AustLit

'This article seeks to show how literary texts can expand, challenge, and advance existing understandings of empathy. In this article I discuss Australian author Jennifer Mills' novel, Dyschronia. Through excursions into the thought of Jacques Derrida and Paul Ricoeur I demonstrate how Dyschronia can reconfigure existing ideas about what it means for humans to empathise with nonhuman animals.' (Publication abstract)

'Aesthetic theorist Theodor Adorno believed that authentic works of art recreate an experience of the individual suffering due to socially imposed mechanisms, as a way of expressing a universal historical truth. Elizabeth Bryer's debut  novel, From Here On, Monsters, published in July 2019, captures a timely human experience as it renders the suffering of Illegal Maritime Arrivals (IMA) at the hands of Australian bureaucracy, a major source of contention in the months preceding last year's federal election.' (Introduction)

'Luke Horton's debut novel The Fogging deconstructs the ways in which mental illness can impact a relationship, while shedding light on how a lack of clear financial prospects can slowly consume a couple. The inability to look at a potentially shared future with hope is a key element in the novel, which highlights how a growing number of academics struggle to maintain their sanity and make ends meet. Through the character of Tom, Luke Horton draws the reader's attention to issues that have long affected academics and that are becoming a major concern for early career researchers. In particular, The Fogging focuses on the almost inevitable childlessness that academics are forced to accept due to a lack of job security and appropriate financial remuneration.' (Introduction)