School of the Arts and Media

Title: Memetic modalities and fanfiction as remediating avatars of Internet-culture in Emmanuelle Pireyre’s novel Féérie générale

The paper tackles the remediation of the newest kinds of (re-)writing and reappropriation practices originating online in Emmanuelle Pireyre’s Féerie générale (2012). Approached from an intermedial perspective, the study of Pireyre’s “kaleidoscopic” novelistic prose allows the paper to posit that: firstly, a traditionally published novel appealing to reading practices cultivated and developed online (e.g., “literacies” and reading skills exercised in the course of meme-sharing) amounts to representing the digital in an elaborately indirect and non-referential way as opposed to its ekphrastic figuration or sheer thematization. And secondly, [that] a traditionally published novel brought to relating the character’s on-screen experience of interacting with digital-born forms of writing (e.g., fanfiction) is to be regarded as an inherently literary, self-reflective strategy aimed at overcoming the typical challenges of digital media and cyber-culture representation by means of novelistic fiction.

Title: Poetizing the Intermedial Boundaries in the Theory of
Information by Aurélien Bellanger: Establishing Connection to the Internet
as a Site (Topos) of Transcribing the Digital into Fiction

A major stumbling block for the theorization of the digital, amplified by the Internet, is its tendency to blur the boundaries between the formerly distinct media, by “liquefying” those to the point of indiscernibility. Hence, there was a lack of consensus among media scholars, whose initial
response towards this change of paradigm was reduced to a series of interchangeable umbrella terms: from multi- (or omni-) medium to hyper-medium, etc. The paper aims at demonstrating that one of the best-adjusted sites (or topoï) for the staging of an intermedial dialogue in fiction, as far as the novels – cf. Aurélien Bellanger (2012) – attempting the poetization of the network are concerned, manifests itself in the episodes relating the process of establishing the network connection, since a logical progression of such sequences reiterates diegetically the very principle of interaction between several mediums all the while seeking to articulate those technologically and poetically.

As part of an extensive (quasi)-historical Bildungsroman-like panorama of the early precursors of the computer network technology as we know it today – that Aurélien Bellanger’s The Theory of Information (2012) can be equated to, from the point of view of digital media representation in fiction – the novelist attempts to poetize a fairly unique instance of a widely successful national implementation of the so-called “videotex” technology that came to be known in pre-Internet France as the Minitel. The paper looks at the novelistic translation of the rudimentary text-based graphics (or ersatz-graphics) of the Minitel terminals (that would later evolve into a
recognizable computer-specific “Ascii”-art form) and engages with a number of theoretical problems raised by the incorporation of such minimalist forms into the literary text from the perspective of the intermediality in fiction as well as through the prism of semiotics in art, etc. The following contention is therefore put to the test: a novelistic text – characterized by a somewhat limited stylistic range of Bellanger’s mainly encyclopaedic in tone, (near-)zero degree kind of writing – that is confronting the problematics of representation of the rudimentary multimedia capacities of the Minitel technology distinguished by its minimalist text-based visuals warrants a detailed study in the methodological spirit of the close reading analysis (i.e. a form of “micro”-technology in its own right as far as the techniques of critical reading are concerned).

“Multimedia platform” of La Théorie de l’Information
Inventorising (Inter-)Media Affordances of Aurélien Bellanger’s Flat Novel-Writing
Abstract — Aurélien Bellanger’s La Théorie de l’Information (2012) traces back the history of French telecommunications, recounted principally from an encyclopaedic standpoint, all the while interweaving a factual account of recent advancements in IT with narrative fiction in the strictest sense. Stylistically, Bellanger’s novel is characterised by “flat” writing (nearing “zero degree” theorised by Roland Barthes) and by a sustained encyclopaedic interest in technical details reflective of its largely factographic approach to representing the digital through recounting the developments in computer network technologies. An analysis carried out from an intermedial standpoint aims at demonstrating that novelistic writing of the specified nature is not, however, exempt from abiding by the general principles inherent to any variety of intermedial dialogue that gets established vicariously in the territory of fiction inasmuch as it involves proportionally both mediums in contact.
Hence, the paper aims to engage with novelistic remediation of the digital by way of interdiscursive means, which entails Aurélien Bellanger’s novel appropriating poetically distinctive elements of marketing discourse introduced textually in the interest of facilitating the interaction between the analogue medium of a traditionally published novel and some relatively recent computer technologies that have, however, gone nearly obsolete (cf. PC equipped with a CD-ROM reader). As he revisits the iconography of the early Internet, Bellanger is brought to mobilise poetic devices belonging to the registry of literary “inventory” deployed in the text in order to facilitate reinterpreting the represented digital medium in accordance with the novel’s own inherent predispositions that define it as a narrative genre.

