Biography
I graduated from the University of Melbourne with a B.A Hons (1975, Dux of Pure English), a Master of Arts (First Class Honours,1980), and a PhD (1987). I was awarded the Alexander Sutherland Prize and the Edward Stevens Exhibition in Pure English in second year; and the Dwight's Prize, Final examination in Pure English, and Shakespeare Scholarship in the final year.
I have taught at several Australian Universities (Melbourne, La Trobe, Deakin) and was a Visiting Professor at the Freie Universität, Berlin (2011). I am a longstanding member of The Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL), the national conference of scholars of Australian lierature, and was its President in 2004-5. I have been invited to present the annual Dorothy Green Lecture the 2016.
My areas of expertise include Australian poetry and fiction; literature and the sacred; and the writing of poetry. She has authored and edited 8 literary critical books, including James McAuley (1992, OUP), Bridgings: Reading Australian Women's Poetry (with Rose Lucas, 1996, OUP), Feminism and the Sacred: Creative Suspicions (with Frances Devlin-Glass, 2002, OUP), Intimate Horizons: the Post-colonial Sacred in Australian Literature (with Bill Ashcroft and Frances Devlin-Glass, 2009, ATF Press), Luminous Moments: the Contemporary Sacred (2010, ATF Press), and the edited volume, Tim Winton: Critical Essays (with Nathanael O'Reilly, 2014, UWAP). A new criticl volume, The Fiction of Tim Winton: Earthed and Sacred is being published in late 2016 by Sydney University Press, in its Australian authors series.
In 2013-2015 I conducted research for two monographs: the first on The Legacy of Tim Winton, as part of an ARC Discovery Grant, and the second on aspects of the sacred in literature.
I also publish poetry in various Australian journals.
Read more on Lyn's profileBiography summary
I teach and research in the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University. I have previously taught at the University of Melbourne, and at LaTrobe University.
Career highlights
Visiting Chair of Australian Studies, Freie Universität, Berlin.
Invited Presentations
Dorothy Green Lecture, ASAL 2016
Plenary Speaker on Australian Literature, Hefei University, China, 2015.
Plenary Speaker on Australian Literature, Suzhou University, China, 2014.
Plenary Speaker, Blaiklock lecture on the fiction of Barbara Hanrahan, Sydney University, 2010.
Plenary Speaker, Tools of Sacred, Techniques of the Secular, L'Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2010.
Research interests
Australian Literature
Indigenous writing
Poetry
Literature and the sacred (theology, religion, belief)
Literary Theory
Affiliations
Association for the Study of Australian Literature
American Association for Australian Literary Studies
European Association for the Study of Australia Australian Universities Heads of English member
Teaching interests
My teaching focuses on Australian poetry, fiction & film; issues of sacredness and literature, ideology and literature, & the discipline of Literary Studies. Authors I have taught recently include: Judith Wright, Les Murray, Patrick White, Tim Winton, Miles Franklin, Christos Tsiolkas, Ania Walwicz, Tony Birch, Lionel Fogarty, Kim Scott.
I am interested in the literary/cultural theory of Derrida, Kristeva, Lacan, Eagleton, David Jasper, Kevin Hart, Bill Ashcroft, Gayatri Spivak, Levinas.
I welcome Higher Degree Students in the areas of contemporary poetry, Australian literature, Indigenous writing and issues of the sacred in literature.
Units taught
ALL372: The Literature of Hell and Heaven (3rd year)
ALL260: Australian Literature (2nd year)
AAR412: Honours Theory (4th year).
Knowledge areas
Australian Literature
Indigenous Writing
Contemporary Poetry
Poetry and Performance.
Literature and Theology
The Sacred.
Expertise
- Arts
- the
- Australia
- Higher education
- Literature
- Literature & creative writing
- Religion
Conferences
The Association for the Study of Australian Literature
The American Association for Australian and New Zealand Literary Studies
The European Association for the Study of Australia
Professional activities
Leader, Faculty of Arts and Education Mentoring Scheme 2014-5 Faculty/IKE Liaison Committee
Manuscript assessor, JASAL (national journal of ASAL), New Scholar, ALS
ARC Assessor Member, School of Education Advisory Board. Member, the Australian Universities Heads of English.
Media appearances
Community Service
Member of the Mary Gilmore Poetry Prize committee (ASAL).
ASAL Chair of Judging Panel, ALS Gold Medal, 2015.
Vice-chair and member of the Churches of Christ Theological College of Victoria (1983-2009);
Panel member, University of Divinity promotions committee (2013-present);
External Honours Moderator, University of Tasmania, English Discipline, 2013 and 2014;
Reader of academic manuscripts for JASAL, ALS, Antipodes etc.
