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| 2018.0055 [INTERNET] |
| Date Range of Records: |
1985-2010 |
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The Greer Archive has been made available due to its historical and research importance. Statements which form part of the collection are not made on behalf of the University and do not represent the University’s views. It contains material that some researchers might find confronting. This includes: Explicit language and images that reflect either the attitudes of the era in which the material was originally published or the views of the creators of the material but may not be considered appropriate today. Names, images and voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in published and unpublished printed material, audio recordings and photographs. Graphic descriptions of medical conditions and treatment.
This series holds records generated by Germaine Greer’s work for websites, online journals and internet service providers. It has been catalogued in received order (eg as it was filed in Greer’s office). Records have been re-housed in acid free folders and Greer’s original titles have been preserved.
The earliest record is an invoice from Greer’s agent Aitken, Stone & Wylie, to Delphi Internet Services Corporation. Delphi paid $1000 for ‘exclusive rights’ to publish Greer’s piece on the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing on the internet ‘for a period of 14 days only from September 2nd, 1995'. The article in question is filed in the Print Journalism series (Good for women, bad for China, Independent, 28/8/9, 2014.0046.00412).
The most recent, from 2010, contains correspondence about Germaine Greer's work scripting and reading an introduction to a website for End of Life Care, a website developed by a team of medical researchers at University of Nottingham.
This small series gives an insight into Greer’s engagement with this new medium – the internet – and the new types of work available online but also the new skills required. In 2008, Greer was invited to be a guest blogger for the New Generation Arts Festival in Birmingham and the file (2018.0055.00011) includes blogging instructions for Greer as well as print outs of trial blog post on the theme of Digital Utopia. The trial posts are brief, serious meditations on the uses of digital technologies (eg digital cameras being used to document flora and fauna at Cave Creek Rainforest) on the meaning of the word utopia and more. An email from Greer’s agent notes the post wasn’t ‘quite what they [the festival] were looking for’.
Similarly, in 2002 a new website called Timehunt ‘a quest for treasure through time and space’, asked Greer to write a short piece on time that could be attached to a clue. The file (2018.0055.00007) holds a print out of a bemused email from Greer in which she reflects on the meanings of time and the website itself. In the end, the website re-published an edited version of Greer’s article on The Politics of Female Sexuality (first published in OZ magazine in 1970).
Records documenting Greer’s involvement in presenting ‘e-lectures’ for websites are a reminder of the scholarly foundations of early internet applications. In 2001, for example, Greer delivered a 6000-word essay on ‘the Romeo and Juliet phenomenon’ for an e-learning company called Boxmind.
A different trajectory, one that has perhaps proved more powerful, is documented in the file Greer named Internet Ananova debate 27/11/01. Ananova, an internet news service, invited Greer to be a member of an online panel that discussed the meaning of the celebrity of Posh and Becks (singer Posh Spice and footballer David Beckham). |
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| 1 unit (0.17m) |
| Collection Category: |
Culture and the Arts, individuals |
| Access Conditions: |
Access: Restricted |
| Finding Aids: |
Yes listed ONLINE |
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