An Interview with Jean-François Vernay

The second edition of Jean-François Vernay’s book A Brief Take on the Australian Novel (Adelaide: Wakefield Press) was released in 2016. This incisive history of Australian fiction is remarkable for a relatively young scholar, both for its ambitious scope and its innovative approach, employing structural techniques derived from the world and language of cinema. It is designed to appeal to the general reader seeking to test their views against Vernay’s, to those new to the area of Australian fiction who might use it as a guide to their reading, and to those engaged in academic study. As has often been noted, Jean-François Vernay’s French-Australian parentage and background give him an unusual and distinctive perspective on Australian writing. Jean-François is also the author of Water from the Moon: Illusion and Reality in the Works of Christopher Koch (New York: Cambria Press, 2007), as well as numerous other critical studies. His book The Seduction of Fiction: A Plea for Putting Emotions Back into Literary Interpretation will be released in August 2016 as part of Palgrave Macmillan’s series Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism. He is also a creative writer in his own right, notably of Un doux petit rêveur (2012)

Productivity: literary value and the curriculum

My aim is to review recent debates about value in relation to literary texts, and about the value of literary study, and consider these in relation to the compromise over literary value current in the university English curriculum in the United Kingdom. While the intensified interest in literary theory has had far-reaching implications for methods of studying literature, and while certain areas of the curriculum (in terms of the texts studied) have changed radically, others have altered little in the second half of the twentieth century. However, the requirements of 'taught texts' have altered. The kind of text which is currently valued widely is that which is most productive - a term to which I shall return. The paper also assesses the effect of market forces and student preferences in a world of "academic capitalism" (the term is Harold Fromm's). I want also to consider the relationship between value and two other concepts: mastery and repetitio

Lying in children’s fiction: morality and the imagination

The telling of lies is significant in fiction written for children, and is often (though not in all cases) performed by child protagonists. Lying can be examined from at least three perspectives: philosophical, moral and aesthetic. The moral and the aesthetic are the most significant for children's literature. Morality has been subtly dealt with in Anne Fine's A Pack of Liars and Nina Bawden's Humbug. The aesthetic dimension involves consideration of lying's relation to imagination, fantasy and creativity; Richmal Crompton's William: the Showman and Geraldine McCaughrean's A Pack of Lies show this at a complex, metafictional, leve