The lecturers of English and Creative Writing at Murdoch University

Vijay C Mishra - Image

Meet Vijay C Mishra

Professor of English Literature & Australian Professorial Fellow

"I teach a range of units in all genres (poetry, drama, narrative) as well as literary theory, research methods and the links between the novel and cinema. My teaching is always research-based as university teaching has to be. I find great satisfaction in disseminating difficult knowledge and do not shy away from introducing highly complex theories and ideas to students."

Education

  • BA (VUW), Dip Teach (Christchurch), BA(Hons) (Macquarie), MA(Hons) (Sydney), PhD (ANU), DPhil (Oxford), FAHA 


Achievements

  • Fellow of the Australian Humanities Academy (FAHA)
  • Australian Professorial Fellow (APF)
  • Raja Rao Award, Samvad Foundation, Delhi, 2008
  • ARC Discovery Grants 1995-97; 2001-2005
  • Who’s Who in Australia since 2000
  • Chair, WA Premier’s Book Awards 2001-2003
  • Chair, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2005-2007
  • FISCAA Arts Award, 2006
  • Director, Krishna Somers Foundation, Murdoch University, 2004-
  • External assessor, University of Mauritius Department of English 2005-
  • William Evans Fellow, University of Otago, 2003
  • Professor of English Literature, University of Alberta 1997-99
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC ) Grant 1999
  • Visiting Professor University of California, Santa Cruz 1997
  • Canadian Government Faculty Research Award 1996
  • Rockefeller Fellow, Centre for Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1993-94
  • Senior Fellow in Criticism and Theory, University of Wales, Cardiff, 1989


Publications

Major Books

The Literature of the Indian Diaspora: Theorizing the Diasporic Imaginary. Routledge, 2007.

Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire. Routledge, 2002.

Devotional Poetics and the Indian Sublime. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998.

The Gothic Sublime. State University of New York Press, 1994. [SUNY Series on the Sublime ]. Foundation Volume.

Dark Side of the Dream: Australian Literature and the Postcolonial Mind. George Allen and Unwin, 1991. [with Bob Hodge]. Sections anthologized in Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin eds. Postcolonial Studies Anthology (London: Routledge, 1997), Gregory Castle ed. Postcolonial Discourses An Anthology (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001).


Minor Books/Monographs

Bollywood Cinema: A Critical Genealogy [Asian Studies Institute Working Paper 20]. Victoria University of Wellington Asian Studies Institute, 2006. ISBN 10-0-473-11621-9.

The Diasporic Imaginary and the Indian Diaspora [Asian Studies Institute Occasional Lecture 2]. Victoria University of Wellington Asian Studies Institute, 2005. ISBN 0-473-10651-5

Rama's Banishment: A Centenary Tribute to the Fiji Indians 1879-1979, edited with an Introduction and Epilogue. Heinemann, 1979.

A Companion to WAVES. Heinemann, 1976

Waves, An Anthology of Verse for Schools. Heinemann, 1975. 2nd revised edition, 1978

Chapters in Books

“Understanding Bollywood.” In The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics, ed. Robert Fortner, New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, pp. 577-601.

‘In the arcade of Hanuman House,’ in India and the Indian Diasporic Imagination, Rita Christian and Judith Misrahi-Barak, eds. Les Carnets du Cerpac 9 (Montpellier: Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2011. Forthcoming.

‘The Gothic Sublime’ in David Punter ed. A New Companion to the Gothic. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2011. Forthcoming. 
“Hinduism and Film: Bollywood.” and "Religion and Cinema." In Knut A. Jacobson, Angelika Malinar, Helene Basu and Vasudha Narayanan eds. Brill's Encyclopaedia of Hinduism, Vol. II. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2010, pp. 636-51.
‘Diaspora, Nation-states and the Self’ in South Asian Literatures, eds. Gerhard Stilz and Ellen Dengel-Janic [“Postcolonial Literatures in English: Sources and Resources” series]. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (WVT), 2010. [Series editors Frank Schulze-Engler, Tobias Doering and Gerhard Stilz], pp. 232-38.

