• Refine Query
  • Source
  • Publication year
  • to
  • Language
  • 5
  • Tagged with
  • 5
  • 5
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Australian culture in children's literature : reflections and transmissions

Reeder, Stephanie Owen, n/a January 1981 (has links)
In this study of the relationship between children's literature and Australian culture I make a close textual analysis of the works of Ivan Southall, Eleanor Spence, Colin Thiele and Patricia Wrightson. This analysis is based on a framework of areas of culture as defined in anthropological terms, and includes such categories as the Environment, Social Organization, the Life Cycle, the Family and World View. Each author's work is analysed according to this framework. In a final section on each author I draw together the themes and developments in each author's writing and discuss the cultural insights they provide. In these textual analyses the emphasis is on identifying the culture which these authors reflect in the twenty to twenty-five year period in which they have been writing. I am also interested in identifying those cultural values which the authors promote or attempt to transmit to their readers. In the final chapter I undertake a comparative analysis. First I identify the areas of overlap or of greatest concern on which the four authors focus. These I identify as the Environment, the Family, Adolescence, Consumerism, the 'Other' Australians and Religion. I then compare these areas of focus and the attitudes and cultural values which the four authors reflect and transmit in these areas, with generalizations revealed in other interpretative analyses of Australian culture, including those of Craig McGregor and Ronald Conway. The result of this comparative analysis is striking in terms of the significant aspects of Australian culture which all the authors reflect. At the same time they bring their own personal perspectives to bear on the cultural values which they seek to transmit.
2

Culture and conceptualisations of nature : an interpretive analysis of Australian and Chinese perspectives.

Slay, Jill January 2000 (has links)
Issues of culture and worldview and their impact on students' learning of science have become increasingly important to science teachers. This study details work that I carried out in the period 1995-1999 which examined the effect of culture on students' conceptualisations of nature. It is framed as the creation of my own 'living educational theory' as I, a teacher-researcher, dealt with what I perceived were the cultural inequities experienced by students in my classroom. I carried out my first study with a group of seven rural high school students in the Far North of Queensland in Australia, where I was teaching in 1995. Later, in two visits to China, I was able to carry out the same sort of research with a group of seven Chinese college students in Jinan, Shandong Province, PRC, largely using the Chinese language. I used a naturalistic inquiry approach and a semi-structured interview technique to determine students' conceptualisations of nature. I have chosen to embed the results of these two studies within narratives that describe my experiences in the two cultures as I carried out my research. For each culture, I have also developed an epic description of the role of science from the literature and history of that culture. From my three sources of data, interview, narrative and historical description, I have made knowledge claims about the students' beliefs about the natural world.My research findings are ironic to me since they are diametrically opposite to what I had expected. Initially I had believed that Mainland Chinese students would possess a world view full of alternative perspectives to that of Western school science. My research indicates however that students in rural Mainland China hold a traditional and integrated modem Western scientific world view. Although some researchers in other South-East Asian communities propose alternative frameworks for ++ / the teaching of science, frameworks that are actually 'pre-modern' these do not appear to be appropriate for Mainland Chinese students. I had expected that the Australian students would bring a modern Western scientific world view to the science classroom. However, the group of rural Western students that I interviewed displayed a world view that is not recognisable as that of modern Western science. Postmodernism and other cultural and social effects appear to have influenced them to such an extent that some have clearly not 'crossed the border' to a modern Western scientific world view. This thesis reflects my desire to overcome the perceived problem of inequity in my own teaching. The knowledge claims made here give some indication as to how I may improve my own practice. A return to the classroom will allow me to continue the cycle of action and reflection by which I can validate, develop and refine my living educational theory.
3

The cross-cultural appropriation of manga and anime in Australia

Norris, Craig Jeffrey, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Education and Social Sciences, School of Communication, Design and Media January 2003 (has links)
This thesis is an investigation into the cross-cultural appropriation of manga and anime by fans in Australia. I investigate the way in which fans embark on ‘identity’ projects through manga and anime to construct a space where issues of gender politics, identity and culture are explored. I argue that a key reason why many Western fans and scholars perceive manga and anime as ‘different’ is its ‘Japaneseness’. The two key problems addressed throughout the thesis are : how can we analyse the significance of the Japanese origins and context of manga and anime, and would the ‘identity projects’ that fans construct be possible without an appreciation of manga and anime’s 'Japaneseness?.' These questions are explored in terms of a number of key forms within manga and anime including cyberpunk, bishonen(beautiful boys), otaku(fans) and anime forms that have had their ‘Japaneseness’ softened. I discuss the way in which these manga and anime forms offer different spaces for fans, scholars and cultural industries to contest, rework and reiterate the cultural value of manga and anime. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
4

In pursuit of a dancing ‘body’: modernity, physicality and identity in Australia, 1919 to 1939

Vincent, Jordan Beth January 2009 (has links)
The primary focus of this work is the Interwar years (1919-1939), a time when dance came to the forefront of Australian consciousness, not only as an expression of worldwide modernity, but in terms of a new kind of local professionalism. Using dance as window through which to analyse Australian culture, this thesis explores notions of the dancing ‘body’ in Australia. For this research, the term dancing ‘body’ is used to indicate a kind of artistic identity that incorporates various elements of the mind, the physical being, the conscious and unconscious idea of ‘self,’ and the external perceptions and stereotypes about dancers. Importantly, perceptions and understandings about the dancing ‘body’ were not static during the Interwar period. They changed physically, emotionally, environmentally, socially, politically, and dynamically, depending on the genre of dance being analysed. This thesis identifies four main types of dance that became popular in Australia during the Interwar period—ballroom, physical culture, modern dance and classical ballet —recognising that each type presented a slightly different dancing ‘body’ to the world and was perceived accordingly. These types were differentiated by their dynamic, environment, relationships between dancers, level of professionalism, accompanying music, and societal or political purpose, yet all share an emphasis on the corporeal form, an element of performance or spectacle, and an association with femininity. / Additionally, and most importantly, each of these four dancing ‘bodies’ was primarily associated with one or more cultures other than Australian, including American, Russian, English, and German. As a result, the dancing ‘body’ in Australia remained a foreign concept, connected to a variety of overseas cultures and ‘performing’ those associations through movement. While it is true that individual Australians danced, choreographed, taught and lobbied for their art-form, the sense remained in Australia that dancing was not an inherent national activity and thus, simply could not resonate with traditional notions of national identity. It leads us to ask this very complicated question: considering the varied cultural associations of the dancing ‘body,’ was there such a thing as an Australian dancing ‘body’? Did dance ever fully articulate an Australian national experience, aesthetic or ethos? / This research shows that local insecurities about the abilities of Australian dancers and dance-makers was closely related to dancing being an imported activity, introduced through films, magazines, recorded music, and in the bodies of foreign dancers. Moreover, it was often those foreign associations of dance, associations believed to be strong enough to ‘infect’ an Australian dancer, that caused concern over the power of the dancing ‘body.’ The tensions between the four dancing ‘bodies’ of the Interwar period, and the almost mythological stereotype of the national Australian ‘body’ are explored in this research, differentiating it from other contemporary works on the history of dance. Rather than focusing only on professional tours, this research seeks to understand the dancing ‘body’ in relation to Australian notions of physicality, identity and modernity. / Using dance as a ‘window’ through which to explore aspects of Australian culture during the Interwar period, this thesis argues that societal perceptions about dance and dancers were fundamentally related to the differences between behavioural expectations of Australian men and women, and dance’s inherent association with foreign cultures. This research looks closely at these cultural associations, and analyses various attempts by Australian dancers to legitimise their artform during an era of rapid technological, political and social change.
5

The seeing machine: photography and the visualisation of culture in Australia, 1890-1930

Ballard, Bernadette Ann Unknown Date (has links) (PDF)
Since its introduction in Australia, photography has had a profound impact on Australian culture. The modern era, it is often alleged, has been dominated by the sense of sight, and from its inception, photography was explicitly understood in relation to this prestigious notion of modern vision. The camera and its associated technologies offered a “new” and modern way of seeing that was central to the overall project of modernity. This thesis is a study of the role of photography in the increasing visualisation of Australian culture during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on debates around modernism, it explores the cultural and social expressions of photography. Each chapter of this thesis considers an aspect of photography or its use, and traces the emerging popularisation and commodification of the photographic image. The social impact of photography is explored in a selection of specific contexts that include early camera clubs and societies of the 1890s, and the growing amateur movement that followed the new “point and shoot” technology so ably depicted by the Kodak Girl. Other contexts include the professional applications of photography, official and private uses of photography during World War I, and finally the journalistic and cinematic uses of the photographic image in the 1920s. Together these contexts show how the romance and optimism of technology ignited enthusiasm for the visual medium across class and gender divides, moving from initial popularity amongst a local scientific elite, spreading to amateurs, professionals, and eventually being put to political and social uses, throughout the world. (For complete abstract open document)

Page generated in 0.6752 seconds