From a “black” screen to a “white” page : intertextual moments and intermedial movements of the novelistic writing in The Retina by Théo Casciani

Abstract: Contrasting characterisations of screen media as confronted with the traditional medium of print, alluded to in the title (cf. the full quote in the paper), offer a perfect distillation of an agonistic relationship—which the text of Rétine (2019) by Théo Casciani posits as antithetical, if not dichotomous—between digital media and contemporary novelistic writing, which makes the strategy adopted by Casciani’s novel an exemplary and paradigmatic case of remediation of the digital in contemporary fiction that warrants to be examined in greater detail. A textual analysis along the lines of intermedial reading is in order, focusing on the spatial stratification of a key episode of the novel that provides an elaborate framework for the inter-arts dialogue the novel establishes
with the digital. The paper dwells on the media archaeological implications of said framework codified poetically by way of the intertextual ties the novel entertains with Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris.

The notion that academic writing is not only a conventional entity but also carries the representation of the writer has been supported by several researchers. Few studies have explored
identity representation in language across two written cultures, such as English and Spanish, although Spanish might be a language of interest for non-native speakers due to its international dynamism. This study explores the different identities behind first-person roles in English and Spanish by drawing on Ivanic's (1998) pioneering typology of identity, refined in Tang and John (1999) and Starfield and Ravelli (2006), and elaborated further in this study. The corpus is comprised of eighteen English and eighteen Spanish research articles (RAs) in Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching. The results of the analysis reveal some similarities and considerable differences in the distribution of the first-person forms throughout the articles. One commonality is that English and Spanish writers orient the reader through self-references. However, in other roles the writers in both languages inhabit the text in distinct ways, suggesting that the construction of self-representation is not homogenous across these written cultures. The paper also drawsattention to self-representation in the teaching of academic writing in EAP and SAP courses.

As English is the leading medium of communication in academia, publication in internationaljournals presents a goal and a challenge for some non-Anglophone researchers.Research articles (RAs) written in English and Spanish have been examined in order to discover whether the textual organization in each language is similar or different.However, intercultural studies of texts produced by L2 writers in English are few in number - in particular studies focussing on the Introduction section which is known to be troublesome for novice writers. In this paper, I examine RAs in English and Spanish as well as RAs written in English by Spanish-background speakers in the fields of applied linguistics, using Swales’ (2004) schema to focus on the Introduction genre moves and steps. The results indicate that while the English L1 texts display a close affinity to the CARS (2004) schema, the Spanish L1 texts display some culture specific writing style. On the other hand, English L2 texts produced by Spanish writers appear to be developing CARS-like control of the Introduction section, thus accommodating the needs of a broader audience. I hope my findings will assist Spanish scholars to achieve greater visibility worldwide by giving closer attention to English rhetorical conventions.

While vast research efforts have been directed to the identification of moves and their constituent steps in research articles (RA), less attention has been paid to the social negotiation of knowledge, in particular in the Conclusion section of RAs. In this paper, I examine the Conclusion sections of RAs in English and Spanish, including RA Conclusions written in English by Spanish-background speakers in the field of applied linguistics. This study brings together two complementary frameworks, genre-based knowledge and evaluative stance, drawing on Swales's (1990, 2004) move analysis framework and on the engagement system in Martin and White's (2005) Appraisal framework. The results indicate that the English L1 group negotiates a consistent space for readers to approve or disapprove the writers' propositions. However, the Spanish L1 group aligns with readers, using a limited space through contracting resources, which may be because this group addresses a smaller audience in comparison to the English L1 group which addresses an international readership. On the other hand, the English L2 group tends to move towards English rhetorical international practice, but without fully abandoning their SpL1. These results contribute to gaining a better understanding of how successful scholarly writing in English is achieved, and offers important insights for teaching multilingual researchers. Resumen Espac ios dialóg icos en la construcción de c onocimientos de la sección de la Conclusión en artículos de investigac ión escritos en inglés L1, ing lés L2 y en español L1 Si bien se han dirigido vastos esfuerzos de investigación a la identificación de los movimientos retóricos y sus pasos en artículos académicos, menos atención se ha puesto en la negociación social de conocimiento, en particular en la sección de la Conclusión. En este artículo, examino la sección de la Conclusión de artículos de investigación en inglés y español, incluyendo las conclusiones de investigaciones escritas en inglés tomando en cuenta distintos enfoques, el conocimiento basado en la teoría del género y el proceso de evaluación, basándome en el marco de análisis de movimientos retóricos propuesto por Swales (1990, 2004) y en el sistema de compromiso propuesto por Martin y White (2005) dentro del marco de la evaluación. Los resultados indican que el grupo de inglés como primera lengua (L1) negocia un espacio consistente para que los lectores aprueben o desaprueben las propuestas de los escritores. Sin embargo, el grupo de español L1 se alinea con los lectores, utilizando un espacio limitado a través de recursos de contracción, lo cual puede atribuirse a que este grupo se dirige a una audiencia más pequeña en comparación con el grupo inglés L1 que se dirige a lectores internacionales. Por otro lado, el grupo de escritores en inglés como segunda lengua (L2) tiende a adecuarse a la práctica de retórica internacional del inglés, pero sin abandonar totalmente su español como primera lengua (L1). Estos resultados contribuyen a lograr una mejor comprensión de cómo lograr una escritura académica en inglés y brindan un importante conocimiento a los profesores investigadores multilingües. Palabras clave: movimientos retóricos funcionales, posturas evaluativas, efectos retóricos específicos en inglés y español, escritores multilingües, audiencia más amplia en inglés.

