Philip Butterss

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

After completing a PhD in Australian literature at the University of Sydney, Phil Butterss worked for twenty-six years at the University of Adelaide. He retired in 2017, and is now a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of English and Creative Writing. His book on the life and work of C.J. Dennis won the National Biography Award for 2015. He is writing a history of literary Adelaide from 1829 to the present.

Career
Publications
Supervision
Contact

Appointments

Date	Position	Institution name
2017 - ongoing	Visiting Research Fellow	University of Adelaide
1998 - 2017	Senior Lecturer	University of Adelaide
1991 - 1997	Lecturer	University of Adelaide

Awards and Achievements

Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount

2015 Award National Biography Award - Australia $25,000

2014 Award Excellence in Postgraduate Supervision University of Adelaide - $10,000

Date	Type	Title	Institution Name	Country	Amount
2015	Award	National Biography Award	-	Australia	$25,000
2014	Award	Excellence in Postgraduate Supervision	University of Adelaide	-	$10,000

Education

Date	Institution name	Country	Title
1985 - 1990	University of Sydney	Australia	PhD
1982 - 1985	University of Sydney	Australia	MA (Honours)
1980 - 1982	University of Sydney	Australia	BA (Honours)

Research Interests

Australian Literature Biography

Journals

Year	Citation
2019	Butterss, P. R. (2019). The making of 'a poet of Adelaide': Charles Jury and literary Adelaide, 1893-1919. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 19(2), 1-10.
2018	Butterss, P. (2018). Australia's first French novelist: Marie Lion. Westerly, Special Issue 6, 88-98.
2016	Butterss, P. (2016). National Biography Award Lecture: For Better or Worse. SL, 9(3), 16-19.
2015	Butterss, P. (2015). Writing the Anzac legend: The Moods of Ginger Mick. Southerly, 75(3), 49-62.
2015	Butterss, P. (2015). Building Literary Adelaide, 1836-60. Journal of Australian Studies, 39(3), 344-361. DOI
2015	Butterss, P. (2015). The Tennysons in literary Adelaide. Australian Literary Studies, 30(3), 110-120.
2015	Butterss, P. (2015). Australian literary studies in the 1940s: the Commonwealth Literary Fund lectures. Australian Literary Studies, 30(4), 115-127. DOI
2009	Butterss, P. (2009). Ada Street, Adelaide: a history. Historical Society of South Australia. Journal, 2009(37), 98-112.
2007	Butterss, P. (2007). "Parnassus slope" : C.J. Dennis's first years in Victoria. Southerly, 67(1-2), 254-271.
2007	Butterss, P. (2007). 'Your vote is wanted': C.J. Dennis at the call. JASAL - Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 7, 97-106.
2006	Butterss, P. (2006). 'Where a youth dreamed dreams': C.J. Dennis's early days in South Australia. Historical Society of South Australia. Journal, 34, 26-38.
2004	Butterss, P. (2004). Gadding about: C J Dennis and The Gadfly. Southerly, 64(3), 158-171.
2004	Butterss, P. (2004). A 'careful little housewife': C.J. Dennis and masculinity in The Sentimental Bloke.. Screening the Past, 16, www 1-www 6.
2000	Butterss, P. (2000). You're your own boss: models of masculinity. CRNLE Journal (Centre for Research in the New Literatures in English), Issue 2000, 208-211.
2000	Butterss, P. (2000). Australian masculinity on the road. Media International Australia, 95, 227-236.
1998	Butterss, P. (1998). When being a man is all you've got: Masculinity in Romper Stomper, Idiot Box, Blackrock and The Boys. Metro, (117), 40-46.
1995	Butterss, P. (1995). Fidelia Hill and our new colony. Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 23, 70-81.
1995	Butterss, P. (1995). From defiance to difference: The changing shape of the Australian ballad collection. Australian Folklore, 10, 45-49.
1992	Butterss, P. R., & Butterss, P. (1992). James Lester Burke, Martin Cash and Frank the Poet. Australian Literary Studies, 15, 220-225.
1991	Butterss, P. R., & Butterss, P. (1991). "Banished from the girl I adore”: “Moreton Bay” and Irish Transportation Love Songs. Australian Celtic Journal, 3, 5-11.
1991	Butterss, P. R. (1991). More on “Remos” and Somer. Australian Folklore: a yearly journal of folklore studies, 6, 44-47.
1991	Butterss, P. R. (1991). Did “Remos” call his house “Emoh Ruo”?—The authorship of some bush songs. Australian Folklore: a yearly journal of folklore studies, 6, 29-31.
1990	Butterss, P. R. (1990). “When a Fellow Comes Out to Amuse You”: Charles Thatcher and the Goldfield Songs. Thalia: Studies in Literary Humor, 10, 7-13.
1990	Butterss, P. R. (1990). Longing for Harmony: The Resolution of Conflict and Contradiction in the Songs of the Victorian Goldfields. Australian Folklore: a yearly journal of folklore studies, 5, 7-35.
1989	Butterss, P. R. (1989). Wild Colonial Boys’ Games: Bold Jack Donahoe to R.J. Hawke. Meanjin, 48(4), 561-571.
1989	Butterss, P. R. (1989). “Bold Jack Donahoe” and the Irish Outlaw Tradition’. Australian Folklore: a yearly journal of folklore studies, 3, 3-9.
1988	Butterss, P. R. (1988). The Less Rebellious “Frank the Poet”. Overland, 112, 58-62.

