Niall Lucy served as a professor in the School of Media,Culture &Creative Arts at Curtin University,and a former Head of the School of Arts (1998–2003) at Murdoch University. In 1997,he was a visiting scholar in the School of English,Communication and Philosophy at the University of Wales,Cardiff. He worked mainly in the fields of deconstruction,literary theory and cultural criticism.
His latter work (much of it collaborative) brought a deconstructive approach to contemporary Australian events and figures. Niall Lucy was one of the original grantees for the Australian Research Grant exploring "Why is there no Noongar Wikipedia". There being no direct or near translation of the english-language computer term User,the community decided that contributors would be identified as “Niall”,honoring his life's work of sharing knowledge.
In Postmodern Literary Theory:An Introduction (1997),Lucy identifies postmodernism as a continuation (albeit not by conscious or deliberate means) of romanticism,especially in the form of ideas associated with the Jena romantics in Germany in the late-18th and early-19th centuries.[1] His discussion is influenced by the work of French philosophers Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy. Lucy argues that postmodernism should be distinguished from poststructuralism,and especially from deconstruction as associated with the work of Jacques Derrida.[citation needed]
Lucy's work is notable for its sense of humour,and for taking popular culture no less seriously than philosophy. The increasing tendency in his later work towards a philosophical engagement with contemporary events is strongly informed by Derrida's Specters of Marx and the idea of democracy-to-come,which is the linchpin of Lucy's account of the importance of deconstruction in A Derrida Dictionary (2004).[2]
Much of Lucy's recent work has been collaborative,and directly concerned with contemporary Australian cultural events and figures. His book with Steve Mickler,The War on Democracy:Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press (2006),pits a Derridean concept of democracy against what the authors argue are the undemocratic interests represented in the work of several prominent Australian media commentators (whom they refer to collectively as “Team Australia”),including Miranda Devine,Gerard Henderson,Janet Albrechtsen and Andrew Bolt.[3] The book was shortlisted for the Gleebooks Prize in Literary and Cultural Criticism at the 2008 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.[citation needed]
Among other recent works,Lucy's co-edited collection (with Chris Coughran),Vagabond Holes (2009),is a tribute to his late friend,David McComb,lead singer and songwriter for Australian rock band The Triffids,which defies the conventions of a rock biography in its deconstruction of the notion of an autonomous self or identity.[4] Contributors include Nick Cave,Mick Harvey,John Kinsella,DBC Pierre,and Lucy's own sister,Judith.[citation needed]
His book,Pomo Oz:Fear and Loathing Downunder (2010),engages with (among other issues) debates surrounding secondary-school English teaching in Australia,while taking a deconstructive slant on the Bill Henson scandal,the Children Overboard Affair and The Chaser's prank motorcade at the 2007 APEC Australia summit in Sydney.[5] A significant section of the book is devoted to a discussion of John Kinsella's poetry in relation to deconstruction,with reference to Kinsella's friendship with Derrida. Ranging across diverse topics,and working in multiple styles,the book offers a further elaboration of Lucy's work on democracy-to-come.[citation needed]
His final book,A Dictionary of Postmodernism,was published posthumously by Wiley-Blackwell in 2015. The book,edited by John Hartley (academic),was completed by Lucy's friends and colleagues Robert Briggs,Claire Colebrook,John Hartley,Tony Thwaites,Darren Tofts,and McKenzie Wark.[6]
Critical reception
Lucy has been lauded internationally for his work in deconstruction. His Debating Derrida is described by Peggy Kamuf as "an excellent guide"[7] and by Juliana De Nooy as “lucid and pedagogical”.[8] Writing for The Times Literary Supplement,Anthony Elliot says of A Derrida Dictionary that it "ranges with considerable flair from Hegel to Geri Halliwell,fascism to Francis Fukuyama,the philosophy of consciousness to celebrity".[9] "It [A Derrida Dictionary] is the kind of book whose wit makes one want to read excerpts to colleagues,and it is precisely this lightness of tone that makes Lucy's book so pedagogically useful",a reviewer writes in Choice.[10]Claire Colebrook commends Postmodern Literary Theory:An Introduction as “a critical account of the difference between postmodernism and poststructuralism”.[11]
The critical reception in Australia to his book with Steve Mickler,The War on Democracy,has been divided. Kitty van Vuuren,writing in Media International Australia,says she was “unable to put the book down”and found it to be “lively,sardonic and entertaining”.[17] In 'Overland,Georgina Murray claims the book was "crying out to be written".[18] By contrast,one of the figures whose work is critiqued in The War on Democracy,education journalist Luke Slattery,describes the book as "blood sport" and decries Lucy as "a parish priest in the much-diminished postmodern church".[19] Another figure of critique in the book,columnist Christopher Pearson,condemns what he calls the book's "unusually vicious polemic".[20]
Other writing
Lucy wrote liner notes for the re-issue of The Triffids album Calenture (2007)[21] and for the retrospective collection,Crossing Off the Miles,by Australian rock band Chad's Tree.[22]
Media
Lucy wrote freelance music journalism in the 1980s for On the Street (Sydney),5 O'Clock News (Perth) and other publications. He was a regular music broadcaster on 6UVS-FM (now RTR-FM) in Perth and 2SER-FM in Sydney. He occasionally wrote for The West Australian and On Line Opinion,and hosted the weekly music show The Comfort Zone on 720 ABC Perth.