“Multiculturalism (2008)” In Andrew Hadfied and Susan Currell eds. The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
'Bollywood', in Globalization in Practice.
“The Religious Sublime.” In Frank Burch Brown ed. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts. Forthcoming.
"Multiculturalism (2007)" In Andrew Hadfied and Susan Currell eds. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory.  Oxford University Press, 2009: 47-86.
"Aboriginal Representations in Australian Texts: Perception, Convention, Expectation and Transformation." In Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal eds. Creative Nation: Australian Cinema and Cultural Studies Reader. New Delhi: SSS Publications, 2009: 253-277. (ISBN No. 81-902282-0-X (hbk); Total Pages: lii + 600; Dimensions: 5.5" X 8.5"). Originally published in Continuum 2.1 1 (1988/89): 165-88.
"'The Familiar Temporariness' Naipaul, disapora and the literary imagination: a personal narrative." In Rajesh Rai and Peter Reeves eds. South Asian Diaspora: Transnational Networks and Changing Identities. Routledge, 2009: 193-208.
"Towards a Theoretical Critique of Bombay Cinema." [Originally published in Screen, 26.3-4 (May-August, 1985): 133-146]. Reprinted in Rajinder Dudrah and Jigna Desai eds. The Bollywood Reader, Manchester University Press and Minnesota University Press, 2008.
"Re-mapping Bollywood Cinema: A Postcolonial Case Study" In James Donald and Michael Renov eds. The SAGE Handbook of Film Studies. London: Sage Publications, 2008: 471-92.
"Bollywood," The International Encyclopedia of Communication, ed. Wolfgang Donsbach, Volume 2. Oxford, UK and Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008: 349-353
"Bollywood." The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Donsbach, Wolfgang (Ed). Blackwell Publishing, 2008.
Blackwell Reference Online. 12 May 2009 <http://www.communicationencyclopedia.com/subscriber/tocnode?id=g9781405131995_chunk_g97814051319957_ss19-1>
"Salman Rushdie and Bollywood Cinema." In Abdulrazak Gurnah ed. The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007: 11-28.
"Multiculturalism (2005)" In Andrew Hadfied, Peter Boxall, Lindsay Smith and Céline Surprenant eds. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007: 146–164.

"Multiculturalism (2006)" In Andrew Hadfied, Peter Boxall, Lindsay Smith and Céline Surprenant eds. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008: 132–165.