Books

Year	Citation
2017	White, J., & Meier, J. (Eds.) (2017). Handbook of clinical toxicology of animal venoms and poisons. DOI Scopus78
2014	Butterss, P. (2014). An Unsentimental Bloke: The life and work of C.J. Dennis (1 ed.). Kent Town, SA: Wakefield Press.
2013	Butterss, P. R. (Ed.) (2013). Adelaide: a literary city. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press. DOI
2013	Butterss, P. R. (Ed.) (2013). Adelaide: a literary city. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press. DOI
1996	Butterss, P., Guerin, C., & Nettelbeck, A. (Eds.) (1996). Crossing Lines: Formations of Australian Culture. Adelaide: Association for the Study of Australian Literature.
1995	Butterss, P. (1995). Southwords: Essays on South Australian Literature. Wakefield Press.
1993	Butterss, P. (Ed.) (1993). Penguin Book of Australian Ballads. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin.
1991	Songs of the Bush: The First Collection of Australian Folk Song (1991). . Kuranda: Rams Skull.

Book Chapters

Year	Citation
2018	Butterss, P. (2018). Legends of the nineties: Literary culture in Adelaide at the end of the nineteenth century. In C. Collins, & P. Sendziuk (Eds.), Foundational Fictions in South Australian History (pp. 118-132). Mile End; South Australia: Wakefield Press.
2013	Butterss, P. (2013). The all-singing, all-dancing bloke: the after-lives of C.J. Dennis' the songs of a sentimental bloke. In T. Dalziell, & P. Genoni (Eds.), Telling stories: Australian life and literature 1935-2012 (1 ed., pp. 147-153). Australia: Monash University Publishing.
2013	Butterss, P. (2013). 'An entertaining young genius': C.J. Dennis and Adelaide. In P. Butterss (Ed.), Adelaide: a literary city (1 ed., pp. 77-93). Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
2013	Butterss, P. (2013). Adelaide as literary city: introduction. In P. Butterss (Ed.), Adelaide: a literary city (1 ed., pp. 1-17). Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
2013	Butterss, P. (2013). Adelaide as literary city: introduction. In P. Butterss (Ed.), Adelaide: a literary city (1 ed., pp. 1-17). Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
2012	Butterss, P. (2012). English and Creative Writing: 'the abode of... literature; the home of poetry and fiction. In N. Harvey, J. Fornasiero, G. McCarthy, C. Macintyre, & C. Crossin (Eds.), A History of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Adelaide 1876-2012: Celebrating 125 Years of the Faculty of Arts (1 ed., pp. 109-132). Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
2009	Butterss, P. (2009). Introduction. In C. J. Dennis, B. Bennett, & R. Dixon (Eds.), The moods of Ginger Mick (pp. 5-9). Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press. DOI
2009	Butterss, P. (2009). 'Compounded of incompatibles': The songs of a Sentimental Bloke and The moods of Ginger Mick. In F. Groen (Ed.), Serious Frolic: Essays on Australian Humour (1 ed., pp. 16-27). Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press.
2006	Butterss, P. (2006). Performing Australianness in The Adventures of Barry McKenzie. In T. Barnett, N. Bierbaum, S. Harrex, R. Hosking, & G. Tulloch (Eds.), London was full of rooms (pp. 220-224). 54 Currie St, Adelaide SA 5000: Lythrum Press.
2005	Butterss, P. (2005). Ar, if a bloke wus only understood!' C.J. Dennis and The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke. In S. Magarey, & K. Round (Eds.), Living History: Essays on History as Biography (pp. 113-126). Unley, South Australia: Australian Humanities Press.
2004	Butterss, P. (2004). C.J. Dennis, the Songs of a Sentimental Bloke and its film versions. In S. Williams, D. Longeran, R. Hosking, L. Deane, & N. Bierbaum (Eds.), The regenerative spirit - Volume 2 - (Un)settling, (dis)locations, (post-)colonial, (re)presentations - Australian post-colonial reflections (pp. 192-199). 128 Hindley St, Adelaide, SA 5000: Lythrum Press.
2002	Butterss, P. (2002). C.J. Dennis. In Australian writers, 1915-1950 (pp. 81-87). Detroit: Gale Group.
1999	Butterss, P. (1999). What it means to be a man: reading the masculine. In Extensions: essays in English studies from Shakespeare to the Spice Girls, 1999 (pp. 100-110). Wakefield Press.
1999	Butterss, P. (1999). Representation, power and genre in The Piano. In Extensions: essays in English studies from Shakespeare to the Spice Girls, 1999 (pp. 158-171).
1998	Butterss, P. (1998). From Ned Kelly to queens in the desert: masculinity in Australian film. In Social justice: politics, technology and culture for a better world, 1998 (pp. 65-79). Wakefield Press.
1996	Butterss, P. (1996). Introduction. In Poems and recollections of the past, 1996 (Vol. 97, pp. v-xx). Barr Smith Press. DOI
1995	Butterss, P. (1995). Preface. In Southwords: essays on South Australian writing, 1995 (Vol. 54, pp. ix-xvi). Wakefield Press. DOI
1995	Butterss, P. (1995). Fidelia Hill: finding a public voice. In Southwords: essays on South Australian writing, 1995 (pp. 16-26). Wakefield Press.
1993	Butterss, P. R. (1993). Broadside Ballads. In G. Seal, & G. Davey (Eds.), The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore (pp. 48-53). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
1992	Butterss, P. R. (1992). Introduction. In Steele Rudd (Ed.), On Our Selection (pp. v-xiii). Oxford University Press. DOI