This book examines the struggles encountered by multilingual scholars pursuing careers within global academia, particularly in Spain and Latin American countries. These writers face the disadvantage of having to read and write in a language other than their own. The traditional model of Anglophone universities under which academics have to «publish or perish» has ensured that English is an indicator of excellence in knowledge construction. Given this linguistic inequality, it is important that scholars from non-Anglophone countries are empowered in their efforts to publish in English in international journals, so that new knowledge can be brought to the fore.
By highlighting the dominant English medium conventions, this book provides such scholars with valuable support in ensuring that their research is publishable. It explores the different ways of structuring languages and illuminates the complexities of writing an academic text in a second language. The central message of the book is that the voices of multilingual scholars can make unique and substantial contributions to the reform, expansion, democratization and enrichment of English-dominated academia.

Over the past decades, the EAP scholarly literature has provided ample evidence of the fruitful synergies between the fields of Genre Analysis and Intercultural Rhetoric with a view to gaining a better understanding of L2 research writing processes. The complementarity of both fields has inspired the work of many genre analysts interested in assessing the construction of academic texts and supporting the academic literacy development of non-Anglophone scholars who write in English for research publication purposes. This stock of research represents a very fertile area of scholarly enquiry and it has yielded relevant theoretical and empirical insights into such understanding. Sheldon's book takes the case of scholars from Spanish linguacultural environments to provide a detailed account of both the rhetorical nature of the texts these scholars produce and their perceptions of knowledge construction and knowledge dissemination through the medium of English. In general terms, the book offers a comprehensive view of these scholars' writing practices, in particular, research article writing. Complementing a genre-based analytical approach (that she applies to a corpus of research articles) with a contrastive rhetoric perspective (i.e. analyzing articles in L1 and L2 English and L1 Spanish), Sheldon's book illustrates rhetorical variation at the meso-(or 'move') and micro-(linguistic) levels of the texts. It is a further strength of this book to claim that the L2 English articles exhibit features of interdiscursive hybridity insofar as they display Anglophone discourse style conventions along with the scholars' L1 academic style conventions. This volume is thus timely, considering that the challenges that L2 English research writing poses to multilingual scholars whose first language is not English is a major area of concern among EAP researchers, instructors and language brokers. The book is divided into eight chapters, and the issue of differing rhetorical conventions in research article writing is discussed widely throughout them. The first three chapters provide an overview of the extant literature and include useful theoretical and analytical considerations. In Chapter 1 ("The research arena of globalized academia and contemporary theories on writing for publication") the author delves readers into the broad context of research article writing and discusses the impact of monolingual (English-only) writing for research publication purposes to put attention on the linguistic and cultural diversity underpinning academic writing across cultures. This chapter also introduces the critical conceptualizations that serve the author to later engage in a cross-cultural comparison of rhetorical moves (cf. Swales, 1990) and engagement resources (as conceptualized in Systemic Functional Linguistics, cf. Martin & Rose, 2003). Chapter 2 ("A pragmatic orientation to knowledge construction in research articles") offers a critical review of the functionality of English for scholarly exchange on a global scale. The author revises Swales' conceptualization of 'move' to describe the rhetorical organization structure of the Introductions and Discussion/Conclusion sections of experimental research articles in applied linguistics in two languages, English and Spanish. Sheldon's commentary on how to identify and code rhetorical moves can be particularly useful to genre analysts interested in engaging in move analysis, and can be clarifying as well to EAP instructors, as the chapter gives a very informative commentary on the ways in which the different moves in the selected article sections establish textual demarcation to fulfil specific rhetorical goals. Chapter 3 ("Semantic functions as seen through stance: knowledge construction in research articles") takes a Systemic Functional Linguistics orientation to compare the writers' deployment of interpersonal aspects (tenor) and how evaluative stance is expressed in the discourse. The chapter provides rich illustration of how the writers from the two linguacultural backgrounds go about such evaluative expression and how, across the three language variables (L1 English, L2 English and Spanish), the writers reconstruct their research activities, refer to others' work to achieve credibility within the community, and at times mitigate and, at other times, boost their claims in different ways. The insights into linguistic and discoursal diversity provided in the following chapters, Chapter 4 ("Intercultural analyses: knowledge construction in the Introduction section") and Chapter 5 ("Intercultural analyses: knowledge construction in the Discussion/Conclusion sections"), are also important contributions to the field of enquiry. In both chapters, the author convincingly argues that English writing conventions have permeated the L1 academic discourse community represented by the Spanish scholars. The reader finds a very revealing cross-group comparison that provides evidence of how writers construct knowledge and convey different degrees of assertiveness in the 'Create-a-Research-Space' (Swales, 1990) structure of article Introductions and explains how the three groups of writers differ in the use of 'cyclicity' of moves. Chapter 5 offers

