Academic literature on the topic 'Australian literature History and criticism'

Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are a global phenomenon emanating from new public management (NPM) reforms. While they are now prolific and entrenched, they have attracted criticism based on their design and the manner in which they are applied. The purpose of this article is to explore the history of accounting for research in the Australian higher education sector (HES). It focuses on how successive Australian governments have steered research within the sector through the introduction of PMSs, in line with NPM reforms. Relying on publicly available online policy documents and scholarly literature, the study traces the development of performance measures within the Australian HES from the mid-1980s to 2015. It contributes to literature in management accounting aspects of NPM through the means of management accounting techniques such as PMSs. It also contributes to accounting history literature through an examination of three decades of accounting for research in the Australian HES.

Patrick Buckridge is that rare person — even in the academic world: a true scholar with a deep, sometimes eccentric, passion for ideas. He belongs contentedly to Brisbane while engaging intellectually with the vast world of scholarship in history, language and literature. He has retained his interest in his first love, Renaissance literature, but understands that literature is also here and now, in the society around him. So his studies have extended to Australian writers, Queensland literary history, the history of the book, the history of literary criticism and the nature of readership for literary work. As his May 2013 public lecture demonstrated, he believes in the continued importance of attentive reading as a source of intellectual understanding.

AbstractThe paper first traces the history and elaboration of the tertiary discipline English Literature through the 19th and 20th centuries to the present day, with special focus on the axiology, the values, given to the discipline and with a brief account of literary criticism and literary theory. It then refers to the work on registerial cartography in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and explores the register of the contemporary discipline in first-order field of activity and second-order field of experience, with examples from the language of webpages and exam papers of Australian universities. It continues with a brief overview of the author’s own work using SFL in the study ofthe poeticandthe narrativein English poetry and prose fiction of different historical periods and concludes with a caveat on the central disciplinary process, that of interpretation.

Despite the current preoccupation with globalisation, literary criticism remains heavily focused on national cultures. In the context of Australian literature, comparisons are regularly made with the literatures of other British Commonwealth nations, but surprisingly infrequently with that of Britain's first and most successful colony, the United States. This article explores thematic and cultural connections between the work of American-born modernist poet and novelist H.D. (1886–1961) and the Australian-born postmodern novelist Janette Turner Hospital (born 1942). It suggests that the transnational phenomenon of ecstatic Protestantism, which originated in northern Europe and was disseminated widely around the globe along the channels of commerce and colonisation, has been a key influence in shaping the literary imaginations of these writers. Indeed, Protestantism – far from being a spent or reactive force – continues to generate new forms of modernity as its emphasis on transformation is exported from somewhat inward-looking religious communities into broader cultural domains.

Dr Gertrude Langer arrived quite by chance in Brisbane in 1939 as a refugee from Hitler's Europe. She was a young, elegant Austrian refugee with a PhD in art history from the University of Vienna. After arriving in Australia, Gertrude and her husband, Dr Karl Langer, had hoped to settle in Sydney, but Karl's work as an architect moved them on to Brisbane. Gertrude Langer would become an important figure in Brisbane's post-war art scene through her salon-style lectures, art criticism and work with the Australia Council. She strongly believed that the arts were an important part of a community, and for this reason became a champion for the cause of contemporary art in Brisbane.

Introduction. The result of the Battle of Stalingrad supersedes the course of the battle itself in a great deal of historical literature. Therefore, it is no coincidence that in recent literature Stalingrad is increasingly becoming “mythologized” (A. Isaev), “unknown” (E. Kobyakov) or “forgotten” (A. Chunikhin), the return to the actual history of the Battle of Stalingrad takes the form of criticism of a generalized view, which on examination often turns out to be incorrect. Methods and materials. The work uses the methods of microhistory formulated in 1958 by the American historian J. Stewart. The actions of Red Army units are reconstructed on the basis of documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The actions of Wehrmacht units are described on the basis of captured German documents from Fund 500 of the same archive. The data from the battle log of the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps and the battle log of the 24th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht were taken from the book of Australian historian J. Mark. Analysis. The terrain to the south and south-east of Stalingrad largely determined the course of battle of the operational group of Major-General N.M. Pozharsky and the right flank divisions of the 64th Army with units of XXXXVIII Panzer Corps of General V. Kämpf. The essence of this confrontation was a fierce struggle for commanding heights. Results. At 16:30 on 11 September Major von der Lancken’s group was disbanded, and the tanks returned to their divisions. As a result of the offensive of September 8-11 the Germans managed to capture key heights in the south of Stalingrad. Nevertheless, in these battles XXXXVIII Panzer Corps suffered losses that it could not make up for. This gave the defenders of Stalingrad a chance, which they took. Due to the large volume of archival materials, the author’s team was divided. A.K. Elokhina processed German sources, and E.V. Stelnik processed data from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The concept of the article emerged in the course of joint discussions.

