Prof Ralph Crane
Professor
BA Wales, MA UVic, PhD Tas
Contact Details
| Contact Campus |
Sandy Bay Campus |
| Building |
Humanities Building |
| Room Reference |
559 |
| Telephone |
+61 3 6226 2356 |
| Fax |
+61 3 6226 7631 |
| Email |
Ralph.Crane@utas.edu.au |
General Responsibilities
Ralph teaches in the English program, and has particular interests in the fields of Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures.
Since completing his doctorate Ralph has worked at the University of Otago (1990-1991) and the University of Waikato (1992-2003) in New Zealand, and since 2004 he has been at the University of Tasmania. He has published widely on colonial and postcolonial fictions, and has written or edited fifteen books. As part of his 'Raj Recovery Project' he has prepared scholarly editions of four Anglo-Indian (Raj) novels for Oxford University Press India: Love Besieged, by Charles E. Pearce (2003); Lilamani, by Maud Diver (2004); Daughters of India, by Margaret Wilson (2007); and The Broken Road, by A.E.W. Mason (2008). His edition of Flora Annie Steel's The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook (co-edited with Anna Johnston) was published in OUP's World's Classics Series in 2010.
Ralph is a past Chairperson of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SPACLALS), and past Vice-President (New Zealand) of the Association for the Study of Australasia in Asia (ASAA). He currently co-edits new literatures review with Anna Johnston, and is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, and The Atlantic Critical Review. He is an Associate of the Centre for Postcolonial Writing (CPW), Monash University.
Ralph is also involved in the Colonialism and its Aftermath research centre.
Teaching Responsibilities
Teaching Interests
Ralph has designed and taught a wide range of units, including:
- Australian Literature: 1945 to the Present Postcolonial Fictions Postcolonial Literatures in English Postcolonial Literatures: Anglo-Indian Fiction Literary Theory: White Indian English Fiction Shakespeare Wallahs (with both Mark Houlahan, University of Waikato and Rose Gaby) Colonial Adventure Fictions (with Lisa Fletcher)
He has supervised dissertations and theses at Hons, MA and PhD levels on various topics including:
- Nayantara Sahgal; Alice Munro; Maori Writing in English; Shashi Deshpande; J.G. Farrell; the Indian Mutiny in Fiction; Mimic Men in Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet and Rudyard Kipling’s Kim; Irishness in Australian Literature; lesbian writing in New Zealand; representations of ta moko; Salman Rushdie and Magic Realism; Meera Syal’s Anita and Me; Kate Grenville’s The Secret River; Textual Representations of A.O. Neville; Medicine, Medea and the Media: The Rise and Fall of Roy Meadow; Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang; Eve Langley; Annie Baxter's Tasmanian journals;William Dalrymple; Colonial islands narratives
He is currently teaching or contributing to several units at the University of Tasmania:
- HEA103 Telling Stories (Launceston)
- HEA104 Reading Stories (Launceston)
- HEA370 Fictions of History
- HEA404 Colonial Adventure Fictions (with Lisa Fletcher)
- HEA408 Research Methodology
He is available to supervise in the following areas:
- Colonial/Postcolonial fictions
- Anglo-Indian fiction (particularly Mutiny fiction)
- Indian English fiction
- Colonial adventure fiction
- J.G. Farrell
- Paul Scott
Units
Current and Supervised Project/s:
Publications
Books
- Ed. Passages to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1991.
- (A collection of critical essays on the works of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.)
- Inventing India: A History of India in English-Language Fiction . London: Macmillan and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.
- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala . New York: Twayne, 1992. (Twayne's English Authors Series, no. 494).
- Ed. Ending the Silences: Critical Essays on the Works of Maurice Shadbolt. Auckland: Hodder Moa Beckett, 1995.
- with Jennifer Livett. Troubled Pleasures: The Fiction of J.G. Farrell. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997.
- Ed. Nayantara Sahgal's India: Passion, Politics, and History. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1998.
(A collection of critical essays on the works of Nayantara Sahgal.)
- Selected and Introduced. Selected Stories. By Maurice Shadbolt. Auckland: David Ling, 1998.
- Ed. J.G. Farrell: The Critical Grip. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999.
(A collection of critical essays on the works of J.G. Farrell.)
- Ed. with Radhika Mohanram. Shifting Continents/Colliding Cultures: Diaspora Writing of the Indian Subcontinent. Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi (Cross/Cultures 42), 2000.
(A collection of critical essays on Indian diaspora writing.)
- Ed. Love Besieged: A Romance of the Defence of Lucknow, by Charles E. Pearce. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.
(A scholarly edition with Introduction, maps and Explanatory Notes.)
- Ed. Lilamani: A Study in Possibilities, by Maud Diver. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004.
(A scholarly edition with Introduction, maps and Explanatory Notes.)
- Ed. with Cynthia vanden Driesen. Diaspora: The Australasian Experience. New Delhi: Prestige, 2005.
- Ed. Daughters of India, by Margaret Wilson. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007.
