since Clark’s day, paying attention to such influences as religion and secularism, and heredity and environment.

Professor Roe repeated her lecture at: NGV Australia,Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square, Melbourne on 3 October 2007 and at the National Maritime Museum, Sydney on 10 October 2007.