Associate Professor Brigid Rooney
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Associate Professor Brigid Rooney

BA (Macquarie), PhD (Macquarie)
Senior Lecturer
Discipline of English and Writing
Phone
+61 2 9351 4517
Address
A20 - John Woolley Building
The University of Sydney
Associate Professor Brigid Rooney

Associate Professor Brigid Rooney researches and teaches Australian literature, focusing especially on twentieth-century and contemporary fiction. Her interests include the poetics of space, time and modernity; fictions of suburbia; representations of nature, place and the environment; and the activist careers and public interventions of Australian writers.

Brigid is the author of two monographs: Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity (Anthem 2018) and Literary Activists: Writers and Australian Public Life (UQP 2009). These books investigate the role of literature in Australia’s public life, culture and collective memory. Both exercise Brigid’s commitment to imaginative interpretation as a means of illuminating the primary texts themselves and their wider cultural meanings. Suburban Space conceptualises the ways in which novels have functioned, for over a century, to encode, remember and bring significance to otherwise obscure or ephemeral suburban places and communities. Literary Activists combines broadly sociological frames with close literary textual analysis in its discussion of the writings, careers and public interventions of postwar Australian authors.

Brigid has published widely, in commissioned book chapters and journal articles, on the writings and careers of many of Australia’s major authors, including Elizabeth Harrower, Shirley Hazzard, David Malouf, Gerald Murnane, Christina Stead and Patrick White, among others. Her PhD thesis, ‘Gendering the revolutionary subject: the role of Marxist thought in Christina Stead’s authorial production’ (Macquarie University, 1998, available online) began her lasting fascination with the fiction of Christina Stead on whom she has continued to publish. Brigid’s most recent book, Suburban Space, offers original readings of novels by established and emerging writers, including, among many others, works by Steven Carroll, Michelle de Kretser, Melissa Lucashenko, Omar Musa and Alexis Wright.

Brigid is Immediate Past President of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL), the peak international association for academic scholars and critics of Australian literature. She was ASAL President from 2017 to 2019 and continues to serve on its Executive. Brigid serves on the Editorial Boards of Australian Literary Studies (ALS); Sydney Studies in Australian Literature(Sydney University Press) and the Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (JASAL)

  • Poetics of space, place and modernity in Australian literature
  • Suburbs and suburbia in Australian literature
  • Representations of nature, place, environment and climate in Australian literature
  • Australian novels, twentieth century and contemporary, Indigenous and non Indigenous
  • Brigid researches and is pleased to supervise projects on a wide range of Australian writers and their works including (but not restricted to) Jessica Anderson, Steven Carroll, M. Barnard Eldershaw, Eleanor Dark, Helen Garner, Elizabeth Harrower, Elizabeth Jolley, Gail Jones, Melissa Lucashenko, Andrew McGahan, David Malouf, Gerald Murnane, Henry Handel Richardson, Christina Stead, Patrick White, Alexis Wright (among others)

Since 2010, Brigid has coordinated undergraduate, honours and postgraduate units dedicated to Australian literature, and has regularly contributed guest lectures to units within English more generally. Recent and forthcoming units Brigid coordinates include:

ENGL2676 Climate Fiction
ENGL3703 Writing Australian Nature
ENGL3608 Major Authors: Depth Study
ENGL6115 Reading Suburbia

Publications

Books

  • Rooney, B. (2018). Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity. London: Anthem Press. [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2009). Literary Activists: Writer-Intellectuals and Australian Public Life. St Lucia, Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press. [More Information]

Edited Books

  • Morrison, F., Rooney, B. (2024). Time, Tide and History: Eleanor Dark's Fiction. Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
  • Dixon, R., Rooney, B. (2013). Scenes of Reading: Is Australian Literature a World Literature. North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing. [More Information]
  • Dale, L., Rooney, B. (2007). New reckonings: Australian literature past, present, future. Essays in honour of Elizabeth Webby. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.