"Traumatic Memory, Mourning V S Naipaul." In Martina Ghosh-Schellhorn and Vera Alexander eds. Peripheral Centres, Central Peripheries: India and its Diaspora(s). Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2006: 129–155.
"Multiculturalism (2004)." In Andrew Hadfied, Peter Boxall, Lindsay Smith and Céline Surprenant eds. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006: 292–310.
"Voices from the Diaspora." In Brij V. Lal (gen. editor) The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora. Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Paris: Editions Didier Millet, 2006: 120-139.
"Cool Brittannia." In as above: 344.
"Postcolonial Differend: Diasporic Narratives of Salman Rushdie." In Harold Bloom ed. Salman Rushdie [Bloom's Modern Critical Views]. Broomall PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003: 63–98. Reprinted in Wendy Faith and Pamela McCallum eds. Linked Histories: Postcolonial Studies in a Globalized World. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2005: 111-144.
"Multiculturalism (2003)". In Martin McQuillan ed. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005: 182-204.
"Postmodern Racism." In Derek Robbins ed. J-F Lyotard [SAGE Masters in Modern Social Thought Series] London: Sage Publications, 2004. 3 Vols.
"Multiculturalism (2002)." In Martin McQuillan ed. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004: 180-198
"Multiculturalism (2001)." In Martin McQuillan ed. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.: 179-202,
"Multiculturalism (2000)." In Kate McGowan ed. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002: 226–258.
"Multiculturalism (1999)." In Kate McGowan ed. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001: 196 – 215.
"Diasporas and the Art of Impossible Mourning." In Makarand Paranjape ed. In Diaspora: Theories, Histories, Texts. Delhi: Indialog Publications, 2001: 24–51.
"The Feudal Postcolonial: The Fiji Crisis." In Makarand Paranjape ed. In Diaspora: Theories, Histories, Texts. Delhi; Indialog Publications, 2001: 319–340.
"Race, Speight and the Crisis in Fiji." In Brij Lal and Michael Pretes eds. Coup. Reflections on the Political Crisis in Fiji: Canberra: Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, 2001: 60–64.
"Multiculturalism (1998)." In Kate McGowan ed. The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory.  Oxford University Press, 2001: 227–245.
"Crimes and Punishments." In Gregory Castle ed. Postcolonial Discourses. An Anthology. Blackwell, 2001: 331–356. Reprinted from Dark Side of the Dream (with Bob Hodge) 1991.
"Multiculturalism (1997)." In Kate McGowan ed. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Studies.Blackwell, 2000: 344 –373.
“Mourning Becomes Diaspora.” In Jacqueline Lo et al eds. Impossible Selves: Cultural Readings of Identity. Scholarly Publishing, 1999: 46–71.
'From Vijay Mishra, "Postcolonial Differend: Diasporic Narratives of Salman Rushdie."" In Peter Childs ed. Post-Colonial Theory and English Literature. A Reader.Edinburgh University Press, 1999: 429–438.
"Defining the Self." In Wimal Dissanayake ed. Narratives of Agency. University of Minnesota Press, 1996: 117–150.
"New Lamps for Old: Diasporic Theory." In M. Mukherjee and H. Trivedi eds. Interrogating Post-colonialism. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1996: 67–85.
"Criticism[Pacific Writing]" In Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly eds. The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Post-colonial Literatures in English.Routledge 1994: I: 309–311.
"What is Post(-)colonialism?"[with Bob Hodge] In John Frow and Meaghan Morris (eds.) Australian Cultural Studies. A Reader. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1993:30–46. Reprinted in Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman eds. Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory. London: Harvester/Wheatsheaf; New York: Columbia University Press, 1993: 276–290.
"The Girmit Ideology Revisited." In S. Nelson ed. Reworlding: Essays on the Literature of the Indian Diaspora. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992: 1–12.
"Kabir and the Bhakti Tradition." In G.M. Bailey and I. Kesarcodi-Watson eds. Bhakti Studies. Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1992:182 – 235.
"Kabir's Devotionalism." (A translation with extensive notes of P.N. Tiwari's "Kabir ka sadhna") In Bhakti Studies: 159–181.
"The Great India Epic and Peter Brook." In David Williams ed. Peter Brook and the Mahabharata. London: Routledge, 1991:195–205.
"Making Revolutionary Act Now." [With Imre Salusinszky and Alan Roughley] In Robert D. Denham ed. Northrop Frye: A World in a Grain of Sand .New York: Peter Lang, 1990: 249–257. Reprinted in ‘Interviews with Northrop Frye' ed. Jean O'Grady, vol. 24 of The Collected Works of Northrop Frye. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008: 685-92.
"The Texts of 'Mother India'." In Helen Tiffin and Stephen Slemon eds. After Europe: Critical Theory and Post-Colonial Writing. Sydney: Dangaroo Press, 1989: 119–137.
"Two Truths are Told: Tagore's Kabir." In W.H. McLeod and K. Schomer eds. The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India. Berkeley: Berkeley Religious Studies Series; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987: 167–180.
"The Burning Bride: Suffering in Union." In Kapil N. Tiwari ed. Suffering: Indian Perspectives. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986: 237–261.
"The Girmit Ideology Re-examined." In Satendra Nandan ed. Language and Literature [ACLALS 1980 Proceedings] University of the South Pacific, 1983: 240–253.
"Indo-Fijian Fiction and the Girmit Ideology." In C. Tiffin ed. South Pacific Images. Brisbane: U.Q.P., 1978:.53–67. Reprinted in Subramani ed. The Indo-Fijian Experience. Brisbane: U.Q.P., 1979: 171–183 and again in Paul Sharrad ed. Readings in Pacific Literature.Wollongong: New Literatures Research Centre, 1993: 91–101.


