Staff Directory

Dr Matthew Ryan Name: Dr Matthew Ryan
Senior Lecturer (Literature)
Email
Matthew.Ryan@acu.edu.au
Phone
+613 9953 3214
Organisational Area
Faculty of Education and Arts
Department
Creative Arts (VIC)
Location
Melbourne
Publications

ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4510-6514

 

Edited Collections

Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique (eds) Matthew Ryan and Simon Sellars, Issue 17, August   2009, http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ecps/colloquy/journal/issue017/issue17.pdf

 Demanding the Impossible: Utopia and Dystopia (eds) Andrew Milner, Matthew Ryan, Simon Sellars, Arena Publications, 2008.

 Imagining the Future: Utopia and Dystopia (eds) Andrew Milner, Matthew Ryan, Robert Savage, Arena Publications, 2006.

 

Book Chapters

'What am I like?: Writing the Body and the Self' in Anne Enright: Irish Writers in Their Time (eds) Claire Bracken, Susan Cahill, Irish Academic Press, 2011.

'Hope is Critical: Cormac McCarthy's The Road' in Demanding the Impossible: Utopia and Dystopia (eds) Andrew Milner, Matthew Ryan, Simon Sellars, Arena Publications, 2008.

 

Refereed Journal Articles

'Uses for ruins: Anne Enright's The Green Road' Textual Practice, 2021, DOI: 10.1080/0950236X.2019.1652678

'Place, History and Story: Tony Birch and the Yarra River' with Carolyn Masel,  Australian Literary Studies, 2016, DOI: 10.20314/als.00776e89d0

'Popular Culture: pessimism and hope' Arena Journal, no.45/46 2016.

'Art, Utopia and the Aestheticized Self' Arena Journal, no.39/40, 2012-13. 

'Abstract Homes: Deterritorialisation and Reterritorialisation in the work of Colm Tóibín' Irish Studies Review, no.16, vol.1, 2008, pp.19-32. 

'Solipsism as Cultural Condition: Some recent Irish Examples' Arena Journal, no.27, 2006, pp.159-191.

'Vanguards and Avant-gardes: The Reason in Revolt Online Project on Political and Cultural Radicalism' Simon Booth, Verity Burgmann, Stuart Macintyre, Andrew Milner and Matthew Ryan, The Past is before Us: Proceedings of the 9th Annual Labour History Conference, University of Sydney, 2005, pp.29-37.

'Ourselves Alone: Solipsism in Neil Jordan&rsquos Novels and Films' Barcelona English Language and Literature Studies, no.11, 2000, pp.187-98.

'A Postmodern Ireland?' Arena Journal, no.11, 1998, pp.33-43.

 

Conference Papers

'What am I like? Anne Enright writes the Body and the Self'. Delivered in the Seminar Series, Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash University, May, 2010. Podcast at: http://arts.monash.edu.au/blogs/events/2010/05/19/seminar-what-am-i-like/

'Something's Missing: John Banville&rsquos Wary Aestheticis'. Delivered in the Seminar Series, Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash University, June, 2009. Podcast available at:    http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/cclcs/seminars/2009/ryan- somethings-missing.php

'Aesthetic Utopia in John Banville's The Sea. Delivered at Bridges to Utopia: 9th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, July 2008, University of Limerick.

'The Dystopian Rendering of Ideology and Utopia in Cormac McCarthy's The Road'. Delivered at Demanding the Impossible: Utopia, Dystopia and Science Fiction, December 2007, Monash University. 

'Writing Place and Self in Glenn Patterson's Burning Your Own and Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark'. Delivered at the 15th Irish-Australian Studies Conference, 2007, La Trobe University.

'The Influence of the World: John Banvill's Material Epiphanies'. Delivered at the conference of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures, 2006, University of New South Wales.

'Vanguards and Avant-gardes: The Reason in Revolt Online Project on Political and Cultural Radicalism', Simon Booth, Verity Burgmann, Stuart Macintyre, Andrew Milner and Matthew Ryan. Delivered at Culture Fix Conference, 25-27 November 2005, University of Technology Sydney.

