Talk Underwater

Short story

Downhill

Chapter one of my forthcoming novel, "The Bullroarers", being the creative component of my PHD at Murdoch University (in progress), re-written as a stand alone short story.

‘The struggle for welcome’ : valuing difference through refugee stories in the English Curriculum

This paper is concerned with how refugee stories can be used as the means of exploring values and developing intercultural understanding in the English classroom. To illustrate this possibility, André Dao’s (2005) Vuot Bien – The Search for Freedom: Huong Thi Nguen’s Story, about the impact of war and oppression on people’s lives, together with the experience of seeking freedom and acceptance in Australia as a Vietnamese refugee, is selected as the text for a Year 9 English class. In examining the features of this short story, we also consider how recent efforts to foster intercultural understanding in the new national curriculum in Australia might be advanced in the English classroom. We argue that this text and others in the genre of refugee narratives written by young people, provide vicarious opportunities to analyse how valuing freedom and having the courage to seek it can be brought to light when an individual survives one life and begins the challenges of creating a new life among strangers. Examining the values dimensions of such texts also allows young people to unpack and critique the ways in which cultural experiences, including their own, shape and form identities and how engaging with the experiences of others can be the vehicle for valuing difference. We hope our discussion might encourage teachers in other countries undergoing cultural shifts in response to the movements of people will be encouraged to consider this ‘double entendre’ in which the refugee experience is shaped not only by ‘the journey’ and also by ‘the arrival’ and the degree to which newcomers, refugee or asylum seekers, are made welcome by the receiving community.

Slow napalm

From Kurt Vonnegut to Stephen King, many novelists use metanarrative techniques to insert fictional versions of themselves in the stories they tell. The function of deploying such techniques is often to draw attention to the liminal space between the fictional constructs inherent in the novel as a form, and the real world from which the constructs draw inspiration, and indeed, are read by an audience. For emerging writers working in short form narratives, however, the structural demands of the short story or flash fiction make the use of similar techniques problematic in the level of depth to which they can be deployed. Slow Napalm, the first in series of short stories, works to overcome the structural limitations of a succinct form by developing a fractured fictional version of the author over a number of pieces and published across a range of sites. The accumulative affect is a richer metanarrative textual arrangement that also allows for the individual short stories to function independently.

The Joke

From Kurt Vonnegut to Stephen King, many novelists use metanarrative techniques to insert fictional versions of themselves in the stories they tell. The function of deploying such techniques is often to draw attention to the liminal space between the fictional constructs inherent in the novel as a form, and the real world from which the constructs draw inspiration, and indeed, are read by an audience. For emerging writers working in short form narratives, however, the structural demands of the short story or flash fiction make the use of similar techniques problematic in the level of depth to which they can be deployed. 'The Joke', the second in series of short stories, works to overcome the structural limitations of a succinct form by developing a fractured fictional version of the author over a number of pieces and published across a range of sites. The accumulative affect is a richer metanarrative textual arrangement that also allows for the individual short stories to function independently.

Experimental people

From Kurt Vonnegut to Stephen King, many novelists use metanarrative techniques to insert fictional versions of themselves in the stories they tell. The function of deploying such techniques is often to draw attention to the liminal space between the fictional constructs inherent in the novel as a form, and the real world from which the constructs draw inspiration, and indeed, are read by an audience. For emerging writers working in short form narratives, however, the structural demands of the short story or flash fiction make the use of similar techniques problematic in the level of depth to which they can be deployed. Experimental People, the third in series of short stories, works to overcome the structural limitations of a succinct form by developing a fractured fictional version of the author over a number of pieces and published across a range of sites. The accumulative affect is a richer metanarrative textual arrangement that also allows for the individual short stories to function independently.

Creases

‘Creases’ emerged from a writing exercise I completed as part of PhD research. The piece explores the intersection of humor and grief in a fictional reflection of death.

Dinner aesthetic

‘Dinner Aesthetic’ fictionally explores the theme of creation and destruction as points on a continuum, rather than oppositional binaries. The piece was published in in Issue 21 of Literary Orphans.