Judge, The Age Poetry Book of the Year (2004, 6, 9);
Poetry Judge, Anti-Cancer Council Prize (2009);
Poetry audio workshops for Victorian Association for Teachers of English.
Reading Australia (CAL) author, on Tim Winton's Cloudstreet.
Awards
Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (2008);
Visiting Professorship in Australian Literature, Frei Universitat, Berlin (2011);
ARC Discovery Project Award, Sacred and Secular in Australian Literature (with Bill Ashcroft and Frances Devlin-Glass) (2002-7);
ARC Discovery Project Award, The Legacy of Tim Winton (2013-5).
Projects
Publications
Imagining Incarnation: Immanence semper processus in Patrick White's Voss
L McCredden
(2022), Vol. 35, pp. 59-73, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, Sheffield, Eng., C1
Something New at Hand: the Sacred in Australian Literature
Lyn Mc Credden
(2021), Vol. 1, pp. 274-281, The Routledge companion to Australian literature, London, Eng., B1
A Post-Colonial Ontology? Tim Winton's The Riders and the Challenge to White-Settler Identity
Lyn McCredden
(2020), Vol. 9, pp. 1-9, Humanities, Basel, Switzerland, C1
A Poetics of Sacred and Secular in Australia
Lyn Mc Credden
(2020), Vol. 20, pp. 1-14, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Sydney, N.S.W., C1
Pam Brown's ghostly signature: "half here/half gone".
L Mc Credden
(2018), pp. 168-189, Feeding the ghost 1: criticism on contemporary Australian poetry, Waratah, NSW, B1
Fleshed sacred: the carnal theologies of Nick Cave
L Mc Credden
(2017), pp. 83-88, Lovely creatures: the best of Nick Cave, and the Bad Seeds (1984-2014), London, Eng., B1
Not by bread alone: authority, value and meaning-making in Australian literary studies
L Mc Credden
(2017), Vol. 17, pp. 1-11, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Sydney, N.S.W., C1
The fiction of Tim Winton: relational ecology in an unsettled land
L Mc Credden
(2017), Vol. XV, pp. 63-71, Le simplegadi, Udine, Italy, C1
L Mc Credden
(2017), Vol. 7, pp. 1-1, Axon - creative play, Bruce, A.C.T., J3
Fleshed sacred: the carnal theologies of Nick Cave
L McCredden
(2016), pp. 167-186, Cultural seeds: essays on the work of Nick Cave, Abingdon, Eng., B1
Tim Winton: abjection, meaning-making and Australian sacredness
L Mc Credden
(2016), Vol. 16, pp. 1-9, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Sydney, N.S.W., C1
Tim Winton's poetics of resurrection
L McCredden
(2015), Vol. 29, pp. 323-334, Literature and theology, Oxford, Eng., C1
Tim Winton: the literary and the popular
L Mc Credden
(2015), Vol. 29, pp. 323-334, Language and semiotic studies, Suzhou, China, C1
Intolerable significance : Tim Winton's Eyrie
L McCredden
(2014), pp. 306-329, Tim Winton : critical essays, Perth, W.A., B1
Introduction : Tim Winton, literature and the field of literary criticism
L McCredden, N O'Reilly
(2014), pp. 1-15, Tim Winton : critical essays, Perth, W.A., B1
The poet as (anti-) theologian : Chris Wallace-Crabbe's double vision
L McCredden
(2014), pp. 135-146, Travelling without gods: a Chris Wallace-Crabbe companion, Melbourne, Vic., B1
Splintering and coalescing: language and the sacred in Patrick White's novels
L McCredden
(2014), pp. 43-62, Patrick White centenary : the legacy of a prodigal son, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, B1
Violence and the sacred : Patrick White's radical vision
L McCredden
(2014), pp. 52-66, Patrick White: critical issues, New Delhi, India, B1
Crete: Dorothy Porter, exuberance, and the limits of art
L McCredden
(2014), Vol. 38, pp. 271-280, Journal of Australian studies, Abingdon, Eng., C1
L McCredden
(2013), pp. 559-565, Telling stories: Australian life and literature 1935-2012, Melbourne, Vic., B1
(Un)belonging in Australia : poetry and nation
L McCredden
(2013), Vol. 73, pp. 40-57, Southerly, Sydney, N.S.W., C1
L McCredden
(2013), Vol. 23, pp. 48-49, Eureka Street magazine, Richmond, Vic., J3
Ten canoes : engaging difference
L McCredden
(2012), Vol. 6, pp. 45-56, Studies in Australasian cinema, Bristol, England, C1
L McCredden
(2011), Vol. 26, pp. 91-125, Australian literary studies, Ipswich, Qld., C1
Voss : earthed and transformative sacredness
L McCredden
(2010), pp. 109-123, Remembering Patrick White : contemporary critical essays, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, B1
Colonial knowledge, post-colonial poetics
L McCredden
(2010), pp. 255-275, Postcolonial issues in Australian literature, Amherst, N.Y., B1
"A painted queen jumped free" : body and spirit in the fiction of Barbara Hanrahan
L McCredden
(2010), Vol. 70, pp. 15-37, Southerly : the magazine of the Australian English Association, Sydney, Sydney, N.S.W., C1
Intimate horizons : the post-colonial sacred in Australian literature
B Ashcroft, L McCredden, F Devlin-Glass
(2009), Hindmarsh, S. Aust., A1
Fleshed sacred : the carnal theologies of Nick Cave
L McCredden
(2009), pp. 167-185, Cultural seeds : essays on the work of Nick Cave, Surrey, England, B1
L McCredden
(2009), pp. 1-10, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature : JASAL, Toowoomba, Qld., C1
Sacred violence in the Chamberlain case
L McCredden
(2008), Vol. 22, pp. 117-122, Antipodes, Brooklyn, N.Y., C1
Haunted identities and the possible futures of 'Aust. lit'.