Lucy was interviewed for the documentary about David McComb and The Triffids,Love in Bright Landscapes,directed by Jonathan Alley.
Affiliations
Lucy served as a member of the consultancy board of Derrida Today[23] and a member of the editorial board of Fibreculture Journal.[24]
He was a member of the Curriculum Council of Western Australia's Literature Reference Panel.
Niall Lucy died at his home in Fremantle in June 2014,aged 57,11 months after being diagnosed with cancer.[28]
There have been many tributes in response to Lucy's death throughout the international scholarly community. Poet John Kinsella wrote the official obituary,'Vale Free-Flowing Niall',published in The West Australian.[29] The international journal Derrida Today dedicated its 2014 issue "In memoriam" to Niall Lucy,who had previously been on their editorial board.[30] The international,peer-reviewed journal that Lucy founded and co-edited,Ctrl-Z:New Media Philosophy,[31] included the tribute piece "Who will have come to have read this? - In memory of Niall Lucy (1956-2014)",written by his co-editor Dr. Robert Briggs. Briggs' piece appears in the last issue of the journal Lucy edited.[32] Prior to Lucy's death,he had contributed a chapter on 'Politics' to a forthcoming book on Jacques Derrida edited by Claire Colebrook,Jacques Derrida:Key Concepts (Routledge,2015);Colebrook dedicated the completed book to his memory.[33] The 2015 edition of Vlak Magazine,edited by Prague-scholar Louis Armand,also includes contributions in Lucy's memory by Armand,Kinsella and Swinburne academic Darren Tofts.[34]
Lucy was presented with a posthumous Certificate of Recognition by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority for his contributions across 20 years to the English and Literature course and examination materials in Western Australia.[35]
Niall's sister Judith Lucy dedicated her critically acclaimed television show,Judith Lucy Is All Woman,to her brother's memory.[37][38] Her 2015 Helpmann Award winning comedy show,Ask No Questions of the Moth, also discusses how she dealt with the impact of her brother's death.[39][40]
The Chad's Tree song 'The Flood Johanna',which appears on The Blackeyed Susans's Robert Snarski's 2015 solo album,Low Fidelity:Songs by Request Volume 1,is dedicated to Niall Lucy;Niall's wife,Sam;and his sister,Judith.[41]
The 2017 novel ‘’Sanctuary’’,by Australian writer and actor Judy Nunn,is also dedicated to his memory.
Deconstruction is any of a loosely-defined set of approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida,who described it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences which are valued above appearances. Since the 1980s,these proposals of language's fluidity instead of being ideally static and discernible have inspired a range of studies in the humanities,including the disciplines of law,anthropology,historiography,linguistics,sociolinguistics,psychoanalysis,LGBT studies,and feminism. Deconstruction also inspired deconstructivism in architecture and remains important within art,music,and literary criticism.
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourse characterized by skepticism toward the "grand narratives" of modernism;rejection of epistemic certainty or the stability of meaning;and sensitivity to the role of ideology in maintaining political power. Claims to objectivity are dismissed as naïve realism,with attention drawn to the conditional nature of knowledge claims within particular historical,political,and cultural discourses. The postmodern outlook is characterized by self-referentiality,epistemological relativism,moral relativism,pluralism,irony,irreverence,and eclecticism;it rejects the "universal validity" of binary oppositions,stable identity,hierarchy,and categorization.
Jacques Derrida was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction,which he utilized in numerous texts,and which was developed through close readings of the linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and Husserlian and Heideggerian phenomenology. He is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy although he distanced himself from post-structuralism and disowned the word "postmodernity".
Peter Warren Finlay,also known as DBC Pierre,is an Australian author who wrote the novel Vernon God Little.
John David Caputo is an American philosopher who is the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus at Syracuse University and the David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Villanova University. Caputo is a major figure associated with postmodern Christianity and continental philosophy of religion,as well as the founder of the theological movement known as weak theology. Much of Caputo's work focuses on hermeneutics,phenomenology,deconstruction and theology.
Christopher Charles Norris is a British philosopher and literary critic.
John Kinsella is an Australian poet,novelist,critic,essayist and editor. His writing is strongly influenced by landscape,and he espouses an 'international regionalism' in his approach to place. He has also frequently worked in collaboration with other writers,artists and musicians.
Geoffrey Bennington is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of French and Professor of Comparative Literature at Emory University in Georgia,United States,and Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee,Switzerland,as well as a member of the International College of Philosophy in Paris. He is a literary critic and philosopher,best known as an expert on deconstruction and the works of Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard. Bennington has translated many of Derrida's works into English.
