| THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN ASSISTED BY THE COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA THROUGH THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL, ITS ARTS FUNDING AND ADVISORY BODY. IT HAS ALSO BEEN GENEROUSLY ASSISTED BY DEETYA. |
A complete ONLINE REGISTRATION FORM is available for those who have not as yet registered.
Our call for papers has had an excellent response from all over the world. You can look forward to a choice of 69 presentations (apart from the three plenary papers) with an unparalleled thematic variety.
The keynote address will be given by Graeme Turner (U of Queensland, author of Making It National, 1994, and National Fictions, 1986 and 1993). He will reconsider the uses of Nationalism in contemporary Australia.
Kay Schaffer's paper (she teaches at the University of Adelaide) "'Dances With Wolves' or 'Strictly Ballroom': How Feminisms Negotiate With Australia�s Nationalist Histories and Mythologies" is subtitled "A Pas De deux about Questions of identity and difference", and will be the first in a series of feminist discourses on Nationalism.
Livio Dobrez, whose work at ANU on questions of post-modern approaches to issues of nation and nationalism has been well received also in Europe will be the third plenarist. His paper: "Australian Discourses of Contact, Appropriation, Nationalism, Consciousness and postmodernity."
As has become customary, there will be three parallel sessions to
accommodate all the papers. Their range and diversity has delighted the
organizers. Many European and American contributors will, understandably,
concentrate on questions of a subtext of nationalism in the works of
individual Australian authors.
A few examples:
Australian contributors will address a wide range of issues. These range
from the Sydney Olympics ('The sale of the Millennium', Enno Hermann) to the
'Macdonaldization of Australia' (Paul Gillen), from representations of
Australia's Red Centre (Michael Cathcart) to no fewer than four papers on
Australia's most startling MP Pauline Hanson.
Well represented will be
issues of
All presentors are advised that their papers hould not exceed 20 minutes in length. Chairpersons will be asked to enforce that limit and to grant extensions only where audio-visual material will be presented.
A conference is not just an academic event, but also a social one. There will be many Australian friends of Europe in Klagenfurt whom to meet again will be a personal pleasure. Among them are John Barnes, Bruce Bennett, Carl Bridge (newly appointed head of the SRMCAS in London), Robin Gerster, Kerryn Goldworthy, Anthony Hassall, Laurie Hergenhan, Albert Moran, Wenche Ommundsen, Ken Stewart, Andrew Taylor, Helen Thomson, and many more.
A complete conference progarmme will be sent to you in August
Registration for the conference will start at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, September
24.
At 6 p.m. the official welcoming and opening addresses will be given.
Afterwards, there will be chamber music by a mixed Austro-Australian quartet
and a welcome buffet.
On the day of the opening, there will be a shuttle service (price 50 Schillings or 6 Australian dollars, CORRECT CHANGE please) between the airport and your hotels. Look out for the helpers carrying EASA placards or T-shirts proclaiming "there are no kangaroos in Austria." TO ASCERTAIN NUMBERS, please let us know the exact time of your arrival. If you arrive by train, the easiest method of getting to your hotel is by taxi. The cost for a taxi should not exceed 80 Schillings, with the possible exception of the Hotel Roesch.
Because both DEETYA and the Australia Council have given generous financial support to this conference, we will also have a WORDFEST involving quite a number of writers (Marion Halligan and Venero Armanno) and poets (Dian Fahey, John Kinsella, Mark O'Connor, and Beate Josephi.) This will happen on the second day of the conference and in the campus restaurant, so that we can all have some drinks while listenting to our guests of honour.
The famous violinist Miwako Abe (accompanied by a Russian pianist) will give a concert of Australian music on Friday evening (September 26th) in the 'Konzertvereinshaus' in the center of Klagenfurt. A shuttle will be provided. Tickets for this concert will be 100 Schillings (11 dollars). Ms Abe, who works at the School of Music, Victorian College of the Arts, will provide mini-lectures on each of the pieces that will be performed. (Note: to be confirmed in my next circular.)
The conference dinner will take place on Saturday, September 27th. Venue: Hotel Rokohof.
On the final day of the conference an excursion is planned to the medieval fortress of HOCHOSTERWITZ, which Walt Disney once proclaimed to be the most beautuful castle in the world, and to the Romanesque cathedral of Gurk. The latter is famous not just for its rare architecture and frescoes, but also for the late-medieval 'Lenten Cloth'. Tickets for the excursion will cost 400 Schillings - this will include entrance fees, an English-speaking guide, and lunch. The bus will return to klagenfurt at 5 p.m., which is early enough to catch one of the evening trains, the 18.10 plane to Frankfurt or the 18.20 flight to Vienna.
While we are on the subject of transport: Klagenfurt has a local airport whose international code is KLU. There are five connecting flight to/from Vienna each day, two for Frankfurt and two for Zurich. Train connections from/to Vienna: there is a direct train every two hours. The journey lasts 4 hours and 20 minutes, the cost is 416 Schillings one way, second class. Reservations are not necessary. If you are a tarin buff, you will be interested to know that the train journey will lead you across the so-called "Semmering", the oldest trans-Alpine train pass, designed and built by Carl Ritter von Ghega in 1842.
Accommodations: We have just suffered a bad blow to our organizational framework. The student management of the MOZARTHEIM have gone back on their word to provide between 20 and 25 rooms during the conference. Since nothing was fixed in writing, I can only gnash my teeth. Re-bookings will have to be made and those who were informed that they have a place in the Mozartheim will mostly find themselves in the hotel Roesch, at slightly higher costs. (A free shuttle service will be provided.) Within the next week you will get another communication from me in which each registered participant will be listed against a hotel or B&B; place. If you then wish to re-arrange your booking, please get in touch with [email protected]. Aurora has been extremely helpful in the planning of the conference, and she is the one in charge of accommodation.
If you need further information, please contact me at [email protected] or by FAX at 43 463 2700 333.
We are all looking forward to seeing you in September. Have a safe journey!
Adi Wimmer
There are approximately 12 Austrian Schillings to one US dollar.
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