Book Chapters

  • Rooney, B. (2024). "A Careless Sort of Benevolence": Melodrama and Critique in The Timeless Land Trilogy. In Fiona Morrison and Brigid Rooney (Eds.), Time, Tide and History: Eleanor Dark's Fiction, (pp. 255-272). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
  • Morrison, F., Rooney, B. (2024). Introduction: Time, Tide and History. In Fiona Morrison and Brigid Rooney (Eds.), Time, Tide and History: Eleanor Dark's Fiction, (pp. 1-20). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2023). Unsettling Archive: Suburbs in Australian Fiction. In David Carter (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel, (pp. 319-335). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]

Journals

  • Rooney, B. (2023). Memento mori: Australian literary studies and the legacy of Elizabeth Webby. Overland, 253, 3-19. [More Information]
  • Rooney, B., Kirkpatrick, P. (2020). Introduction: From Colony to Transnation. JASAL, 20(2). [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2016). Christina Stead's 'Kelly File': Politics, Possession and the Writing of Cotters' England. Australian Literary Studies, 31(6), 1-20. [More Information]

Edited Journals

  • Kirkpatrick, P., Rooney, B. (2020). From Colony to Transnation. JASAL, 20(2). [More Information]
  • Rooney, B., Morrison, F. (2016). Rediscovering Christina Stead. Australian Literary Studies, 31(6). [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2002). Guest Editor: Materials for Feminism. Australian Feminist Studies, 17(37). [More Information]

Conferences

  • Rooney, B. (2023). The Slip Beneath the surface: from Iconic Harbor to Multiethnic Suburbs. 2023 Conference of the Stanford Center for the Study of the Novel: The Poetics of the City, California, USA: Stanford University, Center for the Study of the Novel. [More Information]

Magazine / Newspaper Articles

  • Rooney, B. (2023). Homemade and cosmopolitan, the idiosyncratic writing of Gerald Murnane continues to attract devotees. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2023). In A Kind of Confession, Alex Miller drops the 'mask of fiction' to reveal the intricate depths of a writing life. The Conversation. [More Information]

Reference Works

  • Rooney, B. (2005). Christina Stead (1902-1983). In M. Keith Booker (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Literature and Politics. Greenwood Press.
  • Rooney, B. (2004). David Malouf (1934- ). In Selina Samuels (Eds.), Australian Writers, 1950-1975. (pp. 214-222). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Co.
  • Rooney, B. (2002). Christina Stead (1902-1983). In Selina Samuels (Eds.), (pp. 331-346).

Other

  • Rooney, B. (2010), Interview with David Malouf. Produced in Journal.

2024

  • Rooney, B. (2024). "A Careless Sort of Benevolence": Melodrama and Critique in The Timeless Land Trilogy. In Fiona Morrison and Brigid Rooney (Eds.), Time, Tide and History: Eleanor Dark's Fiction, (pp. 255-272). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
  • Morrison, F., Rooney, B. (2024). Introduction: Time, Tide and History. In Fiona Morrison and Brigid Rooney (Eds.), Time, Tide and History: Eleanor Dark's Fiction, (pp. 1-20). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]
  • Morrison, F., Rooney, B. (2024). Time, Tide and History: Eleanor Dark's Fiction. Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]

2023

  • Rooney, B. (2023). Homemade and cosmopolitan, the idiosyncratic writing of Gerald Murnane continues to attract devotees. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2023). In A Kind of Confession, Alex Miller drops the 'mask of fiction' to reveal the intricate depths of a writing life. The Conversation. [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2023). Memento mori: Australian literary studies and the legacy of Elizabeth Webby. Overland, 253, 3-19. [More Information]

2020

  • Kirkpatrick, P., Rooney, B. (2020). From Colony to Transnation. JASAL, 20(2). [More Information]
  • Rooney, B., Kirkpatrick, P. (2020). Introduction: From Colony to Transnation. JASAL, 20(2). [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2020). Stream System, Salient Image and Feeling: Between Barley Patch and Inland. In Anthony Uhlmann (Eds.), Gerald Murnane: Another World in This One, (pp. 63-84). Sydney: Sydney University Press. [More Information]