AbstractEleanor Dark's last published novel,Lantana Lane(published 1959), is not usually included in accounts of Australian modernism. The novel's strong criticisms of modernity, its regional focus and the Cold War context complicate its inclusion as a modernist text. However, revised understandings of modernism generated in the past few decades of scholarship allow for a reinvestigation of Dark's novel as a response to the conditions of late modernity. In particular, Dark explores the pressures exerted on local space by modern capitalism in a period of post-war reconstruction, showing how the national and global scales encroach upon and threaten to annihilate local particularity. Through drawing on a number of broadly modernist practices, including those of entanglement, suspension, metageography and primitivism, Dark pushes back against modernity's narratives of progress and attempts to recover space for the literary and the small scale.Lantana Lanedemonstrates how ‘regional modernisms’ written from ‘peripheral’ locations can draw attention to the uneven distribution of modernity within national and global space, and offer alternative — if provisional — sites of attachment.

Narratives of place have always been crucial to the construction of Australian identity. The obsession with identity in Australia betrays longstanding uncertainty. It is not difficult to interpret in this uncertainty a replaying of the deeper insecurities surrounding the settler community's legal and more broadly cultural claims to the land. Such insecurities are typically understood negatively. In contrast, this thesis accepts the uncertainty of identity as an activating principle, appropriate to any interpretation of the narratives and themes that inform what it means to be Australian. Fundamental to this uncertainty is a provisionality in the post-colonial experience of place that is papered over by misleadingly coherent spatial narratives that stem from the imperial inheritance of Australian mythology. Place is a model for the tension between the coherence of mythic narratives and the actual rhizomic formlessness of daily life. Place is the ???ground??? of that life, but an ambivalent ground. An Ambivalent Ground approaches postcolonial Australia as a densely woven text. In this text, stories that describe the founding of a nation are enveloped by other stories, not so well known, that work to transform those more familiar narratives. ???Re-placing Australian literature??? describes the process of this transformation. It signifies an interpretative practice which seeks to recuperate the open-ended experience of place that remains disguised by the coherent narratives of nationhood. The process of ???re-placing??? Australian literature shifts the understanding of nation towards a landscape that speaks not so much about identity as about the constitutive performances of everyday life. It also converges with the unhomely dimension that is the colonist's ambiguous sense of belonging. We can understand this process with an analogy used in this thesis, that of music ??? the colonising language, and noise ??? the ostensibly inchoate, unformed background disruptive to cultural order yet revealing the spatial realities of place. Traditionally, cultural narratives in Australia have disguised the much more complex way in which place noisily disrupts and diffracts those narratives, and in the process generates the ambivalence of Australian identity. Rather than a text or a narrative, place is a plenitude, a densely intertwined performance space, a performance that constantly renders experience ??? and its cultural function ??? transgressive. The purpose of this thesis is not to displace stereotypical narratives of nationhood with yet another narrative. Rather, it offers the more risky proposition that provisionality and uncertainty are constitutive features of Australian social being. The narrative in the thesis represents an aggregation of such an ambivalent ground, addressing the persistent tension between place and the larger drama of colonialist history and discourse.

