Michael Ackland, James Cook University
Projects 0
Publications 42
Awards 1

Biography

Michael Ackland was educated at Melbourne Grammar School, Monash University, Cologne University and the Australian National University, and taught for many years at Monash University.

He has also taught and lectured widely in Europe and North America. He is fluent in French and German.

His recent temporary positions included Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, and Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and at Tokyo University.

The author of numerous monographs, biographies and editions, his most recent book was The Experimental Fiction of Murray Bail (Amherst: Cambria Press, 2012). He is currently researching Christina Stead and the Socialist Heritage with an ARC Discovery Grant.

Research

Research Interests

Christina Stead and the Socialist Heritage Haruki Murakami and Japanese social history The Australian Colonial Heritage

Comparative Literature , Art History and the History of Ideas Twentieth Century Literature to the end of the Cold War, with special reference to its political affiliations

Activities

Awards

Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Output

Australian Fiction and the Lure of Painting
2023
Ackland, Michael (2023) Australian Fiction and the Lure of Painting. [DOI]
Other Publication Open Access ResearchOnline@JCU
Fending off Doomsday: Christina Stead's response to postwar, democratic Europe
2018
Ackland, Michael (2018) Fending off Doomsday: Christina Stead's response to postwar, democratic Europe.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
"The Young Man Will Go Far": educational nobility and Christina Stead's compositional practice in the early 1930s
2016
Ackland, Michael (2016) The Young Man Will Go Far: educational nobility and Christina Stead's compositional practice in the early 1930s. [DOI]
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Who are the biggest cannibals?: Colonial literary reckonings with the dark European Other in the Pacific region
2016
Ackland, Michael (2016) Who are the biggest cannibals?: Colonial literary reckonings with the dark European Other in the Pacific region. [DOI]
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
'Reclaiming the rubbish': outcasts, transformation and the topos of the painter-seer in the work of Patrick White and David Malouf
2016
Ackland, Michael (2016) 'Reclaiming the rubbish': outcasts, transformation and the topos of the painter-seer in the work of Patrick White and David Malouf. [DOI]
Other Publication Open Access ResearchOnline@JCU
Money is a steal:" Christina Stead's critique of finance capitalism in House of All Nations
2016
Ackland, Michael (2016) Money is a steal: Christina Stead's critique of finance capitalism in House of All Nations.
Other Publication Open Access ResearchOnline@JCU
Morality at bay: the lesson of the Americas in Murray Bail's Homesickness
2014
Ackland, Michael (2014) Morality at bay: the lesson of the Americas in Murray Bail's Homesickness. [DOI]
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
"Reality is monstrous": Christina Stead's critique of the triumphant West in The Puzzleheaded Girl
2013
Ackland, Michael (2013) Reality is monstrous: Christina Stead's critique of the triumphant West in The Puzzleheaded Girl. [DOI]
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
"I am thinking I am free": intransigent reality versus utopian thought in the later fiction of Christina Stead
2012
Ackland, Michael (2012) I am thinking I am free: intransigent reality versus utopian thought in the later fiction of Christina Stead. Australia:
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
'We are all philosophers; we cannot help being': Credos, Lifechoices and Philosophy in Murray Bail's The Pages
2012
Ackland, Michael (2012) 'We are all philosophers; we cannot help being': Credos, Lifechoices and Philosophy in Murray Bail's The Pages.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
"Socialists of a new socialism"?: Christina Stead's critique of 1930s America in The Man Who Loved Children
2011
Ackland, Michael (2011) Socialists of a new socialism?: Christina Stead's critique of 1930s America in The Man Who Loved Children.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Beneath the camouflage: mimicry and settler false consciousness in the fiction of Murray Bail
2011
Ackland, Michael (2011) Beneath the camouflage: mimicry and settler false consciousness in the fiction of Murray Bail.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Dreaming of the Middle Ages: the place of the 'mittelalterlich' and socialist awareness in Christina Stead's early fiction
2011
Ackland, Michael (2011) Dreaming of the Middle Ages: the place of the 'mittelalterlich' and socialist awareness in Christina Stead's early fiction. Brisbane, Australia:
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Behold Burton's tomb: mortality and escapism in Murray Bail's homesickness
2011
Ackland, Michael (2011) Behold Burton's tomb: mortality and escapism in Murray Bail's homesickness. Sydney, NSW, Australia:
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Politics, clichés and the "lurky country": Murray Bail's critique of national mythologies in Holden's Performance
2011
Ackland, Michael (2011) Politics, clichés and the lurky country: Murray Bail's critique of national mythologies in Holden's Performance.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
"Hedging on Destiny": history and its marxist dimension in the early fiction of Christina Stead
2011
Ackland, Michael (2011) Hedging on Destiny: history and its marxist dimension in the early fiction of Christina Stead.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
'Matisse is jammed with confidence': painting and creative inspiration in the early writings of Murray Bail
2011
Ackland, Michael (2011) 'Matisse is jammed with confidence': painting and creative inspiration in the early writings of Murray Bail.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Christina Stead and the politics of covert statement
2010
Ackland, Michael (2010) Christina Stead and the politics of covert statement.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Realigning Christina Stead: A 'red Stead'
