UQ lecture examines twins in culture

Look Twice: Twins in Contemporary Literature and Culture will be the topic of a free public lecture at The Mayne Centre, UQ St Lucia on Thursday, October 20.

Dr Juliana de Nooy will give the lecture for UQ’s Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at 5.30pm.

The lecture will be followed by a launch of Dr de Nooy’s latest book entitled Twins in Contemporary Literature and Culture (Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan).

Dr de Nooy will examine why critics tend to view twin tales as a subset of the literature of the double, in decline since the 19th century.

“A closer look at recent examples, however, reveals patterns of genre and gender quite specific to our time,” she said.

“Why do we keep telling twin tales? And why might we want to tell them differently?”

Her lecture will analyse some contemporary story-telling conventions and what is at stake in attempts to shift them.

Dr de Nooy teaches intercultural communication and cultural studies in the Contemporary Studies Program at UQ Ipswich.

Her new book explores the repeated appearance of certain twin tales in films and novels from recent decades, identifying the shifts that occur in the retellings and their cultural purpose.

Members of the university community and the general public are invited to attend this free seminar with refreshments to follow the book launch. Parking vouchers are available.

For further information, please contact: Ms Rebecca Ralph, Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, telephone (07) 3346 9764; Email: admin.cccs@uq.edu.au.