School of Communications and Arts Publications

Collected Poems / Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:45:11 PDT

In this major work, Andrew Taylor gathers in one place all of his poetry published since the late 1960s, leading in part to his receiving the awards of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (regional) 1986 and the 1995 WA Premier’s Prize. This body of work had contributed to some dozen books of previously-published poetry, and to this he adds a substantial collection of new and unpublished material.

Trollope and the Church of England

Jill Durey — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:50:48 PDT

Trollope and the Church of England is the first detailed study of Trollope's attitude towards his Anglican faith and the Church, and the impact this had on his works. It provides a comprehensive account of the main issues and interests in his life, including an examination of the people and ecclesiastical issues behind his work. Durey controversially explodes the myth that Trollope's most popular characters just happened to be clerical and were simply a skit on the Church, by revealing the true extent of his lifelong fascination with religion. The study extends beyond his most popular novels to lesser-known works, and to his non-fiction, to elucidate his concerns as they are related to the Church and religion.

Design culture in Liverpool, 1880-1914 : the origins of the Liverpool School of Architecture

Christopher Crouch — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:40:20 PDT

By the 1930s the Liverpool School of Architecture was the most famous British school of architecture in the world, promoting modern architecture and city planning internationally. This book looks at the cultural environment in Liverpool at the turn of the twentieth century which enabled such an important institution to come to fruition. It examines attitudes towards design practice through the work of patrons, practitioners, institutions and theorists in the city, and considers the way their ideas were formed by national and international trends. From a city microcosm of contesting design aesthetics emerged a unique synthesis that was to exert a profound international influence in architectural and planning design.

Technoculture : from alphabet to cybersex

Lelia Green — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:27:50 PDT

Technology was once thought of only in relation to machines, manufacturing or the military. Now it pervades every aspect of our lives.

In Technoculture, Lelia Green focuses on the technologies of communication, from things we don't even think of as technology, like the alphabet or electricity, to the rapidly-developing world of cyberspace. She argues that technology is never neutral, rather, it is closely linked to culture, society and government policy.

Green looks at what drives technological change, and demonstrates that the adoption of new technologies is never inevitable. She also explores how a variety of technology cultures coexist and interact: industrial culture, media culture, information culture, and now 'technoculture'. Some communities reap the benefits of technocultures, while others are bypassed or even damaged.

Technoculture offers a broad and accessible introduction to the complex issues surrounding technology, communications, culture and society for students and anyone else interested in making sense of one of the key issues of the twenty-first century.

Living with the earth : mastery to mutuality

Rodney J. Gibblett — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:47:30 PDT

This book is about the relationship between humans and the earth, people and place, culture and nature. It argues that the concepts and categories of natural history, scientific ecology, landscape aesthetics and their associated practices in conservation landscapes and industrial land use work-over (if not overwork) nature (land, living beings, air and water). By contrast, conservation counter-aesthetics, Australian Aboriginal Country and symbiotic livelihood in a bioregion work (with) the earth as living being. Beginning with a historical account of the cultural construction of nature, it ends with a contemporary discussion of land symbiotic. It moves from the discourse of nature as dead machine to the practices of living with the earth as living being. On the way it critiques nature conservationism in national parks and wilderness for its will to mastery over nature. It goes on to undertake an ecological psychoanalysis of the oral and anal sadism of industrial land use in mining and pastoralism. The drive here is to promote eco-mental health. Arguing for an extension of an ethics and practice of landcare beyond the conservation of special places, the book maintains that earthcare should embrace the whole earth, indeed the entire ecosphere. It traces and calls for a paradigm shift from the sanctuarism of national parks and wilderness to the sacrality of Aboriginal Country and the living earth. Ecological sustainability rather than ecologically sustainable development is the crucial touchstone. To this end a postmodern, political ecology is developed, applied to and illustrated by reference to a wide range of British, American and Australian examples.

The Stukeley plays : The Battle of Alcazar by George Peele ; The famous history of the life and death of Captain Thomas Stukeley

Charles Edelman — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:17:59 PDT

Sir Thomas Stukeley, the notorious English courtier, pirate, adventurer and soldier, died at the Battle of Alcazar in Morocco in 1578, while serving in the army of King Sebastian of Portugal. This volume comprises the first modern-spelling, annotated edition of two plays in which he is a major character: George Peele's The Battle of Alcazar (c.1588), and the anonymous Famous History of the Life and Death of Captain Thomas Stukeley (c.1596).

In his extensive introduction and commentary, Charles Edelman discusses the plays' authorship, their many textual problems and what they reveal about Elizabethan performance practices. He also challenges most of the traditional assumptions about them. This edition shows that both works, long held to be unperformable, are instead fascinating and worthwhile representatives of the most exciting age in the history of the theat

Identity and justice : conflicts, contradictions and contingencies

Debbie Rodan — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:00:22 PDT

Debbie Rodan adds breadth and depth to the field of literary, cultural and gender studies through a meticulous investigation of notions such as re-presentation, justice and legitimation. She examines their historical and philosophical trajectories as well as their politico-juridical underpinnings through an ambitious and timely recuperation of the Enlightenment projects of rationality and emancipation. The point of departure is a critical engagement with the theoretical work of John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas and Jean-François Lyotard. Rodan claims each can be read as foregrounding diverse ways of constituting identity within the social world. Recognition of other people's identity at the social, cultural and national level is crucial to the possibility of justice. Rodan tests the concepts of justice, legitimation and identity through detailed critical readings/analyses of a range of texts. The range includes the film East is East, a number of auto/biographical narratives as well as the Australian government report, Bringing Them Home, which is concerned with the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. She avoids polarising Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal notions of justice, identity etc. by including texts which raise and problematise questions of ethnicity and gender

John Winston Howard : the definitive biography

Wayne Errington et al. — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:49:16 PDT

In John Winston Howard, a frank and engrossing portrait of the Prime Minister, Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen contend that John Howard is the first professional politician the country has seen, who has left a deep and lasting impact on modern politics, government and the country. For the first time ever, in unprecedented and extensive interviews conducted by the authors with Howard's family, friends, political supporters and detractors, we get a rare insight into the man and the government he runs. The result is a portrait of how Team Howard operates, and why it has been so successful. John Winston Howard is a revealing study of the nature of modern politics, and of how dirty the game can get. Crucially, it offers an insightful understanding of the John Howard who lies between the public vitriol and the ungainly praise that passes as analysis.

Rob Riley : an Aboriginal leader's quest for justice

Quentin Beresford — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:27:00 PDT

Rob Riley was at the centre of debates that polarised views in race relations in Australia: land rights, treaty, deaths in custody, self- determination, justice system, native title and the Stolen Generation. Tragically, he took his own life in 1996, shocking community leaders and citizens alike.