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Paper submissions
are now closed
The beach has long
been a privileged site in Australian culture, though it is
a while since the discipline has paid it much attention. Recently
there have been arguments published which see it as the quintessential
Australian location. Perhaps it is time that cultural studies
returned to the idea of the beach to see what it offered.
We would also be happy to see this dealt with as a more abstract,
metaphoric notion -- as it is in the Neville Shute novel (film
and tv mini-series) where it represents both the physical
and temporal end of the world.
In choosing this
topic as the theme for this year's CSAA
conference, we hope to encourage a wide range of papers which
nonetheless will be able to draw on the theme to give coherence
to three days in December devoted to members' diverse range
of interests. In particular we would like to receive proposals
which address the theme through one of the following three
broad areas:
- Australianness
- Pleasure
- The End of the
World.
Investigations
of the body, of leisure and tourism, of nuclear discourse,
of the history of Australian cultural studies itself (remember
"Sandiotics and Surfalism"?) all seem particularly well suited
to the theme. More specifically we would welcome papers with
an Australian focus on surfing films and their distinctive
forms of exhibition, on key popular fictions of the beach
like Puberty Blues and on the cultural history of tanning
(in conjunction of course with skin cancer protection campaigns).
Proposals
Proposals (of no
more than 250 words) should be directed to the Organising
Committee, Department of English, University of Queensland,
St Lucia, Qld. Australia. 4072 to arrive no later than 18
August 2000.
Dates and Venue
4 - 6 December
2000
The University of Queensland
(St Lucia Campus)
Brisbane
Australia
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Contact
- On The Beach Chair |
Frances Bonner
Email: f.bonner@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Tel: +61-(0)7-3365-1438
Fax: +61-(0)7-3365-2799
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