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The world is now characterised by unprecedented global mobility and the corresponding hysterical protection of national borders. Australianists have begun to investigate Australia's place in this scene of border crossing and mobility, both in terms of the crossing of Australia's own borders and the transnational identity of Australian writing. On the face of it the 'transnational' character of the Australian population may be supported by its diverse origins, its propensity to travel, and by its government's necessary engagement both with countries in the Asia-Pacific region and those powerful states whose relationship must be carefully balanced. However this paper proposes a different way of approaching this issue, in the concept of the Transnation, which is composed of the everyday movements of national subjects around the structures of the state. The term 'transnation' refers to much more than 'the international', or 'the transnational', which might rather be conceived as a relation between states, a crossing of borders or a cultural or political interplay between national cultures. The transnation is the circulation of populations around the structures of the state. Consequently, literature, the repository of cultural memory, so often misconceived in national terms, may be seen to be the province of the transnation.

The hope for a better life that drives increasing numbers of refugees to seek shelter has corresponded to an increasingly hysterical sealing of national borders around the world. Whatever the world would look like without borders, refugees have been reduced to the condition of homo sacer–bare life–in what Giorgio Agamben calls a state of exception outside the law. This article considers the oxymoronic conditions by which the nation-state produces 'states of exception', not only to record the sinister development of the incarceration of asylum seekers, but also to emphasize the tenacious and innovative nature of the processes and techniques by which subjects inhabit borders of all kinds. Despite the powerful structural effects of the state—particularly its effects on transnational mobility— individual subjects inhabit the borders of nations in ways that demonstrate their political mobility, constituting what I call the 'transnation'. While the transnation—the outside of the state that begins within the nation—may or may not engage in physical travel, it reveals the utopian possibilities offered by the actual proliferation of national subjects. The article considers the function of literature in the transnation, particularly the utopian possibilities it offers to move between the structures of the state.

There can seem very little, on the surface to link Indiaand Australia. This essay argues that it is the reaction to, andtransformations of history that unite these two former colonies. Historyis one of the primary tools of imperial domination because by institutinga record of the past as European it confirms the dominance ofEurocentrism established by the invention of the world map. Whencolonial societies are historicized they are brought into history, broughtinto the discourse of modernity as a function of imperial control—mapped, named, organized, legislated, inscribed. But at the same timethey are kept at History's margins, implanting the joint sense of lossand desire. This essay demonstrates the role of literature in transformingthe record of the past. Excluded from world history, colonies relied onthe role of writers to narrate the story of cultures that had beensubsumed into empire. They do this by allegorizing the movement ofhistory in place. The Great Indian Novel and Oscar and Lucinda offervery different re-conceptions of history based on the culturally disparatefunctions of myth and chance. Though very different, they are unitedin their project to reconceive imperial history and thus establish a storyoutside that history for colonial societies.

Postcolonial ecocriticism has emerged gradually over the last couple of decades as the differences between postcolonialism and environmentalism have been overcome. Those differences have centred on an assumed conflict in the way the two discourses see the world. However, the colonial roots of environmental degradation and the growing postcolonial critique of the effects of imperialism have seen a growing alliance focused in the discipline of postcolonial ecocriticism. Postcolonial critique and environmentalism have found common interest in the role of imperialism and capitalism in the rapidly degrading anthropocene. However critique has not often led to a clear vision of a possible world. This paper suggests a new alliance – between postcolonial critique, environmentalism and utopianism – one that emerges from the postcolonial realisation the no transformation can occur without the hope inspired by a vision of the future. The paper asks what literature can do in an environmental struggle in which colonized peoples environmental struggle in which colonized peoples are among the worst affected. The role of postcolonial literature provides a model for the transformative function of the creative spirit in political resistance. No true resistance can succeed without a vision of change and literature provides the most powerful location of that vision – no transformation can occur unless it is first imagined.

The Twentieth Century was the most violent in history and prepared the way for the conflict with which this century has already been marked. Conflict comes in various forms but ultimately it is about power: a struggle for power or a struggle between the powerful and the powerless. The argument of this paper is that art and literature, far more than the language of politics, have the capacity to speak to power by speaking beyond it. They do this first by transformation. Resistance, as we see from the example of postcolonial literature, is most effective when it is transformative—when it takes the language of power and makes it work in the service of the powerless. But in addition, literature, through its capacity to imagine a different world, has a utopian function that conceives a world beyond conflict. This paper will focus on the phenomenon of utopian possibility, to show the function of art and literature in transforming power and imagining the future.

TAKEOVER BIDS FOR MAJOR SCOTTISH COMPANIES OFTEN PROVOKE EXPRESSIONS OF CONCERN FROM SECTIONS OF THE SCOTTISH COMMUNITY BECAUSE OF FEARS THAT THE LOSS OF DOMESTIC CONTROL MAY PROVE HARMFUL TO THE REGIONAL ECONOMY. THIS PAPER REPORTS THE RESULTS OF RESEARCH TO IDENTIFY THE EFFECTS OF EXTERNAL TAKEOVER ON THE LOCAL LINKAGES AND CORPORATE FUNCTIONS OF THE LARGER SCOTTISH MANUFACTURING COMPANIES ACQUIRED DