This project asserts that revolution is characterised by the expression of unthinkable possibilities, and so addresses the paradox implicit in any attempt to "write revolution." That is, how does one represent revolution without reducing it to an ordered term of reference, and thereby subduing its radical character? Additionally, can transformative action be conceptualised as a creative project to which an ethical subject may, and in fact should, be drawn? To answer these questions, my investigation develops in three strands. I combine the radical theory of Alain Badiou with similar affirmations of revolutionary intervention from Slavoj Žižek and Paulo Freire, and so create an aesthetic that affirms revolutionaries as agents of supplementary creativity. My first purpose is thus to establish revolution as a productive enterprise that enables peace, rather than a destructive undertaking that introduces violence. This done, I apply the resultant conceptual tools to literary representations of radical transformation, and demonstrate that my aesthetic enables new readings of the literature of revolution to which it is applied. In the course of my analysis, I also evaluate the suitability of Badiou's ethic as a standpoint from which to engage with literature on revolution. Ultimately, then, the aesthetic I construct not only contests the notion that radical transformation is always destructive, but also renders one sensitive to revolutionary literature's excessive and supplementary dimensions.

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The Kohlberg theory of moral development was the basis of a program designed for use in the sixth grade classroom of the public schools. Results of the Kohlberg research and related research were translated into fifteen theoretical assumptions. These assumptions were the foundation or primary consideration in the designing of five activities which could be conducted in the classroom. The five activities were associated with selections from children's literature and arranged to constitute a program which operationalizes the Kohlberg theory of moral development. The program was reviewed for theoretical consistency. The program includes the following types of children's literature: fable, fairy tale, animal story, family story, realistic fiction, minority literature, historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. Each unit of literature includes an introduction to the particular type and to the work itself, objectives for the unit, directions for the teacher and five activities which are based on the theoretical assumptions in accord with the particular literary work under study. These activities include: (l) Question/answer—paper/pencil, (2) Peer-led discussion—literature based, (3) Discussion—analogous situation, (4) Role-taking opportunities, and (5) Individual— concrete expression. The literature units also include a method of student evaluation, aids to teacher interpretation and a list of materials needed. An analysis of the curriculum indicates the criteria for adherence of a unit to the theoretical assumptions, an in depth analysis of a sample unit, and a review of the remaining eight units according to the established criteria. / Ed. D.

It is a common intuition that we can learn something of moral importance from literature, and one of the ways in which we teach our children about morality is through stories. In selecting books for children to read a primary concern is often the effect that the moral content of the story will have on the morality of the child reader. In this thesis I argue in order to take advantage of the contribution that literature can make to moral development, we need to teach children to read in a particular way. As a basis for this argument I use an account of moral agency that places emphasis on the development of moral skills - the ability to critically assess moral rules and systems, and the capacity to perceive and respond to the particulars of individual situations and to choose the right course of action in each - rather than on any particular kind of moral content. In order to make the most of the contribution that literature can make to the development of these skills, we need to teach children to immerse themselves in the story, rather than focusing on literary criticism. I argue that, contrary to the standard view of literary criticism as the only form of protection against possible negative effects, an immersed reading will help to prevent the child reader from taking any moral claims made in the story out of context, and so provide some measure of protection against possible negative moral effects of the story. Finally I argue that there are certain kinds of stories - recognisable by features that contribute to a high literary quality - that will enrich the experience of an immersed reading, and will therefore make a greater contribution to moral development than others.

v. 1 [Novel]: End of the night girl [Embargoed] -- v. 2 [Exegesis]: Navigating the kingdom of night: writing the holocaust / 'End of the Night Girl': Nothing seems to go right for Molly – she’s stuck in a dead-end waitressing job, she’s sleeping with a man she doesn’t even like, and she’s just been saddled with a swarm of goldfish and a pregnant stepsister. The chance discovery of an old photograph leads her into an act of creation, and brings her into contact with the ghost of a woman who has been dead for more than sixty years. Sixty years earlier, in Poland, Gienia’s family arranges her marriage to a distant cousin. Not long after her marriage to this stranger, the Nazis invade and she has to face life in the ghetto and the horrors of Auschwitz. End of the Night Girl is a complex fictional narrative in which the lives of these two women, ‘real’ and imagined, imagined and re-imagined, are inextricably combined. ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’: Critics, historians and Holocaust survivors have argued for decades over whether the Holocaust should be accessible to fiction and, if so, who has the right to write those fictions. ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’ addresses such concerns and analyses various literary strategies adopted by authors of Holocaust fiction, including the non-realist narrative techniques used by authors such as Yaffa Eliach, Jonathan Safran Foer and John Boyne and the self-reflexivity of Art Spiegelman. Through the course of the essay I contextualise End of the Night Girl by turning my attention to works that raise critical issues of authorial intent and the reader/writer contract; for example Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and Helen Darville’s The Hand That Signed the Paper. How did I resolve my own concerns? Which texts helped me and why? Together End of the Night Girl and ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’, one creatively and one critically, explore these complex and controversial questions in a contemporary Australian context. / Thesis(PhD)-- School of Humanities, 2007

v. 1 [Novel]: End of the night girl [Embargoed] -- v. 2 [Exegesis]: Navigating the kingdom of night: writing the holocaust / 'End of the Night Girl': Nothing seems to go right for Molly – she’s stuck in a dead-end waitressing job, she’s sleeping with a man she doesn’t even like, and she’s just been saddled with a swarm of goldfish and a pregnant stepsister. The chance discovery of an old photograph leads her into an act of creation, and brings her into contact with the ghost of a woman who has been dead for more than sixty years. Sixty years earlier, in Poland, Gienia’s family arranges her marriage to a distant cousin. Not long after her marriage to this stranger, the Nazis invade and she has to face life in the ghetto and the horrors of Auschwitz. End of the Night Girl is a complex fictional narrative in which the lives of these two women, ‘real’ and imagined, imagined and re-imagined, are inextricably combined. ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’: Critics, historians and Holocaust survivors have argued for decades over whether the Holocaust should be accessible to fiction and, if so, who has the right to write those fictions. ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’ addresses such concerns and analyses various literary strategies adopted by authors of Holocaust fiction, including the non-realist narrative techniques used by authors such as Yaffa Eliach, Jonathan Safran Foer and John Boyne and the self-reflexivity of Art Spiegelman. Through the course of the essay I contextualise End of the Night Girl by turning my attention to works that raise critical issues of authorial intent and the reader/writer contract; for example Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and Helen Darville’s The Hand That Signed the Paper. How did I resolve my own concerns? Which texts helped me and why? Together End of the Night Girl and ‘Navigating the Kingdom of Night’, one creatively and one critically, explore these complex and controversial questions in a contemporary Australian context. / Thesis(PhD)-- School of Humanities, 2007