Over the past decades, the EAP scholarly literature has provided ample evidence of the fruitful synergies between the fields of Genre Analysis and Intercultural Rhetoric with a view to gaining a better understanding of L2 research writing processes. The complementarity of both fields has inspired the work of many genre analysts interested in assessing the construction of academic texts and supporting the academic literacy development of non-Anglophone scholars who write in English for research publication purposes. This stock of research represents a very fertile area of scholarly enquiry and it has yielded relevant theoretical and empirical insights into such understanding. Sheldon's book takes the case of scholars from Spanish linguacultural environments to provide a detailed account of both the rhetorical nature of the texts these scholars produce and their perceptions of knowledge construction and knowledge dissemination through the medium of English. In general terms, the book offers a comprehensive view of these scholars' writing practices, in particular, research article writing. Complementing a genre-based analytical approach (that she applies to a corpus of research articles) with a contrastive rhetoric perspective (i.e. analyzing articles in L1 and L2 English and L1 Spanish), Sheldon's book illustrates rhetorical variation at the meso-(or 'move') and micro-(linguistic) levels of the texts. It is a further strength of this book to claim that the L2 English articles exhibit features of interdiscursive hybridity insofar as they display Anglophone discourse style conventions along with the scholars' L1 academic style conventions. This volume is thus timely, considering that the challenges that L2 English research writing poses to multilingual scholars whose first language is not English is a major area of concern among EAP researchers, instructors and language brokers. The book is divided into eight chapters, and the issue of differing rhetorical conventions in research article writing is discussed widely throughout them. The first three chapters provide an overview of the extant literature and include useful theoretical and analytical considerations. In Chapter 1 ("The research arena of globalized academia and contemporary theories on writing for publication") the author delves readers into the broad context of research article writing and discusses the impact of monolingual (English-only) writing for research publication purposes to put attention on the linguistic and cultural diversity underpinning academic writing across cultures. This chapter also introduces the critical conceptualizations that serve the author to later engage in a cross-cultural comparison of rhetorical moves (cf. Swales, 1990) and engagement resources (as conceptualized in Systemic Functional Linguistics, cf. Martin & Rose, 2003). Chapter 2 ("A pragmatic orientation to knowledge construction in research articles") offers a critical review of the functionality of English for scholarly exchange on a global scale. The author revises Swales' conceptualization of 'move' to describe the rhetorical organization structure of the Introductions and Discussion/Conclusion sections of experimental research articles in applied linguistics in two languages, English and Spanish. Sheldon's commentary on how to identify and code rhetorical moves can be particularly useful to genre analysts interested in engaging in move analysis, and can be clarifying as well to EAP instructors, as the chapter gives a very informative commentary on the ways in which the different moves in the selected article sections establish textual demarcation to fulfil specific rhetorical goals. Chapter 3 ("Semantic functions as seen through stance: knowledge construction in research articles") takes a Systemic Functional Linguistics orientation to compare the writers' deployment of interpersonal aspects (tenor) and how evaluative stance is expressed in the discourse. The chapter provides rich illustration of how the writers from the two linguacultural backgrounds go about such evaluative expression and how, across the three language variables (L1 English, L2 English and Spanish), the writers reconstruct their research activities, refer to others' work to achieve credibility within the community, and at times mitigate and, at other times, boost their claims in different ways. The insights into linguistic and discoursal diversity provided in the following chapters, Chapter 4 ("Intercultural analyses: knowledge construction in the Introduction section") and Chapter 5 ("Intercultural analyses: knowledge construction in the Discussion/Conclusion sections"), are also important contributions to the field of enquiry. In both chapters, the author convincingly argues that English writing conventions have permeated the L1 academic discourse community represented by the Spanish scholars. The reader finds a very revealing cross-group comparison that provides evidence of how writers construct knowledge and convey different degrees of assertiveness in the 'Create-a-Research-Space' (Swales, 1990) structure of article Introductions and explains how the three groups of writers differ in the use of 'cyclicity' of moves. Chapter 5 offers

