People_
Professor Vanessa Smith
BA (Sydney), PhD (Cambridge), FAHA
Discipline of English and Writing
Research Coordinator
Research Coordinator
Phone
+61 2 9351 2857
Address
A20 - John Woolley Building
The University of Sydney
Websites
Vanessa Smith is Professor of English at the University of Sydney. Her most recent monograph Toy Stories: analyzing the child in nineteenth-century literature, which brings the nineteenth-century novel into conversation with Melanie Klein and Anna Freud's child-analytic praxes, was published by Fordham in 2023. Her new book project thinks about the relationship between the psychoanalytic case history and the bildungsroman. She has further work underway on nineteenth-century realism, and on the ethnographic novel. She is author or editor of five books focusing on intercultural contact in the Oceania of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and has published widely on the British and American novel and on psychoanalytic writing. Professor Smith is one of the co-editors of the Oxford University Press series Approaches to the Novel. She is the convenor of The Novel Network.
- Late eighteenth- through early twentieth-century literature and culture
- The Novel
- Psychoanalysis: object relations, Klein, Anna Freud, Marion Milner, the case study
- Ethnography and literature
- Oceania in Literature
Research Groups
- Novel Network
- Nineteenth-Century Studies
- Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies group
- Long Eighteenth-Century Reading Group (Sydney Intellectual History Network)
- ENGL2674 The Life of Texts
- ENGL3657 The Brontës
- ENGL3711 Travellers' Tales
- ENGL6107/ENGL4125: Sentiment and Sensation
I am interested in supervising projects on the Novel (18th to early 20th century), psychoanalysis and literature, object (thing) theories, affect theory, and literature and embodiment
Marion Milner and the Work of Analysis A critical study of Marion Milner's oeuvre focussing on her complexly interrogative relationship with twentieth-century psychoanalysis.
The Secret and the Sensation Novel
Rethinking the Ethnographic Novel
The Novel Network (convenor)
The Society for Novel Studies
MLA (Modern Languages Association)
INCS (Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies)
Society for Narrative
International Auto/Biography Association
NAVSA (North American Victorian Studies Association)
ASECS (American Society for Eighteent-Century Studies)
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| The Hell of Conscious Failure: Failure and Form in the 19th Century English Novel | Tom GUNTHER |
| Second Time's the Charm: Second Marriage and Reform in Nineteenth-Century Novels | Natalie HILL |
| Novel Lessons: Reading the Governess in the English Novel of the Long Nineteenth Century | Philippa JANU |
| Hardy's Religion and the limits of Feminist Discourse in his Novels | Faezeh SIVANDIPOUR |
Selected publications
Toy Stories: Analyzing the Child in Nineteenth-Century Literature
(Fordham University Press, 2023)
Mutiny and Aftermath: James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti (paperback)
(University of Hawaii Press, 2021)
Portable Prose: The Novel and the Everyday
(Lexington Books, 2018)
Mutiny and Aftermath: James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti
(University of Hawaii Press, 2013)
Intimate Strangers: Friendship, Exchange and Pacific Encounters
(Cambridge University Press, 2010)
Literary Culture and the Pacific: Nineteenth-Century Textual Encounters
(Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Islands in History and Representation
(Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis, 2003)
Exploration & Exchange: A South Seas Anthology, 1680-1900
(University of Chicago Press, 2001)
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Publications
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Books
- Smith, V. (2023). Toy Stories: Analyzing the Child in Nineteenth-Century Literature. New York: Fordham University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V., Thomas, N. (2021). Mutiny and Aftermath: James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti (paperback). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V., Thomas, N. (2013). Mutiny and Aftermath: James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. [More Information]
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Edited Books
- Cogle, J., Fischer, N., Saleh Rofail, L., Smith, V. (2018). Portable Prose: The Novel and the Everyday. London: Lexington Books. [More Information]
- Smith, V., Edmond, R. (2003). Islands in History and Representation. London: Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis. [More Information]
Book Chapters
- Smith, V. (2021). 'A Life of One's Own' (Marion Milner). In John Plotz (Eds.), B-Side Books: Essays on Forgotten Favorites, (pp. 221-225). New York: Columbia University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2016). The Novel in English in Oceania to 1950. In Ralph Crane, Jane Stafford, Mark Williams (Eds.), The Oxford History of the Novel in English, Volume 9: The World Novel in English to 1950, (pp. 182-200). Oxford: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2014). 'How Very Little He Can Learn': Exotic Visitors and the Transmission of Cultural Knowledge in Eighteenth Century London. In Ofer Gal, Yi Zheng (Eds.), Motion and Knowledge in the Changing Early Modern World: Orbits, Routes, Vessels, (pp. 73-91). Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media. [More Information]
