Magical realism and irony's 'edge': rereading magical realism and Kim Scott's Benang

Magical realism has been the subject of much earnest theorising, implicating the narrative mode in postcolonial projects of cultural regeneration not only in Latin America but around the world. The claim that its hybrid vision simultaneously transgresses and supplements Western ratiocinative epistemologies has seen the mode become over-determined and dismissed as a postcolonial cliche. Rarely noted, however, is the ironic nature of the literary mode. Yet the trademark representation of the magical in a realist narrative is marked by a conspicuous incongruity, which is not only necessary to magical realism's aesthetic effect but which also provides a strong incentive for ironic readings. This paper will reread magical realism through Kim Scott's Benang in order to recognise the ironic incongruity at play in magical realism and to revitalise the mode's 'edge'.

Cross-continental comparison of national food consumption survey methods—A narrative review

Food consumption surveys are performed in many countries. Comparison of results from those surveys across nations is difficult because of differences in methodological approaches. While consensus about the preferred methodology associated with national food consumption surveys is increasing, no inventory of methodological aspects across continents is available. The aims of the present review are (1) to develop a framework of key methodological elements related to national food consumption surveys, (2) to create an inventory of these properties of surveys performed in the continents North- America, South-America, Asia and Australasia, and (3) to discuss and compare these methodological properties cross-continentally. A literature search was performed using a fixed set of search terms in different databases. The inventory was completed with all accessible information from all retrieved publications and corresponding authors were requested to provide additional information where missing. Surveys from ten individual countries, originating from four continents are listed in the inventory. The results are presented according to six major aspects of food consumption surveys. The most common dietary intake assessment method used in food consumption surveys worldwide is the 24-HDR (24 h dietary recall), occasionally administered repeatedly, mostly using interview software. Only three countries have incorporated their national food consumption surveys into continuous national health and nutrition examination surveys.

Beyond narrative: sound design as dramaturgy in contemporary performance

Autobiographical performance is often characterised by a linguistic approach to storytelling. This paper presents discoveries from a practice-led research inquiry into the mediated translation of narrative elements within the making of autobiographical performance Train Tracks and Rooftops. Specifically, it presents the way sonic texts emerged within the process of translating away from narrative form. The paper sets out the technical aspects of the process and critiques the shift in meaning that comes from an understanding of sound dramaturgy and sound as performance architecture. The experience of the maker/performers' relationship to their live and mediated voice is discussed.

The effects of practice on children's ability to apply ground rules in a narrative interview

Despite the widespread use of ground rules in forensic interview guidelines, it is unknown whether children retain and apply these rules throughout narrative interviews. We evaluated the capacity of 260 five- to nine-year-olds to utilize three ground rules. At the beginning of the interview all children heard the rules; half also practiced them. Children then responded to open-ended prompts about a repeated laboratory event and were assessed for their application of the rules. Logistic regressions revealed that practice only benefitted the use of the "don't know" rule. Although the children accurately answered "don't understand" and "correct me" practice questions, practice appeared to give no greater benefit than just hearing the rules. Results suggest that the current format of ground rule practice in interview guidelines is appropriate for the "don't know" rule, but the other rules may require more extensive practice with this age group. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Still serving hot soup? Two hundred years of a charitable food sector in Australia: a narrative review

OBJECTIVE: Despite the importance of the charitable food sector for a proportion of the Australian population, there is uncertainty about its present and future contributions to wellbeing. This paper describes its nature and examines its scope for improving health and food security. METHODS: The review, using systematic methods for public health research, identified peer-reviewed and grey literature relevant to Australian charitable food programs (2002 to 2012). RESULTS: Seventy publications met the criteria and informed this paper. The sector includes food banks, more than 3,000 community agencies and 800 school breakfast programs. It provides food for up to two million people annually. The scope extends beyond emergency food relief and includes case management, advocacy and other support. Weaknesses include a food supply that is sub-optimal, resource limitations and lack of evidence to evaluate or support their work towards food security. CONCLUSIONS: The sector supports people experiencing disadvantage and involves multiple organisations, working in a variety of settings, to provide food for up to 8% of the population. The limits on the sector's capacity to address food insecurity by itself must be acknowledged so that civil society, government and the food industry can support sufficient, nutritious and affordable food for all.

Imagined terrain: literary nomadism in Venice and the Veneto

Many poets and writers have used Venice and, to a lesser extent, the Veneto as a creative topos. There is both the writing that might be said to belong to the Italian/Venetian literary tradition, as well as the non-Italian tradition of writing Venice, a phenomenon that spans English literature, in particular, from William Shakespeare’s time, to the Romantic period and into the present day. This paper explores my relationship to this creative topos and the writers and writing that are associated with it. In particular, it focuses on the notion of literary nomadism: a method for interacting with the literature of Venice and the Veneto that allows me to find intersections between my own work and that which already exists in a broad historical and literary terrain. Moving between and across the literatures of this region, I argue that it is possible to find multiple points of reference that guide and inform my own poetic responses to it, and which reflect my own subjective nomadism and in-between-ness. By taking such an approach I am able to map my hybrid, transnational and transcultural identity into this space, in order to locate myself—and my writing—in the ‘imagined terrain’ I have chosen as a creative topos.

