Heading to Australia for Digital Humanities 2015, or wishing you were? To help visitors get acquainted with Australian culture, Program Committee chair Deb Verhoeven has teamed up with friends on Facebook (who include novelists, editors, literature professors, filmmakers, screenwriters, academics, media producers and people who just like to read Australian books) to create a reading list and share two Spotify playlists. The notes below are from Deb (with occasional light editing). Enjoy!
Australian Music
- Digital Humanities 2015 Sydney: This list focuses on music we didn’t think international guests would be familiar with. Mostly indie and mostly contemporary. It doesn’t include much electronic/dance music but if there’s interest that wouldn’t be hard to organise into a new playlist. I’ve tried to bias the list to songs that reference Sydney but it really needs to be said that Sydney is not the music capitol of Australia (just saying). This is a collaborative list so anyone can join in and the list will no doubt be constantly updated.
- Great Southern Songs: This is a list compiled by my friend Peter Gravestock who plays in bands and it’s basically a great a historical overview of powerhouse Australian hits. There are some real classics from the Australian charts in this list, some of which may be familiar to international visitors.
In terms of DH music resources (and I confess to a vested interest here our website Ultimate Gig Guide (TUGG) captures historical live music gigs in Australia: http://tugg.me
We did a great exercise in which we “songified” historical gig data and then performed the resulting songs live on stage. It’s been written up here: http://kinomatics.com/songification/
And more formally here: http://www.akademiskkvarter.hum.aau.dk/pdf/vol9/11_EVerhoevenADavidsonAGionfriddoJVerhoevenPGravestock_TurningGigabytesIntoGigs2.pdf
Australian Literature
- Jessica Anderson’s Tirra Lirra By the River – short and gives a good picture of both Sydney and Queensland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirra_Lirra_by_the_River
- John Birmingham’s Leviathan: http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-The-unauthorised-biography-Sydney/dp/0091842034
- Dorothy Porter’s The Monkey’s Mask: http://www.amazon.com/The-Monkeys-Mask-Noir-Title/dp/1852425490 (a thriller in verse)
- David Ireland’s City of Women: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3472795-city-of-women
- Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette’s Puberty Blues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty_Blues_%28novel%29
- Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_and_Lucinda
- Fiona McGregor’s Indelible Ink was recommended by several people: http://www.readings.com.au/news/the-story-of-my-book-fiona-mcgregor-on-indelible-ink
- Peter Corris’ The Empty Beach: http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741141801
- Digital writers such as Mel Breeze: http://www.furtherfield.org/features/reviews/human-readable-messages
- Foveaux by Kylie Tennant: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1729969.Foveaux
- Come in Spinner by Dymphna Kusack: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3190170-come-in-spinner (recommended more than once)
- Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven: https://ellenvanneervencurrie.wordpress.com/heat-and-light/
- Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser: http://www.amazon.com/Questions-Travel-Novel-Michelle-Kretser/dp/0316219231
- For Love Alone by Christina Stead: http://www.amazon.com/For-Love-Alone-Christina-Stead/dp/0571256139
- Stead’s The seven poor men of Sydney: https://www.mup.com.au/items/152269
- The Eye of the Storm by Patrick White: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_the_Storm_%28novel%29
- The Secret River by Kate Grenville: http://kategrenville.com/The_Secret_River
- Jen Craig also launched her novella ‘Panthers and the Museum of Fire’ last week at Gleebooks: http://www.abiggerbrighterworld.com/follow-the-fire-craigs-panthers-is-hot/
- Hilary Bell’s recent Alphabetical Sydney if young children are in tow … https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/alphabetical-sydney/
- Kate Grenville’s The Lieutenant: http://kategrenville.com/The_Lieutenant
- Melinda Hinkson, Aboriginal Sydney: http://www.amazon.com/Aboriginal-Sydney-Important-Places-Present/dp/0855757124
- Kangaroo by DH Lawrence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_%28novel%29
- Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park: http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780140314601/playing-beatie-bow
- Maxine Beneba Clarke’s Foreign Soil: http://www.booktopia.com.au/foreign-soil-maxine-beneba-clarke/prod9780733632426.html
- anything by Christos Tsiolkas; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christos_Tsiolkas
- ditto Helen Garner: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Garner
- Bliss by Peter Carey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_%28novel%29
- Patrick White’s The Vivisector: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vivisector
- Peter Carey’s The Fat Man in History: http://petercareybooks.com/all-titles/the-fat-man-in-history/
- Michael Wilding short stories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wilding_%28writer%29
- Wild and Wooley comix: http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Woolley-Comix-Book-Wooley/dp/images/B003DHBJZC
- In the Gutter Looking At The Stars: A Literary Adventure Through Kings Cross, Edited by Mandy Sayer and Louis Nowra: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11287061-in-the-gutter—looking-at-the-stars
- Dancing with Strangers by Inga Clendinnan: http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Strangers-Europeans-Australians-Contact/dp/0521616816
- The Pea Pickers by Eve Langley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pea-Pickers
- Jonah by Louis Stone: https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/jonah
- Mr Darwin’s Shooter by Roger McDonald: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Darwin%27s_Shooter
Online Australian literature resources:
http://www.austlit.edu.au/
http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au
And something for fun!
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2013/04/drop-bears-target-tourists,-study-says/