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Hundert Jahre später … inspirieren die Märchen der Gebrüder Grimm eine australische Autorin

Eine australische Kinderbuchautorin deutscher Abstammung Olga Dorothea Ernst, eine frühe australische Kinderbuchautorin, war von der reichen deutschen Kultur ihrer Kindheit geprägt. Deutsche Einwanderer, die ab den 1850er Jahren in Melbourne ankamen, brachten einen hohen Grad technischer Kenntnisse und Fähigkeiten mit und leisteten damit ihren Beitrag zum kulturellen Reichtum der Kolonie Victoria. Als Forscher, Künstler, Autoren, Dichter and Wissenschaftler schufen sie die Grundlagen für viele Melbourner Institutionen, als da sind die Sternwarte, der Botanische Garten, der Zoologische Garten und die Königliche Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft von Victoria. In dieser Atmosphäre wuchs Olga Ernst auf. Olga fühlte sich inspiriert, ein australisches Märchenland zu schaffen und schrieb 1904 als Sechzehnjährige das Buch ‘Fairytales from the land of the Wattle’ [‘Märchen aus dem Land der Akazien’]. Sie übernahm sehr geschickt viele der althergebrachten Feengestalten aus den Erzählungen der G

Nicht die Kinder bloß speist man mit Märchen ab

It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales. [Ger., Nicht die Kinder bloss speist man mit Marchen ab.] - Ephraim Gotthold Lessing , Nathan der Weise  (III, 6)  It has taken me 30 minutes to trawl through various literal translations to understand the meaning of this quote. It seems to be most commonly used to reinforce a subtext of childlike naviety in certain circumstances but I am appropriating it in this instance to mean that adults may enjoy fairytales.  Found at the beginning of Bottighemiers book 'Fairytales and Society' I had the jist of what it meant... but to be accurate is important. Various google translations include:  Not only one feeds the children off with fairy tales or   Not   just   the kids   fed   off   with   fairy tales which translates back to German as  Nicht gerade zogen die Kinder weg mit Märchen ein. Entrapment: new Uni library work space Reading translations is fraught with danger but I need to read the original text of fairytal

eBOOKs in the classroom (ASA e-Conference 2011)

It is now possible to have a library in every classroom or even in your pocket. Terence Cavanaugh , 2006 For those of us who like the feel of turning crisp new pages, physically browsing for a hidden gem in a familiar bookstore and have taught students literacy with a Big Book balanced on the literacy stand and struggled to eke out budgets to buy a new sets of interest based readers, the e-book challenges the our personal notion of what is a reading experience. Yet in the time since I began my PhD (3 years ago) Ernst's books have been digitised and downloadable. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2486700. By January of this year, e-book sales at Amazon.com had overtaken its paperback sales .   The idea that we can all carry our own miniaturised and personalised library via e-device challenges the old world print access to books. For educators, who are faced with rapid changes in technology, there are new questions to be answered. Will e-books will engage tech-savvy students? Wi

Franticity

Mark Treadwell  encouraged conference participants to use digital technologies during his two days of presentations. An interesting experience for me with my brand new iPad2: permission to play while listening to a presentation.. On the positive side, the ability to instantly access his lecture notes, zoom into diagrams and find the answers to questions posed was useful.  Mark would say that googling for the answers is 'collaborating not cheating'. My table group ' found ' the answers Mark wanted and offered them to the discussion without any need to reflect deeply. It felt like cheating! I am NOT a digital native and found it exhausting. Normally those ideas that 'pop' in a random manner during PDs I jot down to later act on. This time I actioned them as I thought of them! During Mark's presentation: I sent the url to my latest photo book to a colleague who'd introduced me to Blurb.com while Mark was explaining neurons. I recieved a physical thumbs

Cold and wet but chapter one is drafted

Longing for Highland Waters snow and solitude! Study tidied, feel like despite the digital world of research paper continues to pile up and another self of the bookcase is folderised while the filing cabinet has been culled of old papers. At least paper remains while my Time Machine has suddenly decided that backing up is too stressful and has refused to do it. Mild panic but Ross had rescued the thesis until the TM can be repaired or replaced. Have spent the weekend emailing out research findings, following evidence trails and procrastinating on the Methodology chapter.

Girl writing

Writing at the HJ Though ten books is a very small sample, there are a number of differences between those fairy tales written by men and those written by women. Argamona, Koppelb, Fine and Shimonib  (2003) concluded after an extensive study of contemporary works that the writing style of women is ‘involved’ while men’s writing is more ‘informational’. Put simply women’s writing develops relationships between reader and writer while men’s writing references concrete facts such as place and time to build context. Interesting research to be queried and challenged.  Male fairy tale writers do not seem to have the same concerns about the worth of their book while female writers seek approval and acknowledgement and their approach is self-deprecating, perhaps to deflect criticism and also indicate their awareness of social expectations for female writers.  The women writers humbly offer their stories to their audience. Which of these is the male writer? ‘ AUSTRALIA! Hast thou no ench

Snowed in on the Central Highlands

It's tempting to go for a walk around the lake, drive 23 km down the road for a coffee at the Hungry Wombat Cafe or hike around Lake St. Claire rather than write BUT we're snowed in. Kel who visited for the weekend can't get back to Hobart to catch a plane to Melbourne. The roads are closed. It's snowed for 24 hours off and on. The world outside is white and magical and the fire inside is glowing. Nothing to do but eat chocolate cake and write! I should be productive. Monday 8 pm - still snowed in - road closed between Derwent Bridge and Tarraleah - so Kel has borrowed the laptop so she can work!