Michelle Smith

Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies Michelle.smith@monash.edu

Biography

Michelle is a senior lecturer in literary studies, where she teaches fairy tale and children's literature. One of her primary research areas is Victorian girls’ literature.

articles

Roald Dahl rewrites: Rather than bowdlerising books, we should help children navigate history

Children’s books implicitly shape the minds of young readers – and are covertly censored in many ways. But revising occasional words won’t usually shift the values regarded as outdated in the text.

Politics and society

A prince flies in a carriage propelled by kingfishers in Hume Cook’s Australian Fairytales.

How early Australian fairytales displaced Aboriginal people with mythical creatures

From “Moth” people who kidnapped children, to threatening “Desert Fairies” in loincloths, early Australian fairytales helped sanitise white settlement, expressing colonial fears.

Politics and society

Not so evil: Embracing monsters in storytelling

Instead of consigning female villains to a simplistic caricature of evil, films such as Disney’s ‘Cruella’ are humanising them.

Politics and society

Women's activism gains a golden glow

The 2018 Oscars showed that the movement against sexual harassment has gone beyond symbolic clothing gestures to enact real change.

Politics and society