L McCredden
(2007), Vol. Special Issue 2007, pp. 12-24, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Adelaide, Australia, C1
So you make a shadow: Australian poetry in review 2006-2007
L McCredden
(2007), Vol. 52, pp. 81-97, Westerly, Bassendean, W.A., C1
Contemporary poetry and the sacred: Vincent Buckley, Les Murray and Samuel Wagan Watson
L McCredden
(2007), Vol. 23, pp. 153-167, Australian literacy studies, St. Lucia, Queensland, C1
'It's a hungry home': postcolonial displacements, popular music and the sacred
L McCredden
(2007), Vol. 43, pp. 216-231, Journal of postcolonial writing, London, England, C1
Sacred exchange: Peter Carey`s Oscar and Lucinda
L McCredden
(2005), pp. 171-178, Fabulating beauty: perspectives on the fiction of Peter Carey, Amsterdam, Netherlands, B1
'Untranscended / life itself': the poetry of Pam Brown
L McCredden
(2005), Vol. 22, pp. 217-228, Australian literary studies, St. Lucia, Qld., C1
The sacred in Australian literature: an introduction
F Devlin-Glass, L McCredden, B Ashcroft
(2005), Vol. 19, pp. 124-126, Antipodes : a North American journal of Australian literature, New York, N.Y., C1
The impossible infinite: Les Murray, poetry, and the sacred
L McCredden
(2005), Vol. 19, pp. 166-171, Antipodes, Brooklyn, N.Y., C1
Writing authority in Australia
L McCredden
(2004), pp. 80-94, Ideas Market : an alternative take on Australia's intellectual life, Carlton, Vic., B1
Postmodern rituals : contemporary Australia responds to Bali
L McCredden
(2003), Vol. 17, pp. 97-106, Antipodes : a North American journal of Australian literature, Brooklyn, N.Y., C1
L McCredden
(2002), Vol. 5, pp. 114-126, Interface: a forum for theology in the world, Hindmarsh, S.Aust, C1
Inside and outside the traditions : the changing shapes of feminist spiritualities
F Devlin-Glass, L McCredden
(2001), pp. 3-20, Feminist poetics of the sacred, creative suspicions, Oxford, England, B1
Between worlds: approaching the indigenous sacred in Australia
L McCredden
(2001), pp. 70-87, Feminist poetics of the sacred : creative suspicions, New York, N.Y., B1
The future of feminist spiritualities
F Devlin-Glass, L McCredden
(2001), pp. 245-257, Feminist poetics of the sacred, creative suspicions, New York, N.Y., B1
L McCredden
(2001), pp. 78-78, Overland : temper democratic, bias Australian, Mt. Eliza, Vic., J3
L McCredden
(2001), pp. 78-78, Overland : temper democratic, bias Australian, Mt. Eliza, Vic, J3
Public symbol-making in Australia
L McCredden
(2000), pp. 189-197, Australian Literary Studies in the 21st Century: Proceedings of the 2000 ASAL Conference, University of Tasmania, Hobart, E1
Craft and politics: remembering Babylon's postcolonial responses
L McCredden
(1999), Vol. 59, pp. 5-16, Southerly, Sydney, N.S.W., C1-1
'By what sign are you walking?': The poetry of Judith Rodriguez
L McCredden
(1997), Vol. 18, pp. 136-144, Australian literary studies, St. Lucia, Qld., C1-1
Transgressing language? : The poetry of Ania Walwicz
L MCCREDDEN
(1996), Vol. 17, pp. 235-243, Australian literary studies, Brisbane, Qld., C1-1
Between position and desire: the love poetry of James McAuley
L MCCREDDEN
(1991), Vol. 51, pp. 35-54, Southerly, Sydney, N.S.W., C1-1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
Australian Literature and the Sacred: Contesting the Myth of Australian Secularism
Prof Lyn Mc Credden, A/Prof Frances Devlin-Glass, Prof Bill Ashcroft
ARC - Discovery Projects
- 2007: $18,071
- 2006: $26,920
The Legacy of Tim Winton
Prof Lyn Mc Credden
ARC - Discovery Projects
- 2015: $49,006
- 2014: $51,353
- 2013: $46,731
Supervisions
Yasmin Samira Mobayad
Thesis entitled: Mother: Spectres of the Post-Industrial Narrative
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Tasha Haines
Thesis entitled: Redemptive Hybridism in Post-postmodern Fiction
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Shelley Lee Buerger
Thesis entitled: Tell Me Something: The Poetics of Maternal Subjectivity
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Edwin Ng
Thesis entitled: Buddhism, Cultural Studies, A Profession of Faith
