Arts Voices

An archive of Arts voices

Each slide in this presentation features an excerpt from a work published by a UWA Arts academic.

As you read each passage, consider:

• Voice – personal? formal? any shifts?

• Use of transitions

• Sentence length

• Tone

• Language choice

• Clarity

“Desire in the Desert: Exploring Contemporary Australian Desert Narratives.” Antipodes 15.2 (2001): 119-23.

If desire were the organizing trope of desert narratives, what difference would gender make in the production of personal and national subjectivities? How are writing the land and writing the body implicated? And in what ways are the effects of gender and race inscribed? What other desires would women write about? In my desire to seek other deserts I turn firstly to the ways other white Australian women have written their relations with the desert in fiction, and then to some critical debates which raise issues of competing national, institutional and individual desires at work in writing on the desert.

Alison Bartlett Women’s Studies

If desire were the organizing trope of desert narratives, what difference would gender make in the production of personal and national subjectivities? How are writing the land and writing the body implicated? And in what ways are the effects of gender and race inscribed? What other desires would women write about? In my desire to seek other deserts I turn firstly to the ways other white Australian women have written their relations with the desert in fiction, and then to some critical debates which raise issues of competing national, institutional and individual desires at work in writing on the desert.

The topic of analysis is outlined

in a series of questions.

The questions are answered by showing the

direction the paper takes.

Note the use of ‘I’? It is perfectly fine to

use the personal pronoun here.

Jonathan McIntoshSchool of Music

The aim of the present article is to examine why Indonesians and Australians participate in a gamelan group in Perth, Western Australia. I do this to investigate how musical and social participation in a gamelan group contributes to the construction of individual identities. Drawing on 6 months of participant observation with members of this group, I explore how migration and notions of Indonesia as ‘home’ are important motivating factors for Indonesians to become members of this ensemble. Furthermore, I examine the reasons Australians with no cultural connections to Indonesia choose to participate in a gamelan ensemble. For both Indonesians and Australians, I demonstrate that participation in this activity, as social performance, is central to individual engagement and membership of this musical community.

“Indonesians and Australians Playing Javanese Gamelan in Perth,Western Australia: Community and the Negotiation of Musical Identities.”

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 10.2 (2009): 80-97.

The aim of the present article is to examine why Indonesians and Australians participate in a gamelan group in Perth, Western Australia. I do this to investigate how musical and social participation in a gamelan group contributes to the construction of individual identities. Drawing on 6 months of participant observation with members of this group, I explore how migration and notions of Indonesia as ‘home’ are important motivating factors for Indonesians to become members of this ensemble. Furthermore, I examine the reasons Australians with no cultural connections to Indonesia choose to participate in a gamelan ensemble. For both Indonesians and Australians, I demonstrate that participation in this activity, as social performance, is central to individual engagement and membership of this musical community.

Aims and

objectives clearly indicate

d.The purpose

is clearly

outlined.

Formal languag

e is used.

Our examples come from two types of radio stations: national and local. These stations also represent commercial and noncommercial varieties. More specifically, Triple J Radio Sydney, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation youth station, represents the national, noncommercial type. It is a station aimed at young people (15–30) and is alternative rather than popular. It generally promotes Australia and Australian values. It is considered to be an intelligent station, with programs that are not conventional or conservative. In terms of the social class it is aiming at, it is the middle class. Because it targets young people, its style is very informal. The other radio stations (96FM, 92.9FM, 94.5FM, and Nova radio station) are locally based in Perth, Western Australia and are all commercial radio stations. They aim at a wider range in terms of age in terms of class too: working class and middle class, both educated and uneducated.

Marie-Eve RitzLinguistics

Engel, D.M., Ritz, M.E. “The Use of the Present Perfect in Australian

English” Australian Journal of Linguistics, 20.2 (2000): 119-140.

Our examples come from two types of radio stations: national and local. These stations also represent commercial and noncommercial varieties. More specifically, Triple J Radio Sydney, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation youth station, represents the national, noncommercial type. It is a station aimed at young people (15–30) and is alternative rather than popular. It generally promotes Australia and Australian values. It is considered to be an intelligent station, with programs that are not conventional or conservative. In terms of the social class it is aiming at, it is the middle class. Because it targets young people, its style is very informal. The other radio stations (96FM, 92.9FM, 94.5FM, and Nova radio station) are locally based in Perth, Western Australia and are all commercial radio stations. They aim at a wider range in terms of age in terms of class too: working class and middle class, both educated and uneducated.

Although we might know

these stations,

they are still categorised

and described.

It flows because

each sentence

begins with a transition to show it is developing the main

idea.

Although often under-examined, the role and perceptions of homeland kin, communities and states are important features of long-distance care relations. The migration process often results in fractious family histories as the migrants and their family members who remain behind develop different and sometimes conflicting views of the migration experience and ideas about appropriate family roles (cf. Baldassar 2001a). I attempt to capture something of these processes in the notion of ‘licence to leave’, a concept that resonates with Mason’s (1999: 171) ‘legitimacy of purpose’. Those individuals whose migrations are supported as appropriate lifecourses by themselves and their families, communities and even nations, are likely to enjoy less fractious transnational family relationships than those individuals whose migration meets with disapproval.

