My Secret Life and the Sexual Economy of Fin-de-Siècle England

This paper proposes that the volumes of My Secret Life reveal an explicit linkage and juxtaposition of the respectable and perverse which was at the heart of fin-de-siècle British culture. In particular this paper reads ‘Walter’s’ text as a parody of materialism that terminates in fin-de-siècle ‘exhaustion’ and decline - ‘free-enterprise’ itself beyond control. Confession opens a site for resistance and subversion, ‘Walter’s’ text legitimating deviance and rejecting ideas of the thrift of sperm which characterized the discursive controls of the late-nineteenth century

My secret life and the sexual economy of fin-de-siecle England

This paper proposes that the volumes of My Secret Life reveal an explicit linkage and juxtaposition of the respectable and perverse which was at the heart of fin-de-siècle British culture. In particular this paper reads 'Walter’s' text as a parody of materialism that terminates in fin-de-siècle 'exhaustion' and decline - 'free-enterprise' itself beyond control. Confession opens a site for resistance and subversion, 'Walter’s' text legitimating deviance and rejecting ideas of the thrift of sperm which characterized the discursive controls of the late-nineteenth century

The body in the dock: the aestheticism of Oscar Wilde

Aesthetics is a complex notion that could be most simply described as 'the religion of beauty', in which art has no purpose but to be exquisite. One of the more significant symbols was the lily – an object of precious loveliness, to be contemplated, but having no useful function. Integral to the aesthetic experience, then, is the notion that art is alienated from normal social life

Conclusion [to The Palgrave handbook of incarceration in popular culture]

Incarceration in this collection extended in type and meaning from lawful imprisonment to unjust incarcerations that have been found to be unsafe, to the incarceration of the insane, and the holding of political prisoners in gulags and prison camps

The Church on British television: trom the Coronation to Coronation Street

This book will be the first systematic and comprehensive text to analyze the many and contrasting appearances of the Church of England on television. It covers a range of genres and programs including crime drama, science fiction, comedy, including the specific genre of ‘ecclesiastical comedy’, zombie horror and non-fiction broadcasting. Readers interested in church and political history, popular culture, television and broadcasting history, and the social history of modern Britain will find this to be a lively and timely book. Programs that year after year sit enshrined as national favourites (for example Dad’s Army and Midsomer Murders) foreground the Church. From the Queen’s Christmas Message to royal weddings and Coronation Street, the clergy and services of England’s national church abound in television. This book offers detailed analysis of landmark examples of small screen output and raises questions relating to the storytelling strategies of program makers, the way the established Church is delineated, and the transformation over decades of congregations into audiences

Aiming and Promising, and Recognising the Contradictions and Problems

The global prison population continues to grow, and only a relatively small proportion of the world’s incarcerated people have access to or undertake formal education (Gottschalk, 2006, pp. 1, 181; Kilgore, 2015, p. 18). Delivering education in prisons not only presents logistical and technical challenges, but is also a sensitive and culturally charged issue for governments and communities. Governments seeking to deliver a ‘tough on crime’ or ‘law and order’ political agenda with policies that drive up the rates of incarceration may also find that a concomitant or complementary action to their approach is cutting off prisoners’ access to education. The punitive impulses that drive the era of mass incarceration can also drive the restriction of education to people in prison and further drive the cutting of funds to education programs (Stern, 2014). Spending tax payer money on the education of prisons is well described as an emotional issue (Behan, 2021). Pointing to the discernible connections between anti-recidivism and education (see for example Esperian 2010; Ellison et al., 2017; Battams et al., 2021) may not be enough to dispel community concern or neutralise political discourse regarding criticism of using public money to educate prisoners. Certain measures, such as the cutting of the Pell Funding in the mid-1990s, are well documented instances of the reduction of resources for prisoner education, with the associated outcome of restricting education to a large population of people from minorities (Lillis, 1994; Slater, 1995)

Information literacy: culturally and linguistically diverse postgraduate students and their needs

This chapter brings together two important elements of research at the doctoral level: information literacy (IL) and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students. Having answered the question: ‘What is information literacy?’ the chapter explains that IL encompasses the most effective way to negotiate complex information sources and modes of study. The linkage between information, learning, scholarship and research is integral to successful postgraduate study. Focusing on both the need for IL and the best ways to deliver this support, the chapter provides a model for inculcating IL into the learning experience of CALD HDR students. The chapter’s focus on established practices at a regional university demonstrates the efficacy of providing students with targeted and specific support. It is also particularly pertinent for staff and students at a newly established university and this is one of the chapter’s most important aspects. It describes the use of different methodologies (face-to-face and online learning support; workshops and seminars) and personnel (lecturers, library staff, supervisors and a learning support academic who is available on site for students). Importantly, as a way to validate the model, its effectiveness is underlined by providing the results of data collected from students

Lesbians, nymphomaniacs, and enema specialists: nurses, horror, and agency

Nursing is the healing profession, established by Florence Nightingale on high-minded principles, to comfort and treat the sick. Films of her life and career, especially in the wards at Scutari, made in 1915, 1936 and 1951 showed her as this source of comfort (see Richard Bates’s chapter in this collection). Similarly, hospitals are (or should be) places of safety and healing. What therefore are the messages to taken from those media texts, primarily films, which situate menace not only among the ranks of the nursing profession but in the putatively safe spaces of hospitals? Pursuing these points, and focusing on the unsettling juxtaposition of the horrific and the healing, this chapter examines instances of horror where nurses, nursing and places of healing become sites of horror. It takes examples from English-language film and television productions extending from the 1970s to the present