Dr Jacqueline Dutton - Research projects
Research projects
ARC Discovery Project Application
“Utopia in Australia. Finding Positive Models for Multicultural and Indigenous Societies in the Contemporary World Literature of JMG Le Clezio”
Australia needs new models to promote visions of a better existence for all members of society. This project proposes to reconsider the use value of social dreaming as a way of improving the quality and meaning of life in Australia. It will identify positive social models in the work of 2008 Nobel laureate in literature JMG Le Clezio, demonstrating how multicultural and indigenous ideals interact with Western projects to produce socially just and environmentally sustainable societies, like Utopia in Australia.
“Cultural differences in attitudes to French and Australian wine in France and Australia” (with PhD Candidate Amie Sexton)
This project aims to explore the cultural differences in attitudes to French and Australian wines in France and Australia. It will provide original comparative research into the historical, socio-cultural, geopolitical and economic factors underpinning attitudes of the French to Australian wines, and those of Australians to French wines. As a cross-cultural study that will investigate how tastes and choices regarding wine are developed, encouraged and maintained, it will reveal how the attitudes of French and Australian wine producers and consumers are evolving in today’s globalised marketplace.
“Paradise Lost – Utopia Reclaimed. Writing the Wrongs of French Exploration in the Antipodes”
This project aims to open new areas of cross-cultural research by introducing the utopian paradigm as a frame of reference for analysing colonial and postcolonial discourse. It will be argued that French writings on Australia have consistently and primarily served as a means of expiating the reality of an unattainable desire to discover or to colonise parts of the Terra australis. The study will claim that it is the utopian paradigm which has allowed the French both to imagine their own Australia in a positive, romanticised light and also to condemn the Australia created in their absence with radically negative, dystopian overtones.
"Ukiyo — Utopia. Floating Between Worlds"
This is a comparative study of Japanese and French representations of the ideal place in literature. It will involve the analysis of projections of a parallel world, which can be found in the forms of ukiyo (the floating world) in Japanese culture and utopia in French culture.
"Inland Seas – Real and Imaginary"
This study considers the imaginary and mythical correlations between
hypothetical and real inland seas, in Australia, Japan, and Europe,
analysing the dynamic interplay and multicultural dimensions of this
geographical and cultural phenomenon.
ARC
DP0451385 Dr JL Dutton
Title: Paradise Lost - Utopia Reclaimed: Writing the Wrongs of
French
Exploration in the Antipodes
2004 : $50,000
2005 : $45,000
2006 : $34,000
Category: 4202 - LITERATURE STUDIES
Administering Institution: The University of Melbourne
Summary: When France's attempts to claim regions of Australia
failed, the dream of an Antipodean paradise was lost. In its breach
rose a new utopian frontier. Paradoxically, this anticipatory
perspective revives a form of utopianism previously established
in classical French-Australian writings. Whether framing an ideal
France australe or criticising a non-utopian British reality,
the ongoing role of utopianism in French-Australian (post)colonial
discourse may be analysed as a case study for cross- cultural encounters.
The findings, publishable in English and French monographs, will open up
new methods for understanding Australia's past, present and future relations
with one of its major cultural influences.
Comparative Utopias: Intercultural Imaginaries of the Ideal
1 - Comparative Utopias workshop (Click here to download the PDF)
2 - Summary of Workshop (Click here to download the PDF)
3 - Biographies (Click here to download the PDF)