2008
Ackland, Michael (2008) Realigning Christina Stead: A 'red Stead'.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
"A cold coming we had of it": the reception of T. S. Eliot, literary modernism and tradition in the work of James McAuley and the Sydney modernists
2008
Ackland, Michael (2008) A cold coming we had of it: the reception of T. S. Eliot, literary modernism and tradition in the work of James McAuley and the Sydney modernists.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
"What a history is that? What an enigma ...?": imagination, destiny and socialist imperatives in Christina Stead's Seven Poor Men of Sydney
2008
Ackland, Michael (2008) What a history is that? What an enigma ...?: imagination, destiny and socialist imperatives in Christina Stead's Seven Poor Men of Sydney.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
A view from the Orient Hotel: phobias, federation, and Albert Dorrington's Asia-Pacific nightmares
2008
Ackland, Michael (2008) A view from the Orient Hotel: phobias, federation, and Albert Dorrington's Asia-Pacific nightmares.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Love and the great beyond: The spiritualist beliefs that sustained the love of Henry Handel Richardson for her husband and her family beyond the grave
2007
Ackland, Michael (2007) Love and the great beyond: The spiritualist beliefs that sustained the love of Henry Handel Richardson for her husband and her family beyond the grave.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
For love alone "Review of Dearest Munx: The Letters of Christina Stead and William J. Blake. Harris, Margaret (ed.) (2005). Paper in: On Love, Sex and Desire."
2007
Ackland, Michael (2007) For love alone Review of Dearest Munx: The Letters of Christina Stead and William J. Blake. Harris, Margaret (ed.) (2005). Paper in: On Love, Sex and Desire.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Breeding "reptiles of the mind": Blake's dialectics of vision and Stead's critique of pollitry in The Man Who Loved Children
2006
Ackland, Michael (2006) Breeding reptiles of the mind: Blake's dialectics of vision and Stead's critique of pollitry in The Man Who Loved Children.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
The lesson of "The Yellow Sand": Robert Drewe's dissection of "The Good Old Past" in The Drowner and Grace
2006
Ackland, Michael (2006) The lesson of The Yellow Sand: Robert Drewe's dissection of The Good Old Past in The Drowner and Grace.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
The triumphant word: Malouf's Heideggerian vision in An Imaginary Life
2006
Ackland, Michael (2006) The triumphant word: Malouf's Heideggerian vision in An Imaginary Life .
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Winning the peace?: rewriting Quadrant's past
2006
Ackland, Michael (2006) Winning the peace?: rewriting Quadrant's past.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Henry Handel Richardson's years in Wilhelmine Germany: the "most cultured land in Europe"?
2005
Ackland, Michael (2005) Henry Handel Richardson's years in Wilhelmine Germany: the most cultured land in Europe?.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
In the service of complex truths: the aims and art of Robert Drewe's fiction
2005
Ackland, Michael (2005) In the service of complex truths: the aims and art of Robert Drewe's fiction.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Only 'a well-schooled interpreter': Henry Handel Richardson's final year at the Leipzig Conservatorium and its authorial recasting.
2005
Ackland, Michael (2005) Only 'a well-schooled interpreter': Henry Handel Richardson's final year at the Leipzig Conservatorium and its authorial recasting.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Passion by proxy: Henry Handel Richardson's sapphic investment in her early fiction
2004
Ackland, Michael (2004) Passion by proxy: Henry Handel Richardson's sapphic investment in her early fiction.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Master of Elusion
2004
Ackland, Michael (2004) Master of Elusion.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Polemics anonymous: James McAuley's nom de plume contributions from Hermes to Quadrant
2004
Ackland, Michael (2004) Polemics anonymous: James McAuley's nom de plume contributions from Hermes to Quadrant.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
'The argument of the broken pane': Henry Handel Richardson's response to the suffragette movement.
2004
Ackland, Michael (2004) 'The argument of the broken pane': Henry Handel Richardson's response to the suffragette movement.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Whatever happened to Coppelius?: antecedents and design in Christina Stead's The Salzburg Tales
2003
Ackland, Michael (2003) Whatever happened to Coppelius?: antecedents and design in Christina Stead's The Salzburg Tales.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
"Wishing papa was dead?": Henry Handel Richardson's recasting of her troubled childhood in Myself When Young
2003
Ackland, Michael (2003) Wishing papa was dead?: Henry Handel Richardson's recasting of her troubled childhood in Myself When Young.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
More than 'a henna gaijin': the shaping of Harold Stewart's affinity with Japan
2003
Ackland, Michael (2003) More than 'a henna gaijin': the shaping of Harold Stewart's affinity with Japan.
Other Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Existentialist Vision of Haruki Murakami
2022
Ackland, Michael (2022) Existentialist Vision of Haruki Murakami. Amherst, NY, USA: Cambria Press.
Christina Stead and the Socialist Heritage
2016
Ackland, Michael (2016) Christina Stead and the Socialist Heritage. New York, NY, USA: Cambria Press.
Book Open Access ResearchOnline@JCU
The Experimental Fiction of Murray Bail
2012
Ackland, Michael (2012) The Experimental Fiction of Murray Bail. Amherst, NY, USA: Cambria Press.
Henry Handel Richardson: a life
2004
Ackland, Michael (2004) Henry Handel Richardson: a life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.