Èto i to v povesti Staruha Daniila Harmsa

This dissertation focuses on the short story Starukha (The Old Woman), one of the last works of the Russian writer Daniil Kharms (1905-1942). The story, written in 1939, is analysed using the Kharmsian concepts èto and to (this and that) as a heuristic interpretative model. The first chapter gives a detailed analysis of this model, as well as a survey of the critical work done to date on Kharms and Starukha. In the second chapter the model is applied to study the different states of consciousness of the male protagonist. This is significant, because he is the "I" of the work, from whose point of view everything is being told. The third chapter takes a closer look at the reality of the world that exists independently of the consciousness of the protagonist. Physical objects can be said to bear - besides their everyday meaning - a hidden symbolic meaning. Similarly, the characters can be considered as representatives of everyday reality and otherworldliness. The fourth chapter deals with the narrative devices of Starukha. The problematics of the relation between fact and fiction plays an essential role in the story. Kharms's use of Ich-Erzählung and different tenses, which contributes to achieving a complicated elaboration of this kind of problematics, is examined in detail. The fifth chapter provides an intertextual reading of Starukha, based on its allusions to the Bible and the Christian tradition. As a result, the whole story can be seen as a kind of meditation on the Passion of Christ. The final chapter examines how the important Kharmsian concepts of the grotesque and the absurd manifest themselves in Starukha. The old woman represents in a grotesque way two opposite systems: the religious and the totalitarian. The absurdity of Starukha can be claimed to be illusory. Therefore, it is better to speak about paradoxicality. Starukha itself is a kind of paradox, in the sense that it tries to say something of the ultimate truth of reality, which inevitably remains ineffable.

Konstrukcija mnimosti : K poètike "Voskovoj persony" Ju. Tynjanova

The subject of this work is the poetics of «The Wax Effigy», a short novel or novella by Jurii Tynianov, Russian writer, literary critic, historian of literature and prominent literary theoretician. The plot structure of the novel is based upon a real event, the creation by Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli in 1725 of a wax sculpture of the first Russian emperor, Peter the Great. «Construction of the Sham» consists of three chapters, an introduction and a conclusion. Due to the fact that Tynianov was at the same time a prose writer and theoretician of literature it seemed important to consider the reception of his prose and his works on literary theory in relationship to each other. The introduction is devoted to this task. The first chapter is about the history of the creation of the novel and its reception. Tynianov stopped writing one short story in order to write the novel; these two works have some common traits. It seems almost obvious that his work on the first text was a real step toward the creation of the second. In the first story there is an opposition of dead/alive which is semantic prefiguring of a central motif in «The Wax Effigy». An analysis of the reception of the novel demonstrated that almost every critic writing about the novel has described it as nonsense. Critics considered Tynianov's work in terms of «devices» and «content» and could not understand how devices are related to the content of the novel: the novel was thought as a signifier without any signified. Implicitly, critics thought the signified of the novel as a traditional one of the historical novel, as the historiosophical «idea», embodied in the system of literary devices. In this case literature becomes something instrumental, a kind of expression of extraliterary content. In contradistinction to that Tynianov considered literary semantics as an effect of the literary structure. From his point of view the literary sense is immanent to the process of signification accomplished inside the literary text. The second chapter is devoted to a rhetorical analysis of the opposition dead/alive. Tynianov systematically compares both terms of the opposition. As a result of this strategy the wax effigy of the dead emperor becomes «as if» alive and the world of living people «as if» dead. The qualifier «as if» refers to the fact that Tynianov creates an ambiguous semantic system. This rhetoric is related to European Romanticism and his «fantastic literature» (Merimé, Hoffmann, Maupassant etc.). But Tynianov demonstrates a linguistic origin of the strange fantoms created by romantics; he demystifies these idols by parodying the fantastic literature, that is, showing «how it was done». At the same time, the opposition mentioned above refers to his idea of «incongruity» which plays a prominent role in Tynianov s theory but has never been conceptualised. The incongruity is a inner collision of the literary text; from Tynianov's point of view the meaning of the work of literature is always a dynamic collision of semantically heterogeneous elements struggling with each other. In «The Wax Effigy» Tynianov creates a metalevel of the work demonstrating the process of creation of the literary sense. The third chapter is a reconstruction of Tynianov's conception of the historical prose, specifically of the mechanisms by which historical facts are transformed into literary events. Tynianov thought that the task of the historical novelist is to depict his hero as an actor, to demonstrate that as a wearer of many masks he is a creator of appearances, ambiguities. Here, in the «figure of fiction» (Andrei Belyi), the very idea of the historical prose and rhetoric employed in «The Wax Effigy», history and literature meet each other. In his last theoretical work, «On parody» Tynianov writes about the so-called sham structure of parody. In his opinion every parody is a text about other texts and «serious» work which could be read at the same time as a text about «reality». This twofold structure of parody is that of «The Wax Effigy»: that text speaks about ambiguities of the history and about ambiguities of the literary sense, about social reality of the past and - about the working of the literature itself. «The Wax Effigy» is written as a autoreflective text, as an experiment in literary semantics, as a system of literary ambiguities - of hero, rhetoric and the text itself. The meaning of the novel is created not by the embodiment extraliterary idea, but by the process of signification accomplished inside the work of literature. In this sense Tynianov's novel is parody, a break with the tradition of the historical novel preceding «The Wax Effigy».