(A scholarly edition with Introduction, maps and Explanatory Notes.)
- Ed. The Broken Road, by A.E.W. Mason. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008.
(A scholarly edition with Introduction, maps and Explanatory Notes.)
- Ed. With Anna Johnston. The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook, by Flora Annie Steel and Grace Gardiner. Oxford's World Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. (A scholarly edition with Introduction, chronology and Explanatory Notes.)
Chapters in Books
- 'Out of the Center: Thoughts on the Post-colonial Literatures of Australia and New Zealand.' English Postcoloniality: Literature From Around the World. Ed. Radhika Mohanram and Gita Rajan. New York: Greenwood, 1996. 21-30. Rpt. Postcolonial Discourses: An Anthology. Ed. Gregory Castle. Oxford: Blackwells, 2001. 390-98.
- 'Kicking Against the Pricks: Anita Desai's Fire on the Mountain.' Commonwealth and American Women's Discourse: Studies in Criticism. Ed. A.L. McLeod. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1996. 93-105.
- '"A Passion for History and for Truth Telling": The Early Novels of Bapsi Sidhwa.' The Novels of Bapsi Sidhwa. Ed. Novy Kapadia and R.K. Dhawan. New Delhi: Prestige, 1996. 48-60.
- 'The Shadbolt Version: An Introduction to the Work of Maurice Shadbolt.' New Zealand Literature: Recent Trends. Ed. R.K. Singh. New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1998. 73-81.
- 'Re-placing Australia: The Trope of Displacement in Hugh Atkinson's The Pink and the Brown.' Austral-Asian Encounters: From Literature and Women's Studies to Politics and Tourism. Ed. Cynthia Vanden-Driesen and Satendra Nandan. New Delhi: Prestige, 2001. 115-28.
- 'Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.' Dictionary of Literary Biography: South Asian Writing in English. Ed. Fakrul Alam. Columbia, SC: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 2003.
- 'The Anglo-Indian (Raj) Diaspora in Australasia.' Diaspora: The Australasian Experience . Ed. Cynthia vanden Driesen and Ralph Crane. New Delhi: Prestige, 2005. 177-87.
- 'Inscribing a Sikh India: An Alternative Reading of Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan.' Alternative Indias: Writing, Nation and Communalism. Ed. Peter Morey and Alex Tickell. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. 181-96.
- 'A Man from Elsewhere: The Liminal Presence of Liverpool in the Fiction of J. G. Farrell', Writing Liverpool: Essays and Interviews, Ed. Michael Murphy and Deryn Rees-Jones. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007. 88-104.
- with Anna Johnston. 'Flora Annie Steel in the Punjab', Writing, Travel, and Empire: In the Margins of Anthropology. Ed. Peter Hulme and Russell McDougall. London, I.B. Tauris, 2007. 71-95.
- 'A Raj Connection: Anglo-Indian Fiction in Australia.' Reading Down Under: Australian Literary Studies Reader. Ed. Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal. New Delhi: SSS Publications, 2008. 386-95.
- with Anna Johnston. 'Administering Domestic Space: Flora Annie Steel's The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook.' Empire Calling: Administering Colonial Spaces in Australasia and India. Ed. Ralph Crane, Anna Johnston, and C. Vijayasree. Hyderabad: Foundation, 2010. Forthcoming.
- '"Amid the Alien Corn": British India as Human Island.' Islanded Identities: Constructions of Postcolonial Cultural Insularity. Ed. Maeve McCusker and Anthony Soares. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010. Forthcoming.
Essays in Reference Books
Over 40 essays on various authors and their work in:
- Contemporary Novelists
- The Encyclopaedia of Post-colonial Literatures in English
- Reference Guide to Short Fiction
- Reader's Guide to Literature in English
- Reader's Guide to Women's Studies
- The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature
- Encyclopedia of the Novel
- Encyclopedia of Life Writing
- The Literary Encyclopedia and Literary Dictionary (on-line)
- The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction
Articles in Journals
- 'Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: A Checklist of Primary and Secondary Sources.' Journal of Commonwealth Literature 20.1 (1985): 171-203.
- 'Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Sky: Escape From the Heat and Dust?' Span 24 (1987): 178-89.
- 'A Sheep in Lion's Clothing: A Note on The Far Pavilions and Kim.' Kipling Journal 64 (1990): 31-2.
- 'Tickling History: Maurice Shadbolt and the New Zealand Wars.' Journal of New Zealand Literature 9 (1991): 59-70.
- 'Letters of Sir William Jones in the Dunedin Public Library.' Notes and Queries 39.1 (1992): 66-67.
- 'J.G. Farrell: An Annotated Bibliography.' Eire-Ireland 28.1 (1993): 132-48.
- 'Of Shattered Pots and Sinkholes: (Female) Identity in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine.' Span 36.i (1993): 122-30.
- with June Ellis. 'Re-writing the Maps: the New Zealand Short Story, 1990.' Journal of New Zealand Literature 12 (1994): 55-66.
