English outreach
Peter Otto in China
In September 2007, Professor Peter Otto was distinguished visiting scholar at Renmin University (Beijing, China), where he gave four public lectures: "Virtual Realities in romanticism and the contemporary world"; "The panorama: an early example of virtual reality?"; "Fantasies, Fictions and Simulacra"; "Books and Hypertexts in Romanticism and Postmodernism". These lectures drew on research conducted for Peter's ARC-funded research project, "Multiplying Worlds: Romanticism, modernity and the emergence of virtual reality". While in China, Peter acted as a resource for postgraduate students from the School of languages and from the Renmin Australian Centre, discussing a wide range of topics from virtual reality, hypertext, romanticism and Australian culture to Peter Carey, David Malouf, Patrick White and Marcus Clarke. This is hopefully the beginning of an ongoing relation between Renmin University and literary studies at Melbourne University.