'Ourselves Alone: Solipsism in the Films and Writing of Neil Jordan'. Delivered at IASIL &rsquo99 Irish Literatures at Century&rsquos End, July 1999, University of Barcelona.

'What Rough Beast &hellip On a Postnational Future for Irish Culture and Identity'. Delivered at Bordering Europe, September 1999, University of Kent at Canterbury.

 

Selected Articles and Reviews

'Permablitz' Arena Magazine Oct-Nov 2009.

'First Australians: the politics of recognition', Arena Magazine, no.98, Dec-Jan, 2008.

'Mothers and Sons&rsquo A review of Colm Tóibín's Mothers and Sons'. In The Age (29 March 2008).

'Non-violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea A review of Mark Kurlanky's book. The Age (February 23, 2007).

'On Non-Indigenous Belonging' Arena Magazine, 2006.

'From Precarity to Precarious' Arena Magazine, April-May, 2006.

'Risking It', Arena Magazine, no.80, 2005, p.2.

'The Stench of Abandonment: Hurricane Katrina', Arena Magazine, no.79, 2005, pp.26-7.

'Return of the Repressed', Editorial, Arena Magazine, no. 53, 2001, pp. 2-3.

'After Consumerism'. Editorial, Arena Magazine, no. 52, 2001, p. 3.

'Race, sex and power'. A review of Mark Kurlansky&rsquos The White Man in the Tree. In the Age, Saturday Extra, (26 May 2001) p.9.

'Emerald Germs'. A review of Patrick McCabe The Emerald Germs of Ireland. In the Age, Saturday Extra, (24 February 2001) p.10.

'A Writer of Absence'. A review of John Banville&rsquos Eclipse. In the Age, Saturday Extra, (7 October 2000) p.9.

'Ground Control', Arena Magazine, no. 48, 2000, pp.6-8.

'George W. Bush: Linking God, Death and Votes' Arena Magazine, no. 46, 2000, pp.11-12. 

'Three Geeks, Three Films: Existenz, Being John Malkovich, Fight Club'. In Arena Magazine, no. 45, 2000, pp.53-55.

'Gentrification and the New Poor'. Editorial. Arena Magazine, no. 38, 1999, pp.2-3.

'The Northern Ireland Peace Accord' Arena Magazine, no.35, 1998, pp.43-46.

'TAC Tactics, Election Ads' Arena Magazine, no 37, 1998, pp.14-15.

'The Image of a Spy'. A review of John Banville&rsquos The Untouchable. In Meanjin, vol. 56, no.2, 1997, pp. 411-416.

'My Celtic Tattoo or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Postmodern Selves'. A short fiction. Arena Magazine, no.28, 1997

'Michael Collins Hollywood Hero'. A review of Neil Jordan's film Michael Collins. In Arena Magazine, no. 27, 1997, pp. 44-46.

'Lack of the Irish'. A review of Terry Eagleton's Heathcliff and the Great Hunger in Arena Magazine, no. 21, 1996, pp. 51-52.

Research

My research considers the ways in which contemporary writing presents and contributes to the constitution of self in relation to place, social circumstance and to more abstracted - national and transnational - forms of sociality and polity. The focus of my research has been on how contemporary novels and short stories negotiate this set of relations. I have specialised in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Irish writing but have extended my consideration to other contemporary literatures such as dystopian writing.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Keywords: Contemporary Literature, Irish Literature, Globalisation, Nation, Place, Self, Social, Novel, Short Story, Utopia/Dystopia, Writing and Embodiment

Professional Memberships

Secretary of Irish Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (ISAANZ)

Member of International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures (IASIL)

 

Have a question?

askacu

We're available 9am–5pm AEDT,
Monday to Friday

If you’ve got a question, our AskACU team has you covered. You can search FAQs, text us, email, live chat, call – whatever works for you.

Live chat with us now

Chat to our team for real-time
answers to your questions.

Launch live chat
Visit our FAQs page

Find answers to some commonly
asked questions.

See our FAQs