Children, like women, tend to be thought of as absent from or underrepresented in Greek and Roman epic poetry, a genre often seen as the exclusive domain of men and the military. Dr Rhiannon Evans (Ancient Mediterranean Studies, La Trobe University) explores how Ascanius and other children are employed in an instrumental sense in Roman epic of the Augustan period. Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Literature

Children in Roman Epic Narratives

Novels about East Timor in English and Portuguese for children have been scarce. Despite a contemporary background of revisionist approaches to history, the nationalist focus of such material means that certain stories are handled rarely, even those that interpellate the nation in some way. This talk examines ways in which support for East Timor is underwritten in the few novels for children and young adults that deal with East Timor in English and Portuguese, concluding with a brief assessment of the extent to which they realize Herbert Kohl’s suggestions of appropriate strategies for what he terms “Radical Children’s Literature.” A guest lecture by Dr David Callahan, Department of Languages and Cultures, Aveiro University, Portugal. Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Writing East Timor for Children

Victoria Tedeschi (PHD student, University of Melbourne) examines the negative portrayal of nature as the antithesis of civilisation in fairy tales such as of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimms’ “Hansel and Gretel” (1884) and “Snowdrop” (1884) and “Little Red-Cap” (1884). Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

The Child vs The Forest

Miriam Riverlea (Monash University) examines the relationship between parent and child, which is a pervasive trope that features in many Greek myths and literature. The connections between the young and old tend to be complex and, almost without exception, fraught with tension. Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Parent-child Relationship in Myth and Literature

Jack Tan (PhD student, University of Melbourne) examines Dickens and the idealised child, and argues that Oliver Twist (1838) and Little Nell (1841) are symbolic child protagonists as such, because they are consciously valorized in Dickens’s written text, and also locked away by the novel’s illustrators, George Cruikshank and George Cattermole, within numerous images of innocence. Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dickens and the Idealised Child

Dr Rhiannon Evans (Ancient Mediterranean Studies, La Trobe University) investigates how ancient Rome affected Dickens and how he represents it in three very different modes: his personal letters, his published travelogue and his novel of extreme poverty and lengthy imprisonment, Little Dorrit. Copyright 2014 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dickens Travels to Rome

In Conversation with David Malouf

David Malouf's 'Ransom'

Professor Chris Mackie (Head of the School of Humanities, La Trobe University) on Homer's Iliad, with particular focus on book 24. Introduced by Dr Gillian Shepherd, Director of the Trendall Centre at La Trobe University. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Homer's Iliad 24

The fascination of Australian writers with explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, including Patrick White´s Voss, earlier elegiac poems and Lemurian novels, is examined by English lecturer Susan Martin. Assoc. Professor Susan Martin is from the English Program at La Trobe University. This recording was reproduced with the permission of the National Museum of Australia. For a transcript and more lectures, check out their website at www.nma.gov.au Presented on 15th June, 2007. Copyright 2010 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Leichhardt in Australian Literature

Podcasts and lectures on books, authors, writing and literature.

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