Internet Publications

Year	Citation
2015	Butterss, P. R. (2015). 'The Poets War'. National Library of Australia.
2015	Butterss, P. R. (2015). Reinventing the Bloke: 100 years of the ultimate larrikin. National Film and Sound Archive.
2008	Butterss, P. R. (2008). Kindly Satire: C.J. Dennis’s The Glugs of Gosh (1917). Australian Literary Compendium.

Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
2015 - 2018	Co-Supervisor	The Necrophile Self: Contemporary Attitudes Towards Death and Its New Visibility	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Mrs Tamara Tatjana Waraschinski
2014 - 2017	Co-Supervisor	Volume 1 On the Edge Volume 2 Exegesis	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Martin Eddy Knight
2013 - 2014	Co-Supervisor	The Utopian in a Faithless World/ Landfall	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Reginald John Taylor
2013 - 2014	Co-Supervisor	Nick Mount Blow by blow - Reconfiguring biography: A genre in motion	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Denise Kaye George
2013 - 2016	Co-Supervisor	One Sunday in Picardy/ The Olfactory Shift in the Literature of the First World War: The Reawakening of Smell	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mrs Eleanor Ahern
2013 - 2016	Principal Supervisor	The Life and Work of George Isaacs	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Anne Elizabeth Black
2013 - 2016	Co-Supervisor	Representations of Belonging in Asian Australian Writing	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Miss Wan Nur Madiha Ramlan
2013 - 2019	Co-Supervisor	What These Ithacas Mean: The Nostos Motif in Sea Fiction	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Ursula Horlock
2011 - 2014	Principal Supervisor	Ephemeron: Volume 1 Creative works Volume 2 Exegesis	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Emma Carmody
2011 - 2012	Co-Supervisor	The House of Poppy Larkin The Divided Self and the Social Environment Barbara Hanrahans Autobiographical Novels and the House of Poppy Larkin	Master of Arts	Master	Part Time	Mr Robert Ian Horne
2010 - 2013	Principal Supervisor	Creative work: Tunnelling. Exegesis: Blue-Collar Work.	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Dennis John McIntosh
2009 - 2011	Co-Supervisor	Looking in a Broken Mirror: Reflections on the Split Writer and the Visual Artist Character	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Miss Katherine Doube
2008 - 2009	Principal Supervisor	''No Storied Windows, Richly Dight': Locating the Gothic in Four Australian Novels' and 'Twigs from a Hedge in Winter: An Australian Gothic Novel'	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Henry Ashley-Brown
2008 - 2009	Principal Supervisor	'Disquiet' Novella and Screenplay: Adaptation and Creative Hybridity	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Julia Leigh
2007 - 2012	Co-Supervisor	Walking Wounded: Cinematic Representations of Masculine, Post-Modern Anxiety in the Urban Space	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Dr Penelope Eate
2006 - 2011	Principal Supervisor	Postclassical Hollywood/Postmodern Subjectivity - Representation in Some 'Indie/Alternative' Indiewood Films	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Jessica Murrell
2003 - 2009	Co-Supervisor	Frontier Mythology in the American Teen Film	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Rowena Harper
2000 - 2004	Principal Supervisor	'Gods in our own World': Representations of Troubled and Troubling Masculinities in Some Australian Films, 1991-2001	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Mr Shane Crilly
1998 - 2002	Principal Supervisor	BLOKES AND CARS: THE CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITIES IN AUSTRALIAN FILM	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Ms Rebecca Johinke

Email: philip.butterss@adelaide.edu.au