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Willis, Ika Dr

Senior Lecturer

  • Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts
  • Colloquium for Research into Texts, Identities and Cultures
  • School of the Arts, English and Media

Overview

Ika came to Wollongong in 2013 after seven years as Lecturer in Reception at the University of Bristol in the UK. Her research interests are mainly in literary theory, including post-structuralism, semiotics and deconstruction, and feminist, queer and trans theory. She is especially interested in reception theory – how readers make sense of texts, but also how we appropriate, rewrite and remix them for our own purposes. She especially likes making connections between texts widely separate in time and/or genre, and has written and published on texts from Virgil’s Aeneid and Dante’s Divine Comedy through Melissa Lukashenko’s Hard Yards to Xena: Warrior Princess and contemporary fan fiction.

Top Publications

Research Overview

  • I work in the field of reception study - how people receive, read, and use (literary) texts - with a particular focus on theory, critical philology, and reception as a transformative/ creative practice. I'm interested in reading as a crossing point between the intensely personal (the ways in which we relate texts to our worlds and our lives) and the intensely political/public (the ways in which our cultural, institutional, and social contexts make different modes of reading available for different people at different times). I am currently completing a book entitled Reception for Routledge's New Critical Idiom series.

Available as Research Supervisor

Selected Publications

  • Journal Article

    Year Title
    2017
    Lucan, Reception, Counter-History
    Published In
    Foucault Studies
    Pages
    31 - 48
    ISSN
    1832-5203
    2016
    Amateur mythographies: Fan fiction and the myth of myh
    Published In
    Transformative Works and Cultures
    Volume
    21
    Pages
    1 - 16
    ISSN
    1941-2258
    2016
    In praise of trigger warnings
    Published In
    The Conversation
    Volume
    10 Oct
    Pages
    1 - 3
    2016
    She's Already Waited Too Long: Affective Transtemporality in Ben Ferriss's "Penelope"
    Published In
    Screening the Past
    Pages
    1 - 9
    ISSN
    1328-9756
    2016
    The classical canon and/as transformative work
    Published In
    Transformative Works and Cultures
    Volume
    21
    Pages
    1 - 8
    ISSN
    1941-2258
    2016
    Writing the fables of sexual difference: slash fiction as technology of gender
    Published In
    Parallax
    Volume
    22
    Pages
    290 - 311
    ISSN
    1353-4645
    2015
    Senecan tragedy and the reception of Augustan poetry by Christopher V. Trinacty (review)
    Published In
    Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History
    Volume
    7
    Pages
    121 - 123
    2014
    Book review: The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature by David Hopkins and Charles Martindale, eds.
    Published In
    Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History
    Volume
    6
    Pages
    85 - 88
    2014
    Philology, or the art of befriending the text
    Published In
    Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies
    Volume
    5
    Pages
    486 - 501
    ISSN
    2040-5979
    2011
    Book Review: Kallendorf, Craig. The Other Virgil: "Pessimistic" Readings of the Aeneid in Early Modern Culture
    Published In
    Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History
    Volume
    3
    Pages
    176 - 179
    2011
    Now X: Freud writing after Derrida/Virgil reading before Augustus
    Published In
    Mosaic (Winnipeg, 1967): a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature
    Volume
    44
    Pages
    177 - 187
    ISSN
    0027-1276
    2010
    iam tum (nowthenalready): Latin Epic and the Post-Historical
    Published In
    Cultural Critique: an international journal of cultural studies
    Volume
    74
    Pages
    51 - 64
    ISSN
    0882-4371
     
    2007
    "She Who Steps Along": Gradiva, telecommunications, history
    Published In
    Helios: a journal devoted to critical and methodological studies of classical culture, literature, and society
    Volume
    34
    Pages
    223 - 242
    ISSN
    0160-0923

  • Book

    Year Title
    2018
    Reception
    Publisher
    London: Routledge
    ISBN
    9781138955097
    Pages
    195
    2011
    Now and Rome: Lucan and Vergil as Theorists of Politics and Space
    Publisher
    London: Continuum
    ISBN
    9781441120519
    Pages
    186