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Journals
- Smith, V. (2024). "Anything of Note": Recovering "Lost Life" in the Psychoanalytic Archive. American Imago, 81(2), 159-188. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2022). Possible persons: Dickensian character, violent play. PMLA, 137(2), 215-229. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2021). Wasted Gifts: Robert Louis Stevenson in Oceania. Nineteenth-Century Literature, 75(4), 527-551. [More Information]
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Edited Journals
- Frow, J., Smith, V. (2017). The Prosaic Imaginary. Novel, 50(1). [More Information]
- Smith, V., Frow, J. (2016). Novel Worlds. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 63(2-3). [More Information]
- Smith, V., Yeo, R. (2009). Friendship in Early Modern Philosophy and Science. Parergon, 26(2). [More Information]
Magazine / Newspaper Articles
- Smith, V. (2022). With The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the Sydney Theatre Company gives us a Bronte adaptation for our moment. The Conversation. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2020). An Awakening of One's Own. Audrey, 19. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2018). B-Sides: Marion Milner's "A Life of One's Own". Public Books. [More Information]
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Other
- Smith, V. (2010), Invited response to 'Late Darwin and the Problem of the Human' forum by Gillian Beer, National Humanities Centre. [More Information]
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2024
- Smith, V. (2024). "Anything of Note": Recovering "Lost Life" in the Psychoanalytic Archive. American Imago, 81(2), 159-188. [More Information]
2023
- Smith, V. (2023). Toy Stories: Analyzing the Child in Nineteenth-Century Literature. New York: Fordham University Press. [More Information]
2022
- Smith, V. (2022). Possible persons: Dickensian character, violent play. PMLA, 137(2), 215-229. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2022). With The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the Sydney Theatre Company gives us a Bronte adaptation for our moment. The Conversation. [More Information]
2021
- Smith, V. (2021). 'A Life of One's Own' (Marion Milner). In John Plotz (Eds.), B-Side Books: Essays on Forgotten Favorites, (pp. 221-225). New York: Columbia University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V., Thomas, N. (2021). Mutiny and Aftermath: James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti (paperback). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2021). Wasted Gifts: Robert Louis Stevenson in Oceania. Nineteenth-Century Literature, 75(4), 527-551. [More Information]
2020
- Smith, V. (2020). An Awakening of One's Own. Audrey, 19. [More Information]
- Frow, J., Hardie, M., Smith, V. (2020). Introduction: The Bildungsroman: form and transformations. Textual Practice, 34(12), 1905-1910. [More Information]
2018
- Smith, V. (2018). B-Sides: Marion Milner's "A Life of One's Own". Public Books. [More Information]
- Cogle, J., Fischer, N., Saleh Rofail, L., Smith, V. (2018). Portable Prose: The Novel and the Everyday. London: Lexington Books. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2018). Transferred Debts: Marion Milner's A Life of One's Own and the limits of analysis. Feminist Modernist Studies, 1(1-2), 96-111. [More Information]
2017
- Frow, J., Smith, V. (2017). The Prosaic Imaginary. Novel, 50(1). [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2017). Toy Stories. Novel, 50(1), 35-55. [More Information]
2016
- Smith, V. (2016). Novel Worlds. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 63(2-3), 91-95. [More Information]
- Smith, V., Frow, J. (2016). Novel Worlds. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 63(2-3). [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2016). The Novel in English in Oceania to 1950. In Ralph Crane, Jane Stafford, Mark Williams (Eds.), The Oxford History of the Novel in English, Volume 9: The World Novel in English to 1950, (pp. 182-200). Oxford: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
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2014
- Smith, V. (2014). 'How Very Little He Can Learn': Exotic Visitors and the Transmission of Cultural Knowledge in Eighteenth Century London. In Ofer Gal, Yi Zheng (Eds.), Motion and Knowledge in the Changing Early Modern World: Orbits, Routes, Vessels, (pp. 73-91). Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media. [More Information]
2013
- Smith, V. (2013). Joseph Banks's Intermediaries: Rethinking Global Cultural Exchange. In Samual Moyn and Andrew Sartori (Eds.), Global Intellectual History, (pp. 81-109). New York: Columbia University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V., Thomas, N. (2013). Mutiny and Aftermath: James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2013). Point Venus. In Sandhya Patel (Eds.), Contact in Context, (pp. 33-45). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2012