Refereed Articles in Journals

"Rushdie-Wushdie: Salman Rushdie's Hobson-Jobson, " New Literary History 40.2 (Spring 2009): 385-410.
'Spectres of Sentimentality: The Bollywood Film,' Textual Practice 23.3 (June2009): 439-462.
Review Essay: 'The Aching Joys of Bollywood Song and Dance,' [Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti eds. Global Bollywood: Travels in Hindi Song and Dance Minnesota University Press, 2008] Postcolonial Studies 12.2 (June 2009): 247-254.
"'The Influence of Kalidasa on Shakespeare': the genre of the key-note address; the story of the lie." Double Dialogues 9 [Arts and Lies II] (Autumn 2008). Electronic journal on line: http://www.doubledialogues.com/current_issue.htm
"What was Multiculturalism?" PORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. 2.2 (2005), 47pp. http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/portal/viewissue.php?id=4
"What was Postcolonialism?" [with Bob Hodge] New Literary History 36. 3 (Summer 2005): 375–402.
"Lives in Halves: A Homage to Vidiadhar Naipaul." Meanjin 61.1 (2002): 123-126.
"Vidiadhar and I: A Homage." Evam: Forum on Indian Representations 1. 1&2 (2002): 248-255.
" The Feudal Postcolonial: The Fiji Crisis." Meanjin 59.3 (2000): 146-165.
"Postmodern Racism." Meanjin 55. 2 (Winter 1996): 346–357.
"The Diasporic Imaginary: Theorizing the Indian Diaspora." Textual Practice 10. 3 (1996): 421-447.
"(B)ordering Naipaul: Indenture History and Diasporic Poetics." Diaspora: Journal of Transnational Studies 5. 2 (1996): 187-236.
"Diasporas, Migrancy, Borders." Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 2.1(1995): 147-164.
"Postcolonial Differend: Diasporic Narratives of Salman Rushdie." Ariel, 26. 3 (July 1995): 7-45.
"Temples of Fire: The Incomparable Tagore." Span 34 & 35 (1992 -93): 97 - 108.
"After Naipaul : An Indian Journey." Span 34 & 35 (1992 - 93): 211 - 225.
"Decentering History: Some Versions of Bombay Cinema." East-West Film Journal 6.1 (January 1992): 111 - 155.
"Satyajit Ray 1921 - 1982." Continuum 5.2 (1992): 385 - 389."What is Post(-)colonialism?" (with Bob Bodge) Textual Practice 5.3 (Winter, 1991): 399-414.
"Little India." Meanjin 49.4 (Summer, 1990): 607-618.
"The Actor as Parallel Text in Bombay Cinema." Quarterly Review of Film and Video, XI (1989): 49-67. [with P. Jeffery and B. Shoesmith]
"The Centre Cannot Hold: Bailey, Indian Culture and the Sublime." South Asia, [New Series] 12.1 (June 1989),:103-114.
"Ni Sa Moce/Salaam Fiji." Meanjin 48.3 (Spring, 1989): 481-494.
"Filmic Narrative: Text and Transformation in Bombay Cinema." Continuum 2.1 (1988/89): 9-43.
"Aboriginal Representations in Australian Texts." Continuum 2.1 1 (1988/89): 165-88.
"The Great Indian Epic and Peter Brook." Meanjin 47. 2 (Winter 1988): 343-352.
"David Shulman and the Laughter of South Indian Kings and Clowns." South Asia [New Series] 10.1 (June 1987): 83-88.
"Sufis, Nath-yogis and Indian Literary Texts: Some Lines of Congruence." Religious Traditions 6.1 (1985): 42-65.
"Towards a Theoretical Critique of Bombay Cinema." Screen, 26.3-4 (May-August, 1985): 133–146. Reprinted in Rajinder Dudrah and Jigna Desai eds. The Bollywood Reader, Manchester: Manchester University Press and Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2008.
"Text, Textuality and Interpretation: An Interview with Michael Riffaterre." Southern Review 18.1 (March, 1985): 109-119.
"Critical Practice and Literary Theory: An Interview with Geoffrey Hartman." Southern Review 18.2 (July, 1985), 189-200.
"White's Poetics: Patrick White through Mikhail Bakhtin." Span 18 (April, 1984): 54-75.
"Another Stubborn Structure: the Gita as a Literary Text." The Journal of Studies in the Bhagavad-Gita II (1982), 89-105.
"Rama's Banishment: A Theoretical Footnote to Indo-Fijian Writing." World Literature Written in English 19.2 (Autumn, 1980): 242-256.
"The Dialectic of Maya and Principles of Narrative Structure in Indian Literature." ACLALS Bulletin [Fifth Series], 2 (January, 1979): 47-60.
"Mythic Fabulation: V.S. Naipaul." New Literature Review 4 (1978): 59-65.
"Charles Harpur: The Years of Controversy, 1853-1858." Australian Literary Studies 8.4 (October, 1978): 446-456.
"Two Truths are Told: Tagore's Kabir." South Asia [New Series] 1.2 (September, 1978): 80-90.
"The Ramacaritamanas of Tulsidasa: The Rewriting of a Sanskrit Epic." Indian Literature 21.3 (May-June, 1978): 89-108.
"Indo-Fijian Fiction: Towards an Interpretation." World Literature Written in English 16.2 (November, 1977), 395-408.
"Early Literary Responses to Charles Harpur." Westerly 4 (December, 1977): 88-93.
"Medieval Hindi Devotional Poetry." Journal of Studies in Mysticism 1.1 (Autumn, 1977): 1–39.
"The Literary Reputation of Charles Harpur, 1868-1900." Southerly 4 (December, 1976): 432-441.