2019

  • Rooney, B. (2019). Interior History, Tempered Selves: David Malouf, Modernism, and Imaginative Possession. In Richard Begam,Michael Valdez Moses (Eds.), Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism: Anglophone Literature, 1950 to the Present, (pp. 258-276). New York: Oxford University Press. [More Information]

2018

  • Rooney, B. (2018). Suburban Space, the Novel and Australian Modernity. London: Anthem Press. [More Information]

2017

  • Rooney, B. (2017). "White, fierce, shocked, tearless": The Watch Tower and the Electric Interior. In Elizabeth McMahon, Brigitta Olubas (Eds.), Elizabeth Harrower: Critical Essays, (pp. 81-95). Sydney: Sydney University Press.
  • Rooney, B. (2017). The Novel in Australia from the 1950s. In Coral Ann Howells, Paul Sharrad, Gerry Turcotte (Eds.), The Oxford History of the Novel in English, Volume 12: The Novel in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the South Pacific Since 1950, (pp. 81-96). Oxford: Oxford University Press. [More Information]

2016

  • Rooney, B. (2016). Christina Stead's 'Kelly File': Politics, Possession and the Writing of Cotters' England. Australian Literary Studies, 31(6), 1-20. [More Information]
  • Morrison, F., Rooney, B. (2016). Introduction. Special Issue: Rediscovery Christina Stead. Australian Literary Studies, 31(6). [More Information]
  • Rooney, B., Morrison, F. (2016). Rediscovering Christina Stead. Australian Literary Studies, 31(6). [More Information]

2015

  • Rooney, B. (2015). [Book Review] 'Almost Always Modern: Australian Print Cultures and Modernity' by David Carter. Southerly, 27(1), 174-181.
  • Rooney, B., Olubas, B. (2015). Australian Literature / World Literature: Borders, Skins, Mappings. JASAL, 15(3), 1-5. [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2015). Serial Cities: Australian Literary Cities and the Rhetoric of Scale. Cultural Studies Review, 21(1), 262-282. [More Information]

2014

  • Rooney, B. (2014). "No-one Had Thought of Looking Close to Home": Reading the Province in The Bay of Noon. In Brigitta Olubas (Eds.), Shirley Hazzard: New Critical Essays, (pp. 41-53). Sydney: Sydney University Press.
  • Rooney, B. (2014). From the Sublime to the Uncanny in Tim Winton's 'Breath'. In Lyn McCredden, Nathanael OReilly (Eds.), Tim Winton: Critical Essays, (pp. 241-262). Crawley, WA: University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP).

2013

  • Rooney, B. (2013). Colonising Time, Recollecting Place: Steven Carroll's Reinvention of Suburbia. JASAL, 13(2), 1-16.
  • Dixon, R., Rooney, B. (2013). Introduction: Australian Literature, Globalisation and the Literary Province. In Robert Dixon, Brigid Rooney (Eds.), Scenes of Reading: Is Australian Literature a World Literature, (pp. ix-xxxvi). North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
  • Dixon, R., Rooney, B. (2013). Scenes of Reading: Is Australian Literature a World Literature. North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing. [More Information]

2012

  • Rooney, B. (2012). [Book Review] 'Shirley Hazzard: Literary Expatriate and Cosmopolitan Humanist' by Brigitta Olubas. JASAL, 12(3), 1-4.
  • Rooney, B. (2012). Pathological Geomorphology and the Ecological Sublime: Andrew McGahan's Wonders of a Godless World. Southerly, 72(3), 55-77.
  • Rooney, B. (2012). The Ruin of Time and the Temporality of Belonging: Journey to the Stone Country and Landscape of Farewell. In Robert Dixon (Eds.), The Novels of Alex Miller: An Introduction, (pp. 201-216). Sydney, Australia: Allen and Unwin.