“Transnational Families and aged care: the mobility of care and the migrancy of ageing” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33.2 (2007): 275-297.

Loretta BaldassarAnthropology & Sociology

Although often under-examined, the role and perceptions of homeland kin, communities and states are important features of long-distance care relations. The migration process often results in fractious family histories as the migrants and their family members who remain behind develop different and sometimes conflicting views of the migration experience and ideas about appropriate family roles (cf. Baldassar 2001a). I attempt to capture something of these processes in the notion of ‘licence to leave’, a concept that resonates with Mason’s (1999: 171) ‘legitimacy of purpose’. Those individuals whose migrations are supported as appropriate lifecourses by themselves and their families, communities and even nations, are likely to enjoy less fractious transnational family relationships than those individuals whose migration meets with disapproval.

First sentence is engaging

and relevant. Second

sentence gives

background before

offering a concept

(‘licence to leave’). Concept is

clearly explained,

referenced, and then

discussed.

Taking up the issue of the public versus the private might seem to be harping on an old chestnut, of nineteenth century English literature studies especially, but it does have particular interest in Australian literature for the very reasons that Dawe alludes to in his lntroduction to Sometimes Gladness. It took a long time for Australian literature to get to the exploration of the inner life-and it is that exploration, more than anything else, that has created the broadening and deepening of Australian literature since the 1960s. Before then we had it patchily in perhaps the work of Kendall (but this could well be debated), then that of figures such as Henry Handel Richardson (in Ultima Thule especially), Shaw Neilson, Slessor, Stead, and White. But our dominant tradition, in the writing of Marcus Clarke, Paterson, Lawson, Furphy, even Brennan, Mary Gilmme, Prichard, Xavier Herbert, R.D. FitzGerald – one could go on - has been literature with a kind of public voice.

Dennis HaskellEnglish & Cultural Studies

"Bruce Dawe at the Frontiers of Gawkiness" Antipodes 14.1 (2000): 27-33.

Taking up the issue of the public versus the private might seem to be harping on an old chestnut, of nineteenth century English literature studies especially, but it does have particular interest in Australian literature for the very reasons that Dawe alludes to in his lntroduction to Sometimes Gladness. It took a long time for Australian literature to get to the exploration of the inner life-and it is that exploration, more than anything else, that has created the broadening and deepening of Australian literature since the 1960s. Before then we had it patchily in perhaps the work of Kendall (but this could well be debated), then that of figures such as Henry Handel Richardson (in Ultima Thule especially), Shaw Neilson, Slessor, Stead, and White. But our dominant tradition, in the writing of Marcus Clarke, Paterson, Lawson, Furphy, even Brennan, Mary Gilmme, Prichard, Xavier Herbert, R.D. FitzGerald – one could go on - has been literature with a kind of public voice.

The prose is academically sound, but words like

‘old chestnut’ make it more

accessible.

The context of

the argument

about Dawe is

made clear and linked back to the

1st sentence.

Yasmin HaskellClassics & Ancient History

As a celebrity doctor of the eighteenth century, Heerkens does not rate alongside a Hebenstreit (let alone a Haller …), but he was a cultured and well-connected man and a keen observer of his times. An incorrigible traveller, Heerkens gained entry into the best Enlightenment circles and learned academies in France and Italy using a currency which is supposed to have been falling out of use in that period: Latin verse. Indeed, I suspect the reason this author has slipped under the radar of most eighteenth century intellectual and literary historians is the fact that his oeuvre consists almost entirely of Latin verse, including satire and historical portraits, travelogue, and many more medical poems than can be discussed here. For the purposes of this paper I shall focus on just one of these, De officio medici (‘On the Duties of a Doctor’), coincidentally published the year before Hebenstreit’s De homine sano – although two more different poems could hardly be imagined.

“Latin Poet-Doctors of the Eighteenth Century: the German Lucretius (Johann Ernst Hebenstreit) Versus the Dutch Ovid (Gerard Nicolaas Heerkens).” Intellectual History Review 18.1 (2008): 91-101.

As a celebrity doctor of the eighteenth century, Heerkens does not rate alongside a Hebenstreit (let alone a Haller …), but he was a cultured and well-connected man and a keen observer of his times. An incorrigible traveller, Heerkens gained entry into the best Enlightenment circles and learned academies in France and Italy using a currency which is supposed to have been falling out of use in that period: Latin verse. Indeed, I suspect the reason this author has slipped under the radar of most eighteenth century intellectual and literary historians is the fact that his oeuvre consists almost entirely of Latin verse, including satire and historical portraits, travelogue, and many more medical poems than can be discussed here. For the purposes of this paper I shall focus on just one of these, De officio medici (‘On the Duties of a Doctor’), coincidentally published the year before Hebenstreit’s De homine sano – although two more different poems could hardly be imagined.

Background is

introduced in a way that

appears effortless.

Colon followed by short clause creates

impact.

Warm tone complement

ed by directness.

