Murdoch University
The Krishna Somers Foundation announces the fourth lecture/talk of the year. The presentation is by Dr Don Randall, an Associate Professor in English at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. His paper will be of special interest to students and staff interested in Australian Literature and culture. Please come to the talk and engage in a dialogue with
Associate Professor Don Randall
over some excellent Western Australian wine (or orange juice).
When: Thursday May 27 4.30 PM
Where: Education and Humanities 3.041
Title: Cross-Cultural Performance in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon
In the decade since its publication in 1993, Remembering Babylon has met with considerable critical acclaim , but has also faced quite severe critique - particularly with respect to the novel's treatment of cross-cultural encounter and its consequences. The present paper evaluates the arguments against Malouf by detailed examination of his engagement with the topic of cross-culturality. It then goes on to consider the biases and misrepresentations that Malouf's opponents locate within the broader context of postcolonial studies today - biases and misrepresentations of which Malouf's case is ostensibly symptomatic.
Don Randall is a Distinguished Visitor in the Department of English, Communication and Cultural Studies at UWA, where he is writing a critical monograph on David Malouf for Manchester UP. Having received his PhD from the University of Alberta in 1995, he subsequently held two distinguished postdoctoral fellowships in Canada before moving to Turkey in 1999. He has published extensively on colonial and postcolonial literatures, in such journals as Texas Studies in Literature and Language, New Literatures Review, Novel, and Victorian Literature and Culture. His book Kipling's Imperial Boy: Adolescence and Cultural Hybridity was published by Palgrave in 2000.