- '"Oft of one wide expanse have I been told": An Evaluation of the Criticism of R.K. Narayan's Works.' Littcrit 22.1 (1996): 69-83.
- 'The Shadbolt Version: An Introduction to the Work of Maurice Shadbolt.' Creative Forum 11.1-2 (1998): 73-81.
- 'J.G. Farrell, an Australian': or, The Trope of Australia in the Fiction of J.G. Farrell.' Journal of Commonwealth Literature 34.2 (1999): 47-60.
- 'Duelling with the Crown: Literature and Language in Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel.' Wasafiri 33 (2001): 58-61.
- '"Pussimodo," A previously unpublished story by J.G. Farrell, Introduced by Ralph Crane.' Fortnight (Ireland) 391 (January 2001): 35-36.
- 'Playing the White Man: Ronald Merrick, Whiteness, and Erotic Triangles in Paul Scott's Raj Quartet.' Journal of Commonwealth Literature 39.1 (2004): 19-28.
- 'After Beckett: The Influence of Samuel Beckett on the Fiction of J.G. Farrell.' New Hibernia Review 9.1 (2005): 109-16.
- 'Critics and Crucible: An Australian Novel in Anglo-Indian Clothing, Hugh Atkinson's The Pink and the Brown.' Antipodes, 21.2 (2007): 103-09.
- 'Contesting the Can(n)on: Revisiting Kim in I. Allan Sealy's The Trotter-Nama.' Journal of Postcolonial Writing 44.2 (2008): 151-58.
- with Radhika Mohanram. 'The Iconography of Gender: the Indian Uprising of 1857.' Feminist Studies in English Literature 16.2 (2008): 5-30.
Research Areas:
Research Interests
Ralph's main research interests are in:
- Anglo-Indian fiction, with a particular interest in Mutiny fiction
- Indian English fiction
- the fiction of J.G. Farrell
- the work of Flora Annie Steel
Current Research
Raj Recovery Project
Scholarly Editons
Ralph is General Editor Oxford University Press India's 'Lesser-Known Raj Novels' series.
He has edited four volumes in the series, each of which includes a detailed critical commentary in the form of an introduction, maps, a chronology of the author, and substantial explanatory notes.
- Love Besieged: A Romance of the Defence of Lucknow by Charles E. Pearce (2003)
- Lilamani by Maud Diver (2004)
- Daughters of India by Margaret Wilson (2007)
- The Broken Road by A.E.W. Mason (2008)
Anglo-Indian Fiction: Race, Gender, and Diaspora
Ralph is currently completing a monograph on Anglo-Indian fiction with Radhika Moharam (Cardiff University). The book offers a postcolonial reading of the fictions of Anglo-India rather than a focus on British imperialism, informed by the historical certainty and knowledge of the end of the British Raj.
Bibliography of Anglo-Indian Fiction
Ralph is currently compiling a comprehensive bibliography of Anglo-Indian fiction from 1858-1947.
Flora Annie Steel
In collaboration with Anna Johnston Ralph is working on a series of publications on the Anglo-Indian writer Flora Annie Steel. To date they have presented conference papers and two book chapters as well as an edition of Flora Annie Steel and Grace Gardiner's The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook, which was published in OUP's World's Classics Series. They are planning scholarly editions of other books by Steel, as well as a monograph on her work.
J.G. Farrell
In collaboration with Chris Ackerley (University of Otago) Ralph is working on a companion to the fiction of J.G. Farrell. Provisionally entitled A J.G. Farrell Encyclopedia, this book will gather in a single volume all the essential facts about Farrell's life, his fiction, and the intellectual and social milieu which forms the background to his writing.
J.G. Farrell Bibliography
This bibliography can be downloaded in PDF format:
J.G. Farrell: A Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources (PDF 78MB)
Colonial Adventure Fictions
In collaboration with Lisa Fletcher Ralph is working on a series of publications in the field of colonial adventure fiction. They have presented a conference paper on illustrations in G.A. Henty's Indian fictions and plan a series of journal articles and book chapters on adventure fiction published in magazines and in book form during the period of British high imperialism, as well as a monograph that will focus on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, G.A. Henty's In Times of Peril, H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, and A.E.W.Mason's The Four Feathers.
Cave (Reaktion Books)
Ralph is writing Cave in collaboration with Lisa Fletcher. This illustrated book will be a volume in Reaktion Books' new 'Earth' series and is scheduled for publication in 2013. Cave will explore the roles caves have played in history and the human imagination. This research considers caves not only as wonders of nature and as habitats for flora and fauna, but also in terms of the multifarious cultural roles they have played and continue to play in human experience. Together, the text and illustrations in this book will explore perceptions of caves over the centuries and across the world, offering the reader a cultural and psychological history of these dark places of the earth.
Tasmanian Stories
Ralph is selecting and editing a collection of Tasmanian stories with Danielle Wood, who will also write an introduction to the book. In addition to the book's scholarly purpose of providing an important archive of regional Australian literature, this anthology is intended to have appeal to visitors to the state as well as to students and researchers.
Research Project/s