This dissertation employs the methodologies of postcolonial theory and hyperreal theory (following Baudrillard), in order to investigate articulations of identity, nation and representation in contemporary Australian poetry. Informed by a comparative analysis of contemporary Latin American poetry and cultural theory (in translation), as a means of re-examining the Australian context, this dissertation develops a new transnational model of Australian poetics. The central thesis of this dissertation is that contemporary Australian poetry engages with the postcolonial at its limits. That is, at those sites of postcoloniality that are already mapped by theory, but also at those that occur beyond postcolonial theory. The hyperreal is understood as one such limit, traceable within the poetry but silenced in conventional postcolonial theory. As another limit to the postcolonial, this dissertation reads Latin American poetry and theory, in whose texts postcolonial theory is actively resisted, but where postcolonial and hyperreal poetics nevertheless intersect. The original critical context constructed by this dissertation enables a new set of readings of Australian identity through its poetry. Within this new interpretative context, the readings of contemporary Australian poetry articulate a psycho-social postcoloniality; offer a template for future transactions between national poetry and global politics; and develop a model of the postcolonial hyperreal.

This thesis traces the development of the artist figure as a leading character in twentieth-century Australian novels. In Australia there have always been complex interconnections between the worlds of art and literature, perhaps the most obvious being the cluster of artists and writers centred on the journal Vision, co-edited by Norman Lindsay’s son Jack with Kenneth Slessor, who was heavily influenced by Lindsay. Slessor’s poem “Five Bells”, an elegy for his artist friend Joe Lynch, later became the subject of a mural painted for Sydney Opera House by John Olsen. Although this and other connections between poetry and art are of interest, this thesis concentrates on fiction only.

The article highlights the history of aksakology of the XX-XXI centuries. The beginning of scientific practice is associated with the name of S.I. Mashinsky and his monograph on the work of S.T. Aksakov. The research of E.L. Voitolovskaya, O.N. Belokopytova, A.V. Chicherin became the most systematic research of the 1950s - 1970s. It is shown that the main vectors of aksakology, since the 1980s, were set in the works of E.I. Annenkova, V.A. Koshelev, Yu.V. Mann. The efforts of Ufa linguists and literary critics, as well as participants of the Samara conferences of 2017 and 2020, were particularly noted. The monograph by V.E. Ugryumov and the developments on poetics made in recent years by A.A. Churkin are considered significant at the present stage.

This paper focuses on the field of literary history in order to show what approach to the historiography of Czech literature was taken by the representative of Czech exile literary criticism, Igor Hajek. The context which Hajek entered during his study stays in the USA and Great Britain, and later in exile, was the reception horizon of the late 1960s, when the events of the �Prague Spring� attracted the attention of the West and turned attention to the Czech liberalisation movement, in which literature played a significant role. Hajek assumed the role of a mediator of the fundamental values of Czech literary production to the Western audience from the position of an expert in the Anglo-American cultural environment and Czech and foreign literary approaches. The specificity of his perspective is due to the fact that he tried to present the image of Czech national literature with respect to a non-Czech reader and that he aimed to clarify the main features of the development of Czech literature to international students and readers. The paper presents the conclusions of the analysis of Hajek�s literary-historical essays, which show that Igor Hajek relied mainly on the views of Arne Novak, a Czech literary historian and critic. The paper further assumes that Igor Hajek, due to his background in English studies, methodologically drew on some of the approaches that were being promoted in the West in his time and notes the connections between Hajek�s methods and the methodologies these approaches are based on.

The poetry inscription, with Bai Juyi in the Middle Tang Era as its representative, began to express purely personal emotions in terms of content, which reflects the poet’s creative individuality. Bai takes stone as his friend, loves it, chants it, and inscribes poems on it, endowing it natural and personal qualities. Bai was the first poet to consciously combine “poetry” and “stone” with nearly 20 kinds of poetry inscriptions. Compared with book documents, Bai’s poetry inscriptions not only have the philological value of text criticism, but also have multiple functions, i. e., reproducing the historical context of poetry creation and transmitting as a “linguistic landscape”. Such humanistic connotation determines the significance of Bai’s poetry inscription in the history of Chinese literature and culture.