  • Chapter

    Year Title
    2017
    Contemporary Mythography: In the Time of Ancient Gods, Warlords, and Kings
    Published In
    A Handbook to the Reception of Classical Mythology
    Publisher
    Hoboken, United States: Wiley Blackwell
    Pages
    105 - 120
    ISBN
    9781444339604
    2015
    From Realism to Romance: The Early Novels
    Published In
    Jacqueline Wilson: A Casebook
    Publisher
    London: Palgrave Macmillan
    Pages
    34 - 54
    ISBN
    9781137380968
    2013
    Tu Marcellus Eris: Nachträglichkeit in Aeneid 6
    Published In
    Classical Myth and Psychoanalysis: Ancient and Modern Stories of the Self
    Publisher
    Oxford: Oxford University Press
    Pages
    147 - 161
    ISBN
    9780199656677
    2010
    Eros in the age of technical reproductibility: Socrates, Plato and the erotics of filiation
    Published In
    Derrida and Antiquity
    Publisher
    Oxford: Oxford University Press
    Pages
    342 - 369
    ISBN
    9780199545544
    2010
    Feminine endings: Dido’s telephonic body and the originary function of the hymen
    Published In
    The Origins of Deconstruction
    Publisher
    Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan
    Pages
    67 - 82
    ISBN
    9780230581906
     
    2007
    The empire never ended
    Published In
    Classics in Post-Colonial Worlds
    Publisher
    Oxford: Oxford University Press
    Pages
    329 - 348
    ISBN
    9780199296101

  • Conference Paper

    Year Title
    2011
    Harry Potter and the Remnants of Auschwitz: The Banality of Concentrationary Memory
    Published In
    Concentrationary Imaginaries: Imaginaries of Violence International Conference
    Page
    p. xx
    2008
    Is A City A Website? Writing, Space and Power
    Published In
    Writing in a Post-Derridean Era; VAXJO - 23-25 October Växjö University
    2007
    Slash as queer utopia
    Published In
    Queer Space: Centres and Peripheries Conference at UTS
    Pages
    1 - 6

Available as Research Supervisor

Potential Supervision Topics

  • Literary theory

    Reception, reading, interpretation

    Fan fiction

    Feminist and queer theory

Advisees

  • Graduate Advising Relationship

    Degree Research Title Advisee
    Doctor of Philosophy "Make Them Laugh, and They're Not Afraid': the 'Love of the Monster' Narrative in Terry Pratchett's Discworld" Soulsby, Samson
    Doctor of Philosophy Re-Imagining Women and Legitimating Whispers: Constructing An Australian Feminist Discourse Online Martin, Emily
    Doctor of Philosophy The Impossible Narrative: Re-coding Female Experiences of Sexual Assault in Visual Art Sundet, Dida
    Doctor of Philosophy What the Frack! Nerds, Power and Gender Campbell, Raewyn

Top Publications

Research Overview

  • I work in the field of reception study - how people receive, read, and use (literary) texts - with a particular focus on theory, critical philology, and reception as a transformative/ creative practice. I'm interested in reading as a crossing point between the intensely personal (the ways in which we relate texts to our worlds and our lives) and the intensely political/public (the ways in which our cultural, institutional, and social contexts make different modes of reading available for different people at different times). I am currently completing a book entitled Reception for Routledge's New Critical Idiom series.

Selected Publications

  • Journal Article

    Year Title
    2017
    Lucan, Reception, Counter-History
    Published In
    Foucault Studies
    Pages
    31 - 48
    ISSN
    1832-5203
    2016
    Amateur mythographies: Fan fiction and the myth of myh
    Published In
    Transformative Works and Cultures
    Volume
    21
    Pages
    1 - 16
    ISSN
    1941-2258
    2016
    In praise of trigger warnings
    Published In
    The Conversation
    Volume
    10 Oct
    Pages
    1 - 3
    2016
    She's Already Waited Too Long: Affective Transtemporality in Ben Ferriss's "Penelope"
    Published In
    Screening the Past
    Pages
    1 - 9
    ISSN
    1328-9756
    2016
    The classical canon and/as transformative work
    Published In
    Transformative Works and Cultures
    Volume
    21
    Pages
    1 - 8
    ISSN
    1941-2258
    2016
    Writing the fables of sexual difference: slash fiction as technology of gender
    Published In
    Parallax
    Volume
    22
    Pages
    290 - 311
    ISSN
    1353-4645
    2015
    Senecan tragedy and the reception of Augustan poetry by Christopher V. Trinacty (review)
    Published In
    Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History
    Volume
    7
    Pages
    121 - 123
    2014
    Book review: The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature by David Hopkins and Charles Martindale, eds.
    Published In
    Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History
    Volume
    6
    Pages
    85 - 88
    2014
    Philology, or the art of befriending the text
    Published In
    Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies
    Volume
    5
    Pages
    486 - 501
    ISSN
    2040-5979
    2011
    Book Review: Kallendorf, Craig. The Other Virgil: "Pessimistic" Readings of the Aeneid in Early Modern Culture
    Published In
    Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History
    Volume
    3
    Pages
    176 - 179
    2011
    Now X: Freud writing after Derrida/Virgil reading before Augustus
    Published In
    Mosaic (Winnipeg, 1967): a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature
    Volume
    44
    Pages
    177 - 187
    ISSN
    0027-1276
    2010
    iam tum (nowthenalready): Latin Epic and the Post-Historical
    Published In
    Cultural Critique: an international journal of cultural studies
    Volume
    74
    Pages
    51 - 64
    ISSN
    0882-4371
     
