Category Archives: Speculative Australia

The Grief Hole – A Book-Review

CONTAINS SPOILERS There are many grief holes. There’s the grief hole you fall into when a loved one dies. There’s another grief hole in all of us; small or large, it determines how much we want to live. And there … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Picnic at Hanging Rock”

by Leonora Rexhi The Australian movie, ”Picnic at Hanging Rock”, is based on the novel under the same name, which was written by Joan Lindsay. The film was released in 1975. 1900, Appleyard College, Victoria, Australia. On Valentine’s Day, the … Continue reading

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The challenging of typical gender tropes in Lian Hearn’s “Across the Nightingale Floor”

Across the Nightingale Floor by Gillian Rubinstein is about the story of teenagers Takeo and Kaede, set in a fictional medieval Japan-based world. Takeo, born as Tomasu, one of The Hidden, a religion based strongly on the Kakure Kirishitan, the … Continue reading

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Book Review: “The Dreaming” by Queenie Chan

By Theodora Charalambous A Hong Kong-born, Australian-raised writer and illustrator, the Australian bush, Aboriginal mythology and Japanese mangas. An unusual combination that surprisingly works great. The Dreaming is a 3-book, manga (Japanese comics) inspired, supernatural mystery series written and illustrated … Continue reading

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Book Review: “Captive Prince” Trilogy

CONTAINS SPOILERS ‘Love Conquers All’ I am sure most people are familiar with that expression. While it may sound cheesy and a bit worn out, in my opinion it describes the plot of Australian writer C.S. Pacat’s trilogy Captive Prince … Continue reading

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Trauma and Poetry in “Catching Teller Crow”

By Benedikt von Laufenberg In this blog post, I want to focus on the first chapters of the novel Catching Teller Crow and the way in which the chapters highlight the relation between trauma and detective work. Moreover, I want … Continue reading

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Elements of Time in Joan Lindsay’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock”

this blogpost includes spoilers of the novel and its adaptations An uncanny premise Joan Lindsay’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (1967) is a pseudo-historical Gothic Horror novel which was followed by its famous movie adaptation “The Day of Saint Valentine” in … Continue reading

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Australian Gothic vs. European Gothic

by Leonora Rexhi The Gothic is a rather broad genre. There are different versions across the globe. Subcategories are, for example, the Australian Gothic, the European Gothic and the American Gothic. All of them are relatively similar to each other, … Continue reading

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Othering and Orientalism in “A Pearling Tale” by Maxine McArthur

The short story A Pearling Tale by Maxine McArthur is about Jiro Aoyanagi, a diver who is forced to go on a boat ride with his crew at the end of the diving season. His job is to dive for … Continue reading

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The Genres of Speculative Fiction – An Overview

by Nadja Marek, Renee Czyganowski, Danny Tran, and Ann-Sophie Ludwig Speculative fiction is an umbrella term that contains many different genres. Generally speaking, it deals with topics such as nature (or the supernatural) and alternate realities, either in the past … Continue reading

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