The cognitive capabilities of the teleological paradigm of purpose are discussed. An inquiring mind everywhere sees that inanimate matter serves for living, and that, in turn, serves for a man. However, such a concept as “purpose” turned out from the contemporary science, although for a long time it went along the path of becoming the doctrine of purpose determination, or nomogenesis. The history of the substitution of the main paradigm of science from purpose to chance is traced. The overcoming of the catastrophic representations of Cuvier by the provisions of actualism and evolutionism is considered. From the middle of the 19th century, public opinion began to strengthen that every new scientific achievement casts doubt on religious beliefs. Criticism of biblical history began with the events of the Great Flood, as the key one in the Bible. The negative attitude to catastrophism in the Soviet scientific literature and the importance of ideology in the methodology of science are considered. The anthropic principle predetermines a radical restructuring of the general scientific methodology. It finally comes closer to religious knowledge. The anthropic principle is teleological and contains that goal (“eidos-entelechia”) in the structure of matter that impels it. In this light, the power of science is again seen not in confrontation with religion, but in harmonization with it.

Milan Kašanin (1895–1981) in his integral study of medieval Serbian culture pays significant attention to the works and authors who created in the time of King Stefan Uroš II Milutin Nemanjića (1282–1321). Kašanin’s analysis also includes medieval literary and artistic achievements whose central theme is the King's personality and symbols of rule, as well as the spiritual and socio-histor- ical characteristics of the era the era of this important founder and great artistic patron. The author of the monographs Serbian Literature in the Middle Ages (1975) and Stone Discoveries (1978) seeks to systematize knowledge of the cul- tural past, to explain the spiritual and historical forces of the time, to understand Byzantine influences on art forms and meanings, to find elements of original art within medieval Serbian culture and to establish the most reliable periodization of literary and artistic styles. Methodologically, in examining the key focuses of a historically limited period, such as the Middle Ages, Kašanin insists on mutual “illumination of art”. He also connects the poetic and spiritual-aesthetic features of specific literary achievements with medieval church and secular architecture, fresco painting or icon painting, but also with socio-political factors. Therefore, we tried to outline the analytical and methodological framework of Kašanin’s spiritual, historical, and aesthetic thought from the point of view of the history of literary criticism, concerning the way in which he had perceived and named the artistic forms of Milutin’s epoch, art forms in which Milutin’s age and literary achievements of monk Theodosius and archbishop Danilo II.

It has become extremely important to revisit our teaching methodology along with pedagogical contents and objectives, in consideration of the impressive and sometimes overwhelming progress that the technology available to document, analyze and represent the complexity of our built and natural environments has reached, and also the role that it has been proactively playing in affecting our way of thinking, designing and building. A renewed “theory of formativity” (Pareyson)1 styles a knowledge that is generated by a constantly transforming process of “making,” in which methodologies, theoriesand learnings arise within the actions of designing and building, and mostly because of the making. Following the etymology of the Greek world2, this making could be understood as poetic way of actively participating to the changes of our environment. If we look carefully, this approach to structure the knowledge has been deeply rooted in the history and legacy of the most relevant architects and designers, as ontological condition imbedded also into the idea of progress. We have been witnessing several experimentations that have been capable of bringing theoretical explorations, such as the ones from the fields of philosophy and literature, into the realm of design and space making. These explorations reach various degrees of quality, but nevertheless they provide openings to further interesting discussions. An example of this sort could be among others, the collaboration between Eisenman and Derrida for the design proposal for Parc de la Villette in Paris of 19873, where the memory of the proposals for Cannaregio in Venice or the project “Romeo and Juliet” in Verona, are considered within the philosophical background of the criticism to the structuralism, and the projection towards a horizon of deconstruction. This concept migrated from the realm of thinking, to the one of designing and form making, in its highest sense, giving strength to role and identity within the field of architecture, of the idea of “fragment” and “text” often interrupted, following Lyotard’s suggestion4, as expression of the post-modern dimension.

