AustLit

Dolin examines the reading habits of Australians in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Using Brian Helgeland's film A Knight's Tale as an expression of the ongoing popularity of Chaucer, Trigg observes that 'rich texts continue to generate inspiration across a range of cultural fields'. Trigg asserts that 'this is why we read and reread canonical texts' - they offer the reader an ongoing opportunity for active participation in literature.

Ian Templeman examines the role of the publisher within the academy. He believes that universities of significance 'must include a publishing program' and this must be 'a program that reaches out to the community and is sustained as one of the essential elements in the university's cultural return to the community.'

Burns examines changes in rationale for the universal teaching of reading. She traces different emphases from the 1872 Victorian Education Act that proclaimed literacy as 'a way to the common good' through to the modern education goal of producing a 'functional individual'. Burns argues that teachers, academics and intellectuals have a role to play in reassembling 'the reasons for reading so that here, in the twenty-first century, we may still have the betterment of society and the individual in view.'

Using examples from 19th century British and American literature, Sussex examines the role of literary 'gatekeepers' in establishing or decrying new forms of writing. She reflects, 'even before a genre is named, even before its features are cemented in place, we can see authority games, hierarchies being organised, the ranking of works against the achievements of their precursors.' Sussex concludes 'in this respect little has changed'.

Fraser enumerates her experiences at writers' festivals and cultural events around the country and concludes 'there is a demonstrable demand in Australia for serious critical discussion of books and ideas, of politics and policy, and there is also an appreciation and understanding of the yeasty agency of writing and ideas, and a desire to see it working, in the bush as much as in the cities.'