background and her affiliation at an Australian institution give her a privileged position from which to describe and discuss the difficulties of L2 scholars, especially Spanish scholars, when they contribute to international research. With this intention the book offers a detailed rhetorical analysis of two challenging sections, namely, the Introduction and the Discussion, of the empirical research article (RA) published by L1 English writers, L2 English writers and L1 Spanish writers. This analysis, which adopts a corpus-based rhetorical approach, is complemented by a small-case analysis of the semantic functions and lexico-grammatical realization of moves and steps, and an ethnographic account of Spanish scholars' perceptions of publishing in English. The author focuses on the main difficulties and challenges this entails, as well as the writers' perceptions of rhetorical differences between RAs in the two languages and contexts of publication. The rhetorical structure of the RA has already attracted much research interest and has been the subject of substantial analysis in the field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and of English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP) from a cross-disciplinary perspective (e.g., Moyetta, 2016). This study, however, contributes to the scarcer research on genre-based L1-L2 intercultural studies, as texts written in English and Spanish by L1 writers and in English by L2 Spanish writers are comparatively analyzed. In addition, this study goes beyond the top-down analysis of moves and combines it with a bottom up analysis, drawing on engagement analysis from Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005), taking both a macro and micro perspective to text analysis. Further, the text-based analyses are fully contextualized, drawing in particular on an ethnographic account of publication practices, thus adding a third analytical framework, that of textography (Swales, 1998). The result is a valuable contribution to the field as it provides a comprehensive analysis of the challenges of L2 Spanish scholars in the field of Applied Linguistics and Education to publish their research results in English to gain international visibility. Beyond the rigorous rhetorical, textual and discursive analysis of the corpus, I found particularly interesting Sheldon's discussion of multilingual scholars' academic literacy in English, the politics and practices around international academic publishing, and the ideologies underlying English scholarly production. Through the multilingual scholars' voices, readers can learn what the writers' strategies are in navigating the arduous process of publication. Although the key role of expertise and experience is acknowledged, Sheldon underlines how developing disciplinary-specific academic literacy in English can

This book comprehensibly explores the impact of English, as the main international language of research publication, on the production of academic knowledge worldwide and the implications for users of English as an additional language. Drawing on the frameworks of genre analysis (Swales, 2004), appraisal theory (Martin & White, 2005), and interview-based textography, the author analyses the Introduction and Discussion/Conclusion sections of research articles (RAs) in English and Spanish in the disciplines of applied linguistics and education, produced by three groups of writers: English L1, Spanish L1 and English L2. In line with the findings of previous intercultural research, the author's results confirm the influence of the first language on the preference for specific academic practices and the importance of understanding rhetorical variation across cultures as a way of adapting efficiently to the conventions expected by the (national and) international academic community in order to get acceptance from peer review gatekeepers. A main contribution to this area of research is the interesting finding which shows that in contemporary academic discourse there is a growing tendency to use interdiscursive hybridity features in English L2 which seem to be accepted by international gatekeepers, since the RAs in Sheldon's corpus were finally published in international indexed journals. This indicates that the current tendency points to greater flexibility and tolerance for discourse patterns which do not adhere completely to the standard Anglophone rhetorical practices. The volume is divided into eight chapters, including an extended section of updated references, appendices with the analyses of sample texts and an index with the most relevant terms referred to in the main sections of the book. In Chapter 1, the author starts by contextualizing the present situation in which multilingual scholars are under an increasing pressure to publish in indexed English-language journals if they pursue academic promotion and international recognition. She then continues posing a series of research questions regarding this issue, i.e. how multilingual scholars' practices accommodate global demands in academia, the extent to which English as L2 is influenced by L1 national writing culture, and the degree of acceptance on the part of literacy brokers of discourse