Jenny GregoryHistory, Music

Public art became a means of beautifying East Perth while, in theory, maintaining a tenuous link with the past. Lessons from Vancouver, where Granville Island in False Creek included public art, a performing arts centre, as well as cafes and shops, were clearly on the agenda. Overseas experts were brought in to advise on design. The choice of themes in public art created some controversy, with the inclusion of Aboriginal themes seen as merely a trade-off for the loss of access to the area. Today, East Perth includes twenty-eight art works, many by well known artists and sculptors. A mural tells the history of East Perth through to its 'renewal as a place of community and harmony of the human spirit'.

“Obliterating history? The transformation of inner city industrial suburbs.” Australian Historical Studies 39.1 (2008): 91-106.

Public art became a means of beautifying East Perth while, in theory, maintaining a tenuous link with the past. Lessons from Vancouver, where Granville Island in False Creek included public art, a performing arts centre, as well as cafes and shops, were clearly on the agenda. Overseas experts were brought in to advise on design. The choice of themes in public art created some controversy, with the inclusion of Aboriginal themes seen as merely a trade-off for the loss of access to the area. Today, East Perth includes twenty-eight art works, many by well known artists and sculptors. A mural tells the history of East Perth through to its 'renewal as a place of community and harmony of the human spirit'.

The topic sentence

clearly states the main

idea.

‘Today’ effectively shifts the focus from description to comparison.

Chronological sequencing assists logic and clarity.

Gareth GriffithsEnglish & Cultural Studies

During the period immediately before and after independence in countries like Nigeria the control over what texts were available and the pricing (and so distribution) of these texts was exclusively in the hands of a number of entrepreneurial overseas publishing houses. The influence and power of these ventures was very great and often very ambiguous. Take for example the role of Heinemann Educational in Nigeria. An awareness of Nigerian contemporary writing in English in Britain can probably be dated from about 1952 when Amos Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard was published by Faber. But it was with the publication of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart in 1958 that modern Nigerian writing in English can date its birth as an institution rather than as a series of sporadic texts incorporated into English publishing lists as exotica.

“Documentation and Communication in Postcolonial Societies: The politics of control.” The Yearbook of English Studies 27 (1997): 130-36.

During the period immediately before and after independence in countries like Nigeria the control over what texts were available and the pricing (and so distribution) of these texts was exclusively in the hands of a number of entrepreneurial overseas publishing houses. The influence and power of these ventures was very great and often very ambiguous. Take for example the role of Heinemann Educational in Nigeria. An awareness of Nigerian contemporary writing in English in Britain can probably be dated from about 1952 when Amos Tutuola's The Palm- Wine Drinkard was published by Faber. But it was with the publication of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart in 1958 that modern Nigerian writing in English can date its birth as an institution rather than as a series of sporadic texts incorporated into English publishing lists as exotica.

The style is

confident, direct, and purposive.

Use of words like ‘hands’,

‘number’, ‘influence’,

‘power’, ‘very’, ‘great’

strongly emphasise

the point. Key

examples reinforce the argument.

Laksiri JayasuriyaSocial Work and Social Policy

It is perhaps worth recalling that the question of human rights in the form of a Bill of Rights was canvased at the time of Federation. In 1896, Inglis Clark, the Tasmanian Attorney General, in his Draft for the Australian Constitution, argued for the inclusion of some rights based on the US model. There were many objections to this proposal for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the strongest argument, and one, which prevailed, came from the Premier of WA, Sir John Forrest. Forrest objected to the Clark proposal on the grounds that the inclusion of “an equal protection clause would create particular difficulties with coloured residents of the State [of WA]”. What Forrest feared was that any Federal Constitution with an equal protection clause would restrict the State’s power to enact legislation to prevent “the introduction of coloured persons” as required by the WA State factory legislation, which restricted the employment of Asian workers.

“‘Taking Rights Seriously’ in Australia.” Dialogue 21.3 (2002): 14-24.

It is perhaps worth recalling that the question of human rights in the form of a Bill of Rights was canvased at the time of Federation. In 1896, Inglis Clark, the Tasmanian Attorney General, in his Draft for the Australian Constitution, argued for the inclusion of some rights based on the US model. There were many objections to this proposal for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the strongest argument, and one, which prevailed, came from the Premier of WA, Sir John Forrest. Forrest objected to the Clark proposal on the grounds that the inclusion of “an equal protection clause would create particular difficulties with coloured residents of the State [of WA]”. What Forrest feared was that any Federal Constitution with an equal protection clause would restrict the State’s power to enact legislation to prevent “the introduction of coloured persons” as required by the WA State factory legislation, which restricted the employment of Asian workers.

Tentative tone

complements the

profundity of the following discussion.

Words ‘objected’

and ‘feared’ create

important link.

Quotes demonstrate

point and are clearly

contextualised.

Review

Which passages were most interesting to you?

Whose writing do you most particularly admire? Why?

Your academic voice will take time to develop. You are not expected to write like a faculty member at this stage – but they can help you learn how to express your complex, thoughtful opinions in your own clear, academic style.

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