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Thesis Embargoed Access, Embargo ends: 28-Mar-2027
Dissertation
‘The Oddity Effect’: Exploring Heterotopias And Bleeders To Craft Strange Writing For A Strange Audience
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00916
Abstract
This practice-led thesis comprises an exegesis, titled Crafting heterotopic writing for a novel that has dual adult/YA audience appeal (a ‘Bleeder’), and a novel, The oddity effect, a contemporary fiction that targets a dual, adult/Young Adult (YA) audience, and foregrounds heterotopia as a component of the novel’s narrative. The novel was inspired by the cultural features and practices of cult communities, and the space that typifies the transitional phase of adolescence. The narrative follows Teddy and Mouse as they escape Heaven’s Temple to visit the so-called ‘Otherworld’ before it is destroyed by an apocalyptic prophecy. When, on their return, they discover their Templar family has been massacred, Teddy and Mouse must adjust to life in the Otherworld as they try to make sense of what has happened. With literary elements that are consistent with mystery and Gothic writing styles, the novel aims to elicit an atmosphere of readerly otherness that appeals to both adult and young adult readers.
Creative writers craft heterotopias, or places of otherness, to convey a sense of wonder and awe. However, the limited availability of scholarly research that assists authors to successfully craft heterotopias for fiction narratives can render this task challenging. By exploring existing research on the topic of heterotopia and literature, and by examining novels that successfully model heterotopic writing, this PhD thesis identifies how practice-led research (PLR) techniques helped to conceive and craft heterotopia for The oddity effect. A significant PLR finding in this area is that heterotopia can be used as a textual agent to enhance narrative elements such as setting, atmosphere, character development, voice and plot.
The exegetical dissertation also investigates the literary, industry and audience features of contemporary Australian Bleeders (a term identified for this thesis to describe a specific group of Australian novels that have dual adult/YA audience appeal). The exegesis records the practice-led research methods that informed the crafting of The oddity effect as a Bleeder novel. Identifying the literary, industry and audience features that are specific to this group of Australian novels, to which The oddity effect belongs, marries creative writing scholarship with Australian book industry practices to provide new knowledge related to the ‘fast-growing and ever-changing’ adult/YA readership (Roy 2015, p. 2). This information, in combination with scholarship on heterotopias in fiction, situates creative writing research as an important component of the symbiotic relationship between the academy and the Australian book industry.
Details
- Title
- ‘The Oddity Effect’: Exploring Heterotopias And Bleeders To Craft Strange Writing For A Strange Audience
- Authors
- Denise Beckton - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative Industries
- Contributors
- Paul Williams (Principal Supervisor) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Indigenous and Transcultural Research CentreJacqueline Burgess (Co-Supervisor) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Engage Research Lab
- Awarding institution
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Degree awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- DOI
- 10.25907/00916
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; Healthy Ageing Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991113051502621
- Output Type
- Dissertation
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