- Smith, V. (2012). Review of Grace Moore (Ed.), Pirates and Mutineers of the Nineteenth Century Swashbucklers and Swindlers. The Review of English Studies, 63(261), 697-699. [More Information]
2011
- Smith, V. (2011). Review of Samuel Baker, Written on the Water: British Romanticism and the Maritime Empire of Culture. The Review of English Studies, 62(256), 658-660. [More Information]
2010
- Smith, V. (2010). Intimate Strangers: Friendship, Exchange and Pacific Encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2010), Invited response to 'Late Darwin and the Problem of the Human' forum by Gillian Beer, National Humanities Centre. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2010). Review of Veronique Bragard, Transoceanic Dialogues: Coolitude in Caribbean and Indian Ocean Literatures. Island Studies Journal, 5(1), 123-125. [More Information]
2009
- Smith, V. (2009). "Prizeable Companions": Missing Friends in the Marquesan Accounts of William Crook, Edward Robarts, and Herman Melville. Leviathan (Malden): a journal of Melville studies, 11(2), 10-23. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2009). Banks, Tupaia, and Mai:cross-cultural exchanges and friendship in the Pacific. Parergon, 26(2), 139-160. [More Information]
- Smith, V., Yeo, R. (2009). Friendship in Early Modern Philosophy and Science. Parergon, 26(2), 1-9. [More Information]
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2008
- Smith, V. (2008). Performance anxieties: grief and theatre in European writing on Tahiti. Eighteenth-Century Studies, 41(2), 149-164. [More Information]
2007
- Smith, V. (2007). 'Signs Taken for Wondrous' review of Sujit Sivasundaram, Nature and the Godly Empire: Science and Evangelical Mission in the Pacific, 1795-1850. Metascience, 16(1), 153-156. [More Information]
2006
- Smith, V. (2006). Crossing the Beach at Taipivai: the Psychogeography of Islands. E S Q: a journal of the American renaissance, 51(1-3), 105-113. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2006). Give Us Our Daily Breadfruit: Bread Substitution in the Pacific in the Eighteenth Century. Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 35, 53-75. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2006). Review: Felix Driver and Luciana Martins (eds) 'Tropical Visions in an Age of Empire'. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2005. American Historical Review, , 800-8001. [More Information]
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2005
- Smith, V. (2005). Literary Culture and the Pacific: Nineteenth-Century Textual Encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2005). Piracy and Exchange: Stevenson's Pacific Fiction. In Harold Bloom (Eds.), Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Robert Louis Stevenson, (pp. 261-306). Philadelphia, USA: Chelsea House Publishers.
2004
- Smith, V. (2004). Costume Changes: Passing At Sea And On The Beach. In Bernhard Klein and Gesa Mackenthun (Eds.), Sea Changes: Historicizing the Ocean, (pp. 37-53). New York: Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis.
- Smith, V. (2004). Crowd Scenes: Pacific Collectivity and European Encounter. Pacific Studies, 27(1-2), 1-21.
- Smith, V. (2004). Review: Lee Wallace, 'Sexual Encounters: Pacific Texts, Modern Sexualities'. J P S (The Journal of the Polynesian Society), 113(3), 307-309. [More Information]
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2003
- Smith, V., Edmond, R. (2003). Editors' introduction. In Rod Edmond, Vanessa Smith (Eds.), Islands in History and Representation, (pp. 1-18). London: Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis.
- Smith, V., Edmond, R. (2003). Islands in History and Representation. London: Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2003). Pitcairn's 'guilty stock': The island as breeding ground. In Rod Edmond, Vanessa Smith (Eds.), Islands in History and Representation, (pp. 116-132). London: Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis.
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2001
- Lamb, J., Smith, V., Thomas, N. (2001). Exploration & exchange: a South Seas anthology, 1680-1900. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [More Information]
- Smith, V. (2001). Review: Deirdre Coleman, 'Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies: two women's travel narratives of the 1790's'. Journeys, 2(2).
- Smith, V. (2001). Review: Jonathan Lamb and Bridget Orr (eds), 'Voyages and Beaches: Pacific Encounters, 1769-1840'. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 29(2).
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2000
- Smith, V. (2000). Elizabeth Wood-Ellem. Queen Salote of Tonga: the story of an era 1900-1965. Times Literary Supplement.
Selected Grants
2018
- The Novel Network, Lynch D, Smith V, Frow J, Hardie M, Office of Global Engagement/Travel Grants
2011
- The Sydney Network on Climate Change and Society, McCalman I, Schlosberg D, Bashford A, Probyn E, Allon F, Giles P, Smith V, Marks P, Celermajer D, Mikler J, Chester L, Gurran N, Shrestha K, Lyster R, McManus P, Pritchard W, Neilson J, Byrne M, Wright C, de Berigny C, DVC Research/Research Network Scheme (SyReNS)
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