The Triffids were an Australian alternative rock and pop band,formed in Perth in Western Australia in May 1978 with David McComb as singer-songwriter,guitarist,bass guitarist and keyboardist. They achieved some success in Australia,but greater success in the UK and Scandinavia in the 1980s before disbanding in 1989. Their best-known songs include "Wide Open Road" and "Bury Me Deep in Love". SBS television featured their 1986 album,Born Sandy Devotional,on the Great Australian Albums series in 2007,and in 2010 it ranked 5th in the book The 100 Best Australian Albums by Toby Creswell,Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell.
Kim Scott is an Australian novelist of Aboriginal Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of the Noongar people of Western Australia.
David Richard McComb was an Australian musician. He was the singer-songwriter and guitarist of the Australian bands,The Triffids (1976–89) and The Blackeyed Susans (1989–93). He also had a solo career including leading David McComb and The Red Ponies. Over his career McComb had bouts of alcoholism,and amphetamine and heroin abuse. He developed cardiomyopathy and in 1996 underwent a heart transplant. David McComb died on 2 February 1999 "due to heroin toxicity and mild acute rejection of his 1996 heart transplant",according to the coroner. In May 2001,the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA),as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations,named "Wide Open Road" by The Triffids –written by McComb –as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. On 1 July 2008 The Triffids were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame with McComb's contribution acknowledged by a tribute performance.
Martyn Paul Casey is an English-born Australian rock bass guitarist. He has been a member of the Triffids,Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. Casey plays either his Fender Precision Bass or Fender Jazz Bass.
Christopher Wise is a cultural theorist,literary critic,scholar,and translator. His publications largely focus on Sahelian West Africa,especially Mali,Burkina Faso,and Senegal,as well as Palestine,Jordan,and Israel. He has also published theoretical works on Fredric Jameson,Jacques Derrida,and Noam Chomsky.
Memory work is a process of engaging with the past which has both an ethical and historical dimension. During memory work,the process of producing an image or what we refer to as the production of the imaginary,is central. Therefore,the key in the analysis of remembered history are contradictions. This calls for an expanded archive that includes the "oral and popular tradition" as well as the written traditions normally associated with the archives.
Peggy Kamuf is the Marion Frances Chevalier Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. She is one of the primary English translators of the works of Jacques Derrida. She received the American Comparative Literature Association's 2006 RenéWellek Prize for her 2005 work Book of Addresses.
Hugh J. Silverman was an American philosopher and cultural theorist whose writing,lecturing,teaching,editing,and international conferencing participated in the development of a postmodern network. He was executive director of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature and professor of philosophy and comparative literary and cultural studies at Stony Brook University,where he was also affiliated with the Department of Art and the Department of European Languages,Literatures,and Cultures. He was program director for the Stony Brook Advanced Graduate Certificate in Art and Philosophy. He was also co-founder and co-director of the annual International Philosophical Seminar since 1991 in South Tyrol,Italy. From 1980 to 1986,he served as executive co-director of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. His work draws upon deconstruction,hermeneutics,semiotics,phenomenology,aesthetics,art theory,film theory,and the archeology of knowledge.
Roberto Rino Magliola is an Italian-American academic specializing in European hermeneutics and deconstruction,comparative philosophy,and inter-religious dialogue. He is retired from National Taiwan University and Assumption University of Thailand.
Tracy Ryan is an Australian poet and novelist. She has also worked as an editor,publisher,translator,and academic.
Derrida Today is a biannual academic journal published by Edinburgh University Press in May and November of each year,devoted to the works of French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004).
↑ Niall Lucy, A Derrida Dictionary (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).
↑ Niall Lucy and Steve Mickler, The War on Democracy: Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 2006).
↑ Niall Lucy and Chris Coughran, eds, Vagabond Holes: David McComb and The Triffids (Fremantle: Fremantle Press, 2010).
↑ Niall Lucy, Pomo Oz: Fear and Loathing Downunder (Fremantle: Fremantle Press, 2010).
↑ John D. Caputo, Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida (New York: Fordham University Press, 1996).
↑ John Hartley, A Short History of Cultural Studies (London: Sage, 2003).
↑ Peggy Kamuf, “The University in the World it is Attempting to Think”. Culture Machine 6 (2004).
↑ Keith Jenkins, Why History? Ethics and Postmodernity (London: Routledge, 1999).
↑ McKenzie Wark, Gamer Theory (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2007).
↑ Kitty Van Vuuren, “[Review of] The War on Democracy". Media International Australia 126 (February 2008).
↑ Georgina Murray, "Warriors Against Democracy". Overland" 188 (September 2007).
↑ Luke Slattery, "A Travesty of Logic". On Line Opinion, 9 March 2007; Luke Slattery, "Supposed Defenders of Democracy Err in Choice of Foes". The Australian, 15 March 2007.
↑ Christopher Pearson, "Villains Made to Order". The Australian, 11 November 2006.
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