This study reports on a four-semester teaching programme for foreign language (FL) intermediate writing abilities in Spanish to be implemented in educational practice. The study conducts qualitative analysis, drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL), of developmental changes in twenty undergraduate, Spanish Level 4 students, based on their performance of, and comments on, pre-and post-instructional written tasks, focusing on meaning-making choices in the construction of a historical recount genre over one semester of instruction at an Australian university. Responding to the need for research on academic writing in FL, the paper shows that SFL facilitates students' understanding of writing development in an FL as they explore textual, ideational and interpersonal meanings in conjunction with required lexicogrammatical choices to fulfil the rhetorical demands of this genre.

Great performance writing often relies on imagery to convey meaning and expand stories. But what happens when images are no longer part of the equation? CATHERINE FARGHER reveals how it’s done and looks at current writing opportunities in radio.

SXSW, Austin, Texas, 13-­22 March, 2015.
A 2014­-15 Literature Board grant allowed Catherine Fargher to create the literary content of a new work and an interactive version of her transmedia project, The Dr Egg Adventures.
RealTime issue #127 June-­July 2015 pg. 16

Abstract: Taking a documentary approach in this essay, I will explore a defining moment in 1990s LGBQTI+ performance: the four years during the infamous cLUB bENT. cLUB bENT played a vital part of the Sydney Contemporary Performance scene from 1995 to 1998, taking place at the Performance Space, Redfern, over four consecutive Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) festivals. cLUB bENT represented a ‘queer performance new wave’ of defining LGBTQIA+ performances, exploring identity, new and old performance forms, gender diversity, abject sexuality, and sex positivism. Presented by performance artists from a range of fields including strippers, drag queens and drag kings, contemporary performance artists, as well as emerging and established cabaret artists. cLUB bENT and its tours to Its Queer Up North in Warwickshire, London, Glasgow and Manchester, became sites where performance ‘forms’ and ‘elements’ were hybridised over time and new reference points for style and form were created amongst a broad community of performers and activists. This hybridisation occurred within a vital social community of artists and activists during the 1990s AIDS crisis, of which SGLMG was a central driver. By creating current day recollections in the form of first-person accounts, as well as reflections on my experiences as an emerging queer performance writer/ maker and activist, occasional thick descriptions, short histories of social contexts and images of events. As well I will bring the time into focus via short case studies of my solo cLUB bENT performances - The Love Addict (1995) and Sugar Sugar (1997). These are accompanied by analysis and reflection on the ‘hybridisation of elements and form’ within my own works, and a short reflection on influence of community based social capital in the context of the 1990s LGBQTIA+ communities.

Was Henry Lawson's decline into alcoholism, poverty and an early death really caused by his wife? The biographers of the iconic bush poet and writer – most notably Denton Prout (1963) Manning Clark (1978) and Colin Roderick (1982, 1991) – have all constructed a victim as hero narrative around Lawson's life, blaming Bertha Lawson (nee Bredt) for his personal and creative decline. In their biographies, Lawson's marriage breakdown and judicial separation from Bertha Lawson is narrated as a destructive turning point, with Bertha portrayed as a callous persecutor who ‘spun the wheel of retribution’ (Roderick 1991: 267) against her husband. The unanimous interpretation in these works is that Bertha Lawson in her legal claims disregarded Henry's evident inability to pay child support, resulting in his imprisonment at Darlinghurst Gaol sporadically from 1905 to 1910.
Because Bertha ‘rejected all appeals for mercy’ (Clark 1978: 116) Lawson is given a victim-as-hero role within these biographies, with the conclusion that his wife’s actions not only had a personal impact on him, affecting his literary output, but prematurely robbed Australian culture of an important poet. With reference to these biographies, this paper will discuss an alternative reading of Bertha Lawson as a single parent with two young children and a limited ability within the mores of the time to provide for her family. It discusses repositioning her narrative within a post- divorce single motherhood discourse that was emerging alongside suffragette narratives in Australia at the turn of the 20th century.