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
. Ferdinal
Thesis entitled: Abuse of Power, Oppression and the Struggle for Human Rights in Modern Indonesian Short Fiction
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Adelle Louise Sefton-Rowston
Thesis entitled: Polities and poetics: a 'place' for reconciliation
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Naarah Sawers
Thesis entitled: Critical Fictions: Science, Feminism and Corporeal Subjectivity
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Bridie McCarthy
Thesis entitled: At the Limits: Postcolonial and Hyperreal Translations of Australian Poetry
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Jon Kenneth Newton
Thesis entitled: Postmodernism, Christianity and the Book of Revelation
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Carolyn Rose Sandford
Thesis entitled: Spectator, Fetish, Gaze
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Antoinette Martin
Thesis entitled: (Post) Colonial Ambivalences: Christina Stead and Janet Frame
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Ivar Kvistad
Thesis entitled: Radicalising Euripides' Medea
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Barbara White
Thesis entitled: 'Beyond God the Father' : The Metaphysical in a Physical World
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Elizabeth Parsons
Thesis entitled: Poetry and Silence: "A Sequence of Disappearances"
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
D'Arcy Molan
Thesis entitled: The Wimmera Speaks: Adaptive Work, Poetic Histories, and Place-based Arts
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Shelise Marjorie-Rose Robertson
Thesis entitled: Calculated Investors: John Arbuthnot, Hans Sloane, John Woodward, and Slavery
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Neena Balwan Sachdev
Thesis entitled: Trauma, Desire and Hope in Contemporary Novels of Sexual Abuse
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Robin Freeman
Thesis entitled: Ethical approaches to editing Indigenous writing in settler societies
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Ella O'Keefe
Thesis entitled: Mobile Image: Reading Modes of Vision in Forrest-Thomson and Guest
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Janice McClennan
Thesis entitled: Creative and literary responses to australian middle-class experiences of financial upheaval
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Ilona Urquhart
Thesis entitled: Diabolical Literature: Questioning the Morality of Modernism
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Anna Dimitriou
Thesis entitled: Transforming Paramythi in Diasporic Literature: Five Greek Australian writers
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Robert Bruce Thomson
Thesis entitled: Sir Walter Scott in the Western District: 1836 - 1851
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Katrina Hansord
Thesis entitled: 'spirit-music' Unbound: Romanticism and Print Politics in Australian Women's Poetry (1830-1905)
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Alexandra Elizabeth Watkins
Thesis entitled: Problematic Identities in Women's Fiction of the Sri Lankan Diaspora
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Kathleen Gregory
Thesis entitled: Parallel Readings: Western Encounters with Buddhism
Doctor of Philosophy, School of International and Political Studies
Claire Marguerite Nihill
Thesis entitled: Escape Artists: The Female Visual Artist within Contemporary Women's Fiction
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Toby Daniel Davidson
Thesis entitled: Born of Fire, Possessed by Darkness: Mysticism and Australian Poetry
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Barbara Ann Hill
Thesis entitled: The Identity and Autonomy of the Indigenous Community within Christianity
Doctor of Philosophy, School of History, Heritage and Society
Melanie Calvert
Thesis entitled: The Red Shoes: Obsessive and Contagious Narratives
Master of Arts, School of Literary & Communication Studies