Other Articles, Reviews and Essays

"No Boxed Gifts." Overland 181 (2005): 73-82.
Review of Francoise Lionnet and Mei-shuh-Shih Transnationalism, Intersections Issue 13, August 2005. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue13/mishra_review.html
"Dilkusha." In Brij Lal ed. Bittersweet: An Indo-Fijian Experience. Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2004: 141-162.
Review of Rachel Dwyer, All You need is Love
"Unfixed Selves." Review of Ian Rashid, Rienzi Crusz and Suwanda Sugunasiri Canadian Literature 169 (Summer 2001): 169 - 172.
Review of Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, Textual Practice 14.2 (2000): 412-421.
Review Article: "Dismantling Postcolonialism: Review of Arun Mukherjee, Postcolonialism: My Living." The Toronto Review 17.3 (Summer 1999): 91-95.
Review of Harish Trivedi, Colonial Transactions, Ariel 29.1(1998): 165-170.
Introduction to Jane Chong, My Love Why Cry (translated by Dr Pan). Singapore: Singapore Association of Writers, 1998.
"Reading India" Review of Lawrence A. Babb & Susan S. Wadley eds. Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia and Saskia Kersenboom, Word, Sound, Image: The Life of a Tamil Text, Canadian Literature 157 (Summer 1998): 129-131.
"And Other Stories" Review of Griffin Ondaatje ed. The Monkey King and Other Stories, Yasmin Ladha, Lion's Granddaughter and Other Stories, Shauna Singh Baldwin, English Lessons and Other Stories, Canadian Literature 158 (Autumn 1998): 167-170.
Review of Thomas R. Trautmann, Aryans and British India, Anthropological Forum 8. 1&2 (1998): 105-108.
Review of Kate Teltscher, India Inscribed, Asian Studies Review (Australia) 20.2 (November 1996): 206-209.
"Anthropology and/or/as 'Cultural Studies'? A Response to Trigger." Anthropological Forum 6.4 (1993): 614-618. [with Bob Hodge]
"Semiotics and History. Entering a No-go Zone with Patrick Wolfe." Meanjin 51.4 (Summer 1992): 877 – 883. [ with Bob Hodge]
Review of Mudrooroo Narogin, Writing from the Fringe: A Study of Modern Aboriginal Literature (Melbourne: Hyland House), Westerly 3 (September 1990): 91–93 [with Bob Hodge].
"Satendra Nandan, The Wounded Sea." Span 32 (April 1991): 79 - 84.
Review of Satendra Nandan, The Wounded Sea, Editions (May-June 1991): 27.
Review of Ralph J. Crane, Inventing India, Span 31 (1990): 93–98."The Quiet Coup." Arena 80 (September, 1987): 25-31.
"The Formulaic Text: The Poetry of Bruce Dawe." English in Australia 82 (December 1987): 37-46.
"Maithilisarana Gupta." (Review) Review Projector (India) (May-June, 1983): 11-13.
"Negotiating an Autobiography: Patrick White's Flaws in the Glass." Span 14 (April, 1982): 25-32.
"In Search of Kabir: A Review Essay." Journal of Studies in Mysticism 1.2 (Spring, 1978): 159-161.