Background Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death worldwide.(1) It is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia (12,741 cases diagnosed in 2018) and the leading cause of cancer death.(2) The number of years of potential life lost to lung cancer in Australia is estimated to be 58,450, similar to that of colorectal and breast cancer combined.(3) While tobacco control strategies are most effective for disease prevention in the general population, early detection via low dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening in high-risk populations is a viable option for detecting asymptomatic disease in current (13%) and former (24%) Australian smokers.(4) The purpose of this Evidence Check review is to identify and analyse existing and emerging evidence for LDCT lung cancer screening in high-risk individuals to guide future program and policy planning. Evidence Check questions This review aimed to address the following questions: 1. What is the evidence for the effectiveness of lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? 2. What is the evidence of potential harms from lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? 3. What are the main components of recent major lung cancer screening programs or trials? 4. What is the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening programs (include studies of cost–utility)? Summary of methods The authors searched the peer-reviewed literature across three databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Embase) for existing systematic reviews and original studies published between 1 January 2009 and 8 August 2019. Fifteen systematic reviews (of which 8 were contemporary) and 64 original publications met the inclusion criteria set across the four questions. Key findings Question 1: What is the evidence for the effectiveness of lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? There is sufficient evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses of combined (pooled) data from screening trials (of high-risk individuals) to indicate that LDCT examination is clinically effective in reducing lung cancer mortality. In 2011, the landmark National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST, a large-scale randomised controlled trial [RCT] conducted in the US) reported a 20% (95% CI 6.8% – 26.7%; P=0.004) relative reduction in mortality among long-term heavy smokers over three rounds of annual screening. High-risk eligibility criteria was defined as people aged 55–74 years with a smoking history of ≥30 pack-years (years in which a smoker has consumed 20-plus cigarettes each day) and, for former smokers, ≥30 pack-years and have quit within the past 15 years.(5) All-cause mortality was reduced by 6.7% (95% CI, 1.2% – 13.6%; P=0.02). Initial data from the second landmark RCT, the NEderlands-Leuvens Longkanker Screenings ONderzoek (known as the NELSON trial), have found an even greater reduction of 26% (95% CI, 9% – 41%) in lung cancer mortality, with full trial results yet to be published.(6, 7) Pooled analyses, including several smaller-scale European LDCT screening trials insufficiently powered in their own right, collectively demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in lung cancer mortality (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.73–0.91).(8) Despite the reduction in all-cause mortality found in the NLST, pooled analyses of seven trials found no statistically significant difference in all-cause mortality (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.90–1.00).(8) However, cancer-specific mortality is currently the most relevant outcome in cancer screening trials. These seven trials demonstrated a significantly greater proportion of early stage cancers in LDCT groups compared with controls (RR 2.08, 95% CI 1.43–3.03). Thus, when considering results across mortality outcomes and early stage cancers diagnosed, LDCT screening is considered to be clinically effective. Question 2: What is the evidence of potential harms from lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? The harms of LDCT lung cancer screening include false positive tests and the consequences of unnecessary invasive follow-up procedures for conditions that are eventually diagnosed as benign. While LDCT screening leads to an increased frequency of invasive procedures, it does not result in greater mortality soon after an invasive procedure (in trial settings when compared with the control arm).(8) Overdiagnosis, exposure to radiation, psychological distress and an impact on quality of life are other known harms. Systematic review evidence indicates the benefits of LDCT screening are likely to outweigh the harms. The potential harms are likely to be reduced as refinements are made to LDCT screening protocols through: i) the application of risk predication models (e.g. the PLCOm2012), which enable a more accurate selection of the high-risk population through the use of specific criteria (beyond age and smoking history); ii) the use of nodule management algorithms (e.g. Lung-RADS, PanCan), which assist in the diagnostic evaluation of screen-detected nodules and cancers (e.g. more precise volumetric assessment of nodules); and, iii) more judicious selection of patients for invasive procedures. Recent evidence suggests a positive LDCT result may transiently increase psychological distress but does not have long-term adverse effects on psychological distress or health-related quality of life (HRQoL). With regards to smoking cessation, there is no evidence to suggest screening participation invokes a false sense of assurance in smokers, nor a reduction in motivation to quit. The NELSON and Danish trials found no difference in smoking cessation rates between LDCT screening and control groups. Higher net cessation rates, compared with general population, suggest those who participate in screening trials may already be motivated to quit. Question 3: What are the main components of recent major lung cancer screening programs or trials? There are