English and Literary Studies
From novels and poems, to plays, films and television, we study how meaning is made
Research in English and Literary Studies is concerned with the creative expression of the world in novels, poems, plays, films and television. We address the creative texts that societies produce and ask what they mean. From Shakespeare to Netflix and from critical theory to creative writing, we take imagination seriously. Whether it’s imagining social inequality and environmental change, or simply what it means to be in love, creative works provide our deepest frameworks for understanding our lived experience and the lives of others. Studying literature makes you literate in the widest sense.
This discipline covers the literatures of Britain, America, Australia and postcolonial societies, and popular culture and film. We look at the rich history of the Western literary tradition, including Shakespeare, Jane Austen, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf; writers who have done much to shape the way we live imaginatively in the world today. We also investigate the ways literature works in today's modern, digital and globalised landscapes.
Our courses
Project highlights
Through their research, staff members explore a number of genres, historical periods and thematic areas, and are widely published in international journals, monographs and edited volumes.
Some of our current projects include:
- After: Coming of Age in an era of conflict
Dr Ned Curthoys examines the way that coming of age narratives in children's literature and graphic novels can help readers understand what it means to experience war and injustice from a child's point of view. - Australian women’s writing
Professor Tanya Dalziell continues her research on historical and contemporary women’s writing in Australia. - Creative Approaches to Crisis
Dr Catherine Noske considers the possibilities in settler Australian creative writing to both encompass and respond to the ongoing crises of colonialism and climate change. - The moment of the essay
Dr Daniel Juckes studies the mechanisms of the personal essay, as well as its role in navigating the demands our culture places on us. - Regional Language Cinemas
Dr Shalmalee Palekar examines postcolonial literatures and Indian cinemas, focusing on the major shifts that occur post-"liberalisation", in regional language cinemas, and in the twenty-first century. - Field and Hearth: The Poetics of Settler Colonialism
Professor Tony Hughes-d'Aeth's project is a study of the farm novel as a transnational genre that accompanied the settler-colonisation of Australasia, Southern Africa and North America. - George Eliot and Conscience in Nineteenth-Century Culture
Dr Jessica Murray explores how George Eliot's imagining of consciousness in her novels engages with changing moral and scientific ideas, as well as an expanding interest in language.
Community and Engagement
Community and Engagement
Westerly Magazine
Since 1956, Westerly has been publishing lively fiction and poetry as well as intelligent articles.
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