2010

  • Rooney, B. (2010). [Book review] Fierce compassion. Review of Warrior for Peace - Dorothy Auchterlonie Green, by Willa McDonald. Australian Book Review, 317, 56-57.
  • Rooney, B. (2010), Interview with David Malouf. Produced in Journal.
  • Rooney, B. (2010). Kate Grenville as Public Intellectual. In Sue Kossew (Eds.), Lighting Dark Places: Essays on Kate Grenville, (pp. 17-38). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

2009

  • Rooney, B. (2009). Literary Activists: Writer-Intellectuals and Australian Public Life. St Lucia, Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press. [More Information]
  • Rooney, B. (2009). Manifesto of the senses: blind sightedness in Christina Stead's For Love Alone. Australian Literary Studies, 24(3-4), 53-65.

2007

  • Rooney, B. (2007). Christina Stead. In Nicholas Birns and Rebecca McNear (Eds.), A Companion to Australian Literature Since 1900, (pp. 235-246). Rochester, New York: Camden House.
  • Rooney, B. (2007). Desert Hauntings, Public Interiors and National Modernity: from 'The Overlanders' to 'Walkabout' and 'Japanese Story'. Southerly, 67(1-2), 410-422.
  • Dale, L., Rooney, B. (2007). New reckonings: Australian literature past, present, future. Essays in honour of Elizabeth Webby. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.

2006

  • Rooney, B. (2006). Review: Dearest Munx: The Letters of Christina Stead and William J. Blake; The Equal Heart and Mind: Letters between Judith Wright and Jack McKinney. JASAL, 5.

2005

  • Rooney, B. (2005). Christina Stead (1902-1983). In M. Keith Booker (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Literature and Politics. Greenwood Press.
  • Rooney, B. (2005). The Sinner, the Prophet, and the Pieta: Sacrifice and the Sacred in Helen Garner's Narratives. Antipodes: a North American journal of Australian literature, 19(2), 159-165.
  • Rooney, B. (2005). Words and Worth. Southerly, 65(1), 168-171.

2004

  • Rooney, B. (2004). David Malouf (1934- ). In Selina Samuels (Eds.), Australian Writers, 1950-1975. (pp. 214-222). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Co.

2003

  • Rooney, B. (2003). "Those boys told me everything";The politics of the secretary in Christina Stead's 1930's fiction. Antipodes: a North American journal of Australian literature, 17(1), 29-35.
  • Rooney, B. (2003). Crossing the Rubicon: Abjection and Revolution in Christina Stead's I'm Dying Laughing. JASAL, 2, 29-39.
  • Rooney, B. (2003). Notes for ‘Judith Wright and Les Murray: Correspondence’. Southerly, 1, 179-180.

2002

  • Rooney, B. (2002). Breaking Social Spells: Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002): An Obituary. Politics and Culture, (2), online.
  • Rooney, B. (2002). Christina Stead (1902-1983). In Selina Samuels (Eds.), (pp. 331-346).
  • Rooney, B. (2002). Guest Editor: Materials for Feminism. Australian Feminist Studies, 17(37). [More Information]

2001

  • Rooney, B. (2001). Falling in Love with Jane: The Pleasures and Problems of being an Austen Fan in Australia. Sensibilities, 23, 99-114.
  • Rooney, B. (2001). Review: Masculine Domination. Australian Women's Book Review, 13(1), online.
  • Rooney, B. (2001). Review: Pierre Bourdieu: A Critical Introduction. Politics and Culture, (2).

2000

  • Rooney, B. (2000). Strange familiars: closeting revolution in Christina Stead's "Cotters' England". Australian Feminist Studies, 15(32), 249-362.

1998

  • Rooney, B. (1998). Loving the revolutionary: re-reading Christina Stead's encounter with men, Marxism, and the Popular Front in 1930's Paris. Southerly, 58(4), 24-102.

Selected Grants

2016

  • Teaching Literature and Writing in the Digital Age, Hesse I, Rooney B, Johinke R, Yahp B, Lee F, Lilley K, DVC Education/Small Educational Innovation Grant

2014

  • The Novel and the Suburb in Australia: 1900 to the Present, Rooney B, DVC Research/Thompson Fellowships