Permanent link: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/156962
Download 01front.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 84 KB)- Download 02exegesis.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 461 KB)
- Download 03artefact.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF, 6 MB)
- Title
- Bonfire of the vanity presses: self-publishing in the field of Australian poetry: exegesis and artefact
- Author(s)
- Prater, David
- Abstract
- This thesis explores the practice of self-publishing in the field of Australian poetry. Self-publishing today can be seen as part of a long tradition of alternative publishing. Despite changes in the technologies of self-publishing, including the continuing reinvention of non-book publishing activities, poetry remains an area of the arts where the self-published book contains both symbolic and social capital. Rather than offering a basic defence of selfpublishing or a textual analysis of self-published works, the Exegesis 'reimagines' self-publishing within what Bourdieu might term the 'field' of Australian poetry. The thesis also incorporates an Artefact composed of published, self-published and privately-published books. Despite technological changes in the way books are published, it argues that non-mainstream print publishing forms such as the chapbook still play a significant role in fostering innovation in poetic forms. In doing so it seeks a more sophisticated understanding of the literary field, and the role of books as signifiers of prestige within that field.
- Publication Type
- Thesis (PhD)
- Research Centre
- Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research
- Publication Year
- 2010
- Keyword(s)
- Australian poetry; Chapbooks; Publishing; Self-publishing
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2010 David Thomas Prater.
- Additional Information
- This thesis includes an artefact consisting of 7 chapbooks. Six of these are reproduced here: 'The Happy Farang' (2000); '8 poems' (2002); 'Re:' (2005); 'Abendland' (2006); 'Dead Poem Office' (2007); and 'Morgenland' (2007). One is unable to be reproduced online: 'We Will Disappear' (2007).
- Thesis Supervisor
- Julian Thomas and Denise Meredyth
- Thesis Note
- Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Swinburne University of Technology, 2010.
- Collection
- Australasian Digital Theses collection
- Full Text