Olen maa johon tahdot : Timo K. Mukan maailmankuvan poetiikkaa

The dissertation deals with the prose texts of the Finnish writer Timo K. Mukka, renowned for his depictions of his native Lapland. This research concerns the creation of world view in Mukka s prose, which is approached by studying what Mikhail Bakhtin calls generic change. Such genre change is the most characteristic feature of Mukka s prose. His prose is permeated with two genres in particular and changes between them: the ballad-like, archaistic and romantic prose-poem style and naturalistic, even grotesque expressions. In addition, these genres are associated with sublime and grotesque styles so that generic change tends to involve also stylistic changes in Mukka s prose. This study probes the tension-filled interrelationships between the ballad and naturalistic prose by examining the discourse of Mukka s characters. It is shown that these characters invariably find themselves in what Bakhtin calls the chronotope of the threshold; that is, the plots of Mukka s novels and short stories depict situations in which the characters are faced with decisions and deeds that will profoundly impact their lives. The discourse of the threshold affects the characters speech by filling it with dialogical dimensions. This makes their communication ethically loaded and polyphonic. This study is based on Mikhail Bakhtin s theory of the novel and international Bakhtin s studies. I also take into consideration the theoretical developments of Bakhtin s work; for example, the concept of ressentiment, adapted from the Bakhtin scholar Michel André Bernstein, plays an important role. In order to explicate on the psychology of Mukka s characters such as melancholy, abjection, sadism, and taboo I use the concepts familiar from Freudian psychoanalysis. The corpus of my research consists of the following texts: the long prose texts Maa on syntinen laulu. Balladi (1964), Tabu (1965), Täältä jostakin. Romaani (1965), Laulu Sipirjan lapsista. Romaani (1966), Ja kesän heinä kuolee. Kertomus sairaudesta (1968) ja Kyyhky ja unikko (1970) and the short story collections Koiran kuolema (1967) ja Lumen pelko (1970), and with Tabu published short story Sankarihymni , the short story Katkelma laajemmasta laulelmasta from the collection Rakastaa: Kaksitoista novellia rakkaudesta (1965) and also the short stories which were published in various Finnish journals: Yöt (1965), Liisa (1967), Tyttö (1967) ja Näin hetki sitten ketun (1970). I pay particular attention to the novel Maa on syntinen laulu, because it expresses the generic change characteristic of Mukka s world view in a specifically clear and lively way. The dissertation is in Finnish. Key words: Timo K. Mukka, world view, genre change, ballad, naturalism, grotesque realism, Mikhail Bakhtin, dialogism, polyphony, chronotope, sublime, grotesque, ressentiment, Sigmund Freud, melancholy, taboo, abject, sadism, reduced laughter, modern parody.

Passion vallassa : Hermostunut aika Minna Canthin teoksissa

Under the power of passion. The age of nervousness in Minna Canth s works This research contemplates the psychology of Minna Canth s characters through the historical image of man in late 19th century Europe. The central operative term of the study is passion , understood as a twofold philosophical concept that includes both desire and suffering. The method of this study is historical and contextual. The study interprets the passions and the psychology of Canth s characters as they were understood in their own time. The indicator of the relevant contexts is the realist and naturalist genre of Canth s works. New research on the genre of the time is also the basis of a new kind of psychological approach to Canth s works. The most important context of passion in Canth s works is the positivistic and pathological image of man at the end of the 19th century. Then, passion was widely discussed, and was perceived as a physiological phenomenon that influenced humans neurologically and caused different kinds of physiological symptoms and nervous disorders. But at the same time, passion was understood as a manifestation of human instincts and drives. The naturalistic literature of the day aimed at creating deterministic studies of human morality and psychology following Émile Zola s application of experimental science methods in his writing. The pathological image of man is most explicitly manifested in Canth s formerly unknown short story Lääkäri (Doctor, 1891), in which a doctor who is interested in psychology visits a jail to meet a peculiar criminal, a girl who feels no remorse for her multiple crimes. In other works of Canth the medically motivated viewpoint is more hidden in the deterministic narrative and depiction of the characters. The present study approaches the passion in Minna Canth s works through five thematic chapters, in witch characters are interpreted suffering from blind love, ennui, crippling romantic idealism, melancholy, guilt and nostalgia, and their stories can be prescribed as medical histories which depict the born of the passion and its development towards ruin. All protagonists are also manifestations of their own time. Canth criticises the modern life and its demands as well as social defects through the tragic stories of individuals. The study demonstrates that Canth did not, like previous research has suggested, wait until the 1890s before writing works of a psychological nature but had already written according to the psychological paradigm of her time in Työmiehen vaimo (1885). The social and psychological interests intertwine in Canth s works and are not exclusionary as has formerly been interpreted. Canth is also critical of the medical power implicit in the naturalist experimental method and this shows itself especially in her depiction of working class women.

Groteski suomalaisessa kirjallisuudessa : Neljä tapaustutkimusta

The grotesque in Finnish literature. Four case studies The topic of the dissertation is the grotesque in Finnish literature. The dissertation is twofold. Firstly, it focuses on the genre tradition of the grotesque, especially its other main branch, which has been named, following in Bakhtin s footsteps, subjective ( chamber ) grotesque, to be distinguished from carnivalistic ( public square ) grotesque. Secondly, the dissertation analyses and interprets four fictional literary works within the context of the grotesque genre, constructed on the basis of previous research and literature. These works are the novel Rakastunut rampa (1922) by Joel Lehtonen, the novel Prins Efflam (1953, transl. into Finnish as Kalastajakylän prinssi) by Sally Salminen, the short story Orjien kasvattaja (1965) by Juhani Peltonen, and the novel Veljeni Sebastian (1985) by Annika Idström. What connects these stirring novels, representing early or full modernism, is the supposition that they belong to the tradition of the subjective grotesque, not only due to occasional details, but also in a more comprehensive manner. The premises are that genre is a significant part of the work and that reading a novel in the context of the genre tradition adds something essential to the interpretation of individual texts and reveals meanings that might otherwise go unnoticed. The main characteristic of the grotesque is breaking the norm. This is accomplished through different means: degradation, distortion, inversion, combination, exaggeration and multiplication. The most significant strategy for breaking the norm is incongruence: the grotesque combines conflicting or mutually exclusive categories and elements on different levels. Simultaneously, the grotesque unravels categorisations and questions our way of perceiving the world. The grotesque not only poses a threat to one s identity, but can also pose a threat to the cognitive process. An analysis of the fictional works is presented as case studies of each chosen work as a whole. The analysis is based on the method of close reading, which draws on both classical and postclassical narratology, and the analysis and interpretation are expanded within the genre tradition of the grotesque. The grotesque is also analysed in terms of its relationship to the neighbouring categories and genre traditions, such as the tragic, the sublime, the horror story and the coming-of-age story. This dissertation shows how the grotesque is constructed repeatedly on deviations from the norm as well as on incongruence, also in the works analysed, and how it stratifies in these novels on and between different levels, such as the story, text, narration, composition and the world of the novels. In all the works analysed, the grotesque reduces and subverts. Again and again it reveals different sides of humanity stripped of idealisation and glorification. The dissertation reveals that Finnish literature is not a solitary island, even regarding the grotesque, for it continues and offers variations of the common tradition of grotesque literature, and likewise draws on grotesque visual arts. This dissertation is the first monograph in Finnish literature research focusing on the subjective grotesque.

Fritz Hackert Collection. 1984-1988

Clippings about Jews in Germany, Kristallnacht and the Holocaust. Also included are 2 full articles: ‘”Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg”. Todesbilder aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg und der Nachkriegszeit‘ by Bernd Hüppauf (offprint 1984); and ‚Blut‘ by Károly Pap, a short story, told in first person (fact or fiction?) of a Jewish boy’s encounter with anti-Semitism and his Jewish identity, undated typescript, 14 pages.

Oh Holly, The Fish is Dead

From Kurt Vonnegut to Stephen King, many novelists use metanarrative techniques to insert fictional versions of themselves in the stories they tell. The function of deploying such techniques is often to draw attention to the liminal space between the fictional constructs inherent in the novel as a form, and the real world from which the constructs draw inspiration, and indeed, are read by an audience. For emerging writers working in short form narratives, however, the structural demands of the short story or flash fiction make the use of similar techniques problematic in the level of depth to which they can be deployed. ‘Oh Holly, the fish is dead’ is the fourth in a series of short stories that work to overcome the structural limitations of a succinct form by developing a fractured fictional version of the author over a number of pieces and published across a range of sites. The accumulative affect is a richer metanarrative textual arrangement that also allows for the individual short stories to function independently.