no systematic reviews that capture the main components of recent major lung cancer screening trials and programs. We extracted evidence from original studies and clinical guidance documents and organised this into key groups to form a concise set of components for potential implementation of a national lung cancer screening program in Australia: 1. Identifying the high-risk population: recruitment, eligibility, selection and referral 2. Educating the public, people at high risk and healthcare providers; this includes creating awareness of lung cancer, the benefits and harms of LDCT screening, and shared decision-making 3. Components necessary for health services to deliver a screening program: a. Planning phase: e.g. human resources to coordinate the program, electronic data systems that integrate medical records information and link to an established national registry b. Implementation phase: e.g. human and technological resources required to conduct LDCT examinations, interpretation of reports and communication of results to participants c. Monitoring and evaluation phase: e.g. monitoring outcomes across patients, radiological reporting, compliance with established standards and a quality assurance program 4. Data reporting and research, e.g. audit and feedback to multidisciplinary teams, reporting outcomes to enhance international research into LDCT screening 5. Incorporation of smoking cessation interventions, e.g. specific programs designed for LDCT screening or referral to existing community or hospital-based services that deliver cessation interventions. Most original studies are single-institution evaluations that contain descriptive data about the processes required to establish and implement a high-risk population-based screening program. Across all studies there is a consistent message as to the challenges and complexities of establishing LDCT screening programs to attract people at high risk who will receive the greatest benefits from participation. With regards to smoking cessation, evidence from one systematic review indicates the optimal strategy for incorporating smoking cessation interventions into a LDCT screening program is unclear. There is widespread agreement that LDCT screening attendance presents a ‘teachable moment’ for cessation advice, especially among those people who receive a positive scan result. Smoking cessation is an area of significant research investment; for instance, eight US-based clinical trials are now underway that aim to address how best to design and deliver cessation programs within large-scale LDCT screening programs.(9) Question 4: What is the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening programs (include studies of cost–utility)? Assessing the value or cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening involves a complex interplay of factors including data on effectiveness and costs, and institutional context. A key input is data about the effectiveness of potential and current screening programs with respect to case detection, and the likely outcomes of treating those cases sooner (in the presence of LDCT screening) as opposed to later (in the absence of LDCT screening). Evidence about the cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening programs has been summarised in two systematic reviews. We identified a further 13 studies—five modelling studies, one discrete choice experiment and seven articles—that used a variety of methods to assess cost-effectiveness. Three modelling studies indicated LDCT screening was cost-effective in the settings of the US and Europe. Two studies—one from Australia and one from New Zealand—reported LDCT screening would not be cost-effective using NLST-like protocols. We anticipate that, following the full publication of the NELSON trial, cost-effectiveness studies will likely be updated with new data that reduce uncertainty about factors that influence modelling outcomes, including the findings of indeterminate nodules. Gaps in the evidence There is a large and accessible body of evidence as to the effectiveness (Q1) and harms (Q2) of LDCT screening for lung cancer. Nevertheless, there are significant gaps in the evidence about the program components that are required to implement an effective LDCT screening program (Q3). Questions about LDCT screening acceptability and feasibility were not explicitly included in the scope. However, as the evidence is based primarily on US programs and UK pilot studies, the relevance to the local setting requires careful consideration. The Queensland Lung Cancer Screening Study provides feasibility data about clinical aspects of LDCT screening but little about program design. The International Lung Screening Trial is still in the recruitment phase and findings are not yet available for inclusion in this Evidence Check. The Australian Population Based Screening Framework was developed to “inform decision-makers on the key issues to be considered when assessing potential screening programs in Australia”.(10) As the Framework is specific to population-based, rather than high-risk, screening programs, there is a lack of clarity about transferability of criteria. However, the Framework criteria do stipulate that a screening program must be acceptable to “important subgroups such as target participants who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from disadvantaged groups and people with a disability”.(10) An extensive search of the literature highlighted that there is very little information about the acceptability of LDCT screening to these population groups in Australia. Yet they are part of the high-risk population.(10) There are also considerable gaps in the evidence about the cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening in different settings, including Australia. The evidence base in this area is rapidly evolving and is likely to include new data from the NELSON trial and incorporate data about the costs of targeted- and immuno-therapies as these treatments become more widely available in Australia.