Tim Winton: the literary and the popular

An exploration of the fiction of Australian author Tim Winton, investigating his popular and literary appeal.

The literary dawn: re-reading Louisa Lawson's poetry and politics

Scholarship on Louisa Lawson and the Dawn has necessarily often focussed on the important and wide-ranging achievements of her feminist work for women's legal, social and political rights. Indeed, as Audrey Oldfield notes, "Louisa Lawson was one of the most important figures in the New South Wales woman suffrage movement" (261). However, I want to focus here on the periodical publishing context of the Dawn as a means of pointing to further discussions of Lawson's significance as a poet. Megan Roughley has noted that the Dawn "was a forum for political causes, especially the movement for the emancipation and enfranchisement of women, and, as importantly to Louisa, the temperance movement" (ix), with influential articles appearing on a wide range of important issues including divorce reform. Yet, Lawson's construction of the Dawn was also highly literary from its first issue, with editorial choices and literary references reflecting her awareness of political and feminist literary culture. In addition to references such as the above quotation from Tennyson, Lawson included an epigraph from Joseph Addison's play Cato in the list of contents: "A day, an hour, in virtuous liberty, is worth a whole eternity in bondage." Citing Addison, a significant figure in the American Revolution, demonstrates Lawson's linking of radical class politics with feminism, as well as highlighting the importance of literary dialogues to Lawson's publishing work. Likewise, the concerns of Lawson's poetry are clearly situated within a continuing female tradition, and Lawson's poetry, when examined in the feminist literary context of the Dawn, reveals a radical and sophisticated poetics.

Cyborg presence in narrative theatre

New technologies are transforming the shape and function of contemporary performance practice. Dance in particular has been at the forefront of dissolving the boundaries between humans and technology. In Australia alone, works such as Gideon Obarzanek's GLOW (Chunky Move) and Garry Stewart's Proximity (Australian Dance Theatre) have offered technology a role traditionally preserved only for the live human performer. As these technologies infiltrate theatre practice and their capacity to be co-actors with humans on stage increases, we need to carefully interrogate the notion of the actor's presence. For an overwhelming number of scholars and critics, presence is the defining quality of theatrical performance. Theatre has been privileged as the site where people witness other people together in the same physical space. Digital technologies can be seen as a threat to this and to the actor's presence. Cormac Power's Presence in Play provides a comprehensive analysis of theatrical presence that encapsulates a poststructuralist critique of presence while maintaining the notion of 'presence' as a key aspect of theatre. In this article, I take up Power's category of the literal mode of presence and examine three case studies that use digital technology in ways that disturb traditional conceptions of presence. I investigate the impact that digital technologies in live performance have on theatre's claims to literal presence. I also investigate the indirect impact that these technologies have on forms of fictional and auratic presence (these are Power's terms, which I will define shortly). First, I will establish the centrality of presence to the vast body of commentary on theatre; then, I will draw on Derrida's analysis of the metaphysics of presence to unsettle dominant assumptions about the function of presence in theatre, arguing that such a privileging of presence demonises projected media as a form of contamination that impedes theatre's ability to represent 'truth'. I use Jennifer Parker-Starbuck's term 'Cyborg Theatre' to discuss three examples of digital performance that have used technology to question and challenge our relationship to technology in everyday life. These works challenge traditional notions of selfhood and force us to interrogate the borders between the live and the mediated.

Creative and literary responses to Australian middle-class experiences of financial upheaval

This thesis—comprising a novel, The Company He Keeps, and exegesis—explores the near absence of literary fiction written about the Australian Middle Class and their responses to financial stress (1980 – 2008), finding that the language of global economic reform has triumphed over political discourse and, in particular, silenced women.

Effects of parent and child behaviours on overweight and obesity in infants and young children from disadvantaged backgrounds: systematic review with narrative synthesis

BACKGROUND: Despite the crucial need to develop targeted and effective approaches for obesity prevention in children most at risk, the pathways explaining socioeconomic disparity in children's obesity prevalence remain poorly understood.

METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of the literature that investigated causes of weight gain in children aged 0-5 years from socioeconomically disadvantaged or Indigenous backgrounds residing in OECD countries. Major electronic databases were searched from inception until December 2015. Key words identified studies addressing relationships between parenting, child eating, child physical activity or sedentary behaviour and child weight in disadvantaged samples.

RESULTS: A total of 32 articles met the inclusion criteria. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool quality rating for the studies ranged from 25 % (weak) to 100 % (strong). Studies predominantly reported on relationships between parenting and child weight (n = 21), or parenting and child eating (n = 12), with fewer (n = 8) investigating child eating and weight. Most evidence was from socio-economically disadvantaged ethnic minority groups in the USA. Clustering of diet, weight and feeding behaviours by socioeconomic indicators and ethnicity precluded identification of independent effects of each of these risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS: This review has highlighted significant gaps in our mechanistic understanding of the relative importance of different aspects of parent and child behaviours in disadvantaged population groups.