    2007
    "She Who Steps Along": Gradiva, telecommunications, history
    Published In
    Helios: a journal devoted to critical and methodological studies of classical culture, literature, and society
    Volume
    34
    Pages
    223 - 242
    ISSN
    0160-0923

  • Book

    Year Title
    2018
    Reception
    Publisher
    London: Routledge
    ISBN
    9781138955097
    Pages
    195
    2011
    Now and Rome: Lucan and Vergil as Theorists of Politics and Space
    Publisher
    London: Continuum
    ISBN
    9781441120519
    Pages
    186

  • Chapter

    Year Title
    2017
    Contemporary Mythography: In the Time of Ancient Gods, Warlords, and Kings
    Published In
    A Handbook to the Reception of Classical Mythology
    Publisher
    Hoboken, United States: Wiley Blackwell
    Pages
    105 - 120
    ISBN
    9781444339604
    2015
    From Realism to Romance: The Early Novels
    Published In
    Jacqueline Wilson: A Casebook
    Publisher
    London: Palgrave Macmillan
    Pages
    34 - 54
    ISBN
    9781137380968
    2013
    Tu Marcellus Eris: Nachträglichkeit in Aeneid 6
    Published In
    Classical Myth and Psychoanalysis: Ancient and Modern Stories of the Self
    Publisher
    Oxford: Oxford University Press
    Pages
    147 - 161
    ISBN
    9780199656677
    2010
    Eros in the age of technical reproductibility: Socrates, Plato and the erotics of filiation
    Published In
    Derrida and Antiquity
    Publisher
    Oxford: Oxford University Press
    Pages
    342 - 369
    ISBN
    9780199545544
    2010
    Feminine endings: Dido’s telephonic body and the originary function of the hymen
    Published In
    The Origins of Deconstruction
    Publisher
    Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan
    Pages
    67 - 82
    ISBN
    9780230581906
     
    2007
    The empire never ended
    Published In
    Classics in Post-Colonial Worlds
    Publisher
    Oxford: Oxford University Press
    Pages
    329 - 348
    ISBN
    9780199296101

  • Conference Paper

    Year Title
    2011
    Harry Potter and the Remnants of Auschwitz: The Banality of Concentrationary Memory
    Published In
    Concentrationary Imaginaries: Imaginaries of Violence International Conference
    Page
    p. xx
    2008
    Is A City A Website? Writing, Space and Power
    Published In
    Writing in a Post-Derridean Era; VAXJO - 23-25 October Växjö University
    2007
    Slash as queer utopia
    Published In
    Queer Space: Centres and Peripheries Conference at UTS
    Pages
    1 - 6

Potential Supervision Topics

  • Literary theory

    Reception, reading, interpretation

    Fan fiction

    Feminist and queer theory

Advisees

  • Graduate Advising Relationship

    Degree Research Title Advisee
    Doctor of Philosophy "Make Them Laugh, and They're Not Afraid': the 'Love of the Monster' Narrative in Terry Pratchett's Discworld" Soulsby, Samson
    Doctor of Philosophy Re-Imagining Women and Legitimating Whispers: Constructing An Australian Feminist Discourse Online Martin, Emily
    Doctor of Philosophy The Impossible Narrative: Re-coding Female Experiences of Sexual Assault in Visual Art Sundet, Dida
    Doctor of Philosophy What the Frack! Nerds, Power and Gender Campbell, Raewyn
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Visualisations

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Research Areas