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Anne Maxwell Anne Maxwell i(A126180 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Australian Photography and Transnationalism Anne Maxwell , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 2 2020;
'Transnationalism is a theoretical concept which today is widely used to describe the relations that have formed, and continue to form, across state boundaries (Howard 3). Used initially by scholars in the early 2000s to refer to the flow of goods and scientific knowledge between nations that ‘has increased significantly in modern times beginning with trade and empires in 1500’ (Howard 4), it has in recent years come to include the category of culture, a development that has in turn sparked a flood of publications aimed at interrogating nationalist histories. Among the first of these publications in Australia was Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake’s ground-breaking work Connected Worlds (2005), which radically transformed our conception of Australia’s past by repositioning Australian history ‘on the outer rim of Pacific and Indian Ocean studies, as a nodal point in British imperial studies and connected, or cast in a comparative light, with other settler colonial nations’ (Simmonds, Rees and Clark 1).' (Introduction)
1 'The Beast Within' : Degeneration in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Three Australian Short Stories Anne Maxwell , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 31 October vol. 30 no. 3 2015;

'Both Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Clarke’s ‘The Mystery of Major Molineux’ (1881) appear to have influenced a small group of Australian short story writers who were working in the decade immediately preceding Federation. Their work appeared in The Bulletin, The Boomerang and the Australian Journal, as well as in privately edited collections of short fiction. This essay examines Campbell McKellar's 'The Premier's Secret' (1887) and Ernst Favenc's 'My Only Murder' (1893), in addition to Clarke’s ‘The Mystery of Major Molineux’, to determine how these three writers used the concepts of degeneration, the double brain and multiple personality, and to what ends. My contention is that, like Stevenson, the colonial writers explore atavism and reversion by using motifs and elements drawn from Gothic and popular crime fiction to expose the depravity of members of the nation’s ruling classes, but paradoxically also to lend them a more human face. While we might recognise greater moral ambiguity in the Australian stories compared to Stevenson’s, accounting for that ambiguity is more difficult. One possible explanation is that the writers were not just more mindful of the public’s growing taste for fictions that shocked and thrilled, they were also more willing to satisfy this demand. A second is the greater class mobility within Australian society compared to that of Britain, and that this generated a stronger tolerance for the savage impulses that lay at the heart of the settler enterprise. In other words, in that the violence that accompanied settlement had become a part of everyday life, the Australian stories appear to be more at ease with the atavistic elements of their characters – the veneer of civilisation seems to be much thinner in Australia than in Britain. Closely related to this idea is Australian audiences’ more ready acceptance of personal traits like eccentricity, mateship and anti-authoritarianism, which can arguably be traced to the colony’s convict beginnings but also to its mounting desire for an independent future.'

Source: Abstract.

1 Falling from View : Whiteness, Appropriation and the Complicities of Desire in The Postcolonial Eye Anne Maxwell , Odette Kelada , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 3 2012;

— Review of The Postcolonial Eye : White Australian Desire and the Visual Field of Race Alison Ravenscroft , 2012 single work criticism
1 Education, Literature and the Emotions : A Salute to Eleanor Dark’s Prelude to Christopher Anne Maxwell , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012;
'The current neoliberal climate has seen important changes to what is being taught to Humanities students in the Higher Education sector. With the emphasis increasingly on courses that make money and prepare students for vocations what is being lost is the kinds of reading practices and reading experiences that make for thoughtful caring citizens.

Both the writer Margaret Atwood in her novel Oryx and Crake and the philosopher Martha Nussbaum in her Not For Profit: Why Democracy needs the Humanities have reflected on the ways in which the study of literature and the arts contribute to the notion of a caring society and thoughtful global citizens. Nussbaum in particular has emphasised the importance of reading and teaching literature that values the finer emotions- those that cultivate justice, compassion, and empathy, seeing in these the pathway to what she calls human flourishing. I argue that of Australian literary texts that aim for something similar, a stand out example is Eleanor Dark's Prelude to Christopher. Although written more than eighty years ago during a different phase of capitalism, the novel's passionate critique of eugenics renders it surprisingly relevant to today's educational situation.' (Author's abstract)
1 Biopolitics and Eleanor Dark's Prelude to Christopher Anne Maxwell , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , June vol. 26 no. 2 2011; (p. 76-90)
'In 1934 Miles Franklin described Eleanor Dark's second novel, Prelude to Christopher, as 'a terribly beautiful piece of work' (128). One of Dark's earliest critics, Franklin attributed the book's strength to the author's deft handling of a tragic theme and 'the urge to speak the naked truth' (125). Later critics emphasised the book's experimental style, especially its skilled handling o the multiple viewpoints, flashbacks and interior monologues associated with high modernism. By contrast, recent critics have focused on the novel's subject matter and Dark's engagement with the biopolitical norms that manifested in eugenics. This essay pursues that focus. It aims to flesh out the ways in which Dark's novel registers the potential impact of eugenics on liberal conceptions of freedom and to explore some of the ways in which it attempts to reclaim that freedom...(' From author's introduction p. 76)
1 Postcolonial Criticism, Ecocriticism and Climate Change : A Tale of Melbourne under Water in 2035 Anne Maxwell , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , March vol. 45 no. 1 2009; (p. 15-26)
The difficulty that postcolonial critics have found in opposing the recent, aggressive phase of capitalism known as 'globalization' has led to a crisis in relevancy in the discipline. Engaging with ecocritical discourses is one way to overcome this crisis. Some postcolonial poets and writers are already working in this way, and although historically ecocriticism has posed problems for postcolonial critics, the changes that ecocriticism has recently undergone mean that such concerns are fading. An area of study that is especially promising for postcolonial critics is analysing apocalyptic dystopias that speculate on the dire social and physical consequences of global warming. Taking a text by a leading Australian author as an example, this article argues that criticism that combines postcolonial and ecocritical concepts is able not only to expose late capitalism's crucial role in global warming but also to show readers that the political choices they make now will have lasting consequences for the lifestyles of coming generations. -- Author's abstract
1 Melancholy in Mudrooroo's Dr Wooreddy's Prescription Anne Maxwell , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , Winter vol. 15 no. 2 2002; (p. 63-83) Contemporary Issues in Australian Literature 2002; (p. 63-83)
The author writes: 'In this essay, I will focus on a recent Australian novel [Dr Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the End of the World] to support my contention that the concept of melancholy was being employed by indigenous writers in the 1980s, at the very time postmodernism was gaining ascendancy, precisely because of its oppositional potential. At the same time, in using a text by an Aboriginal writer, I hope to be able to shed some light on the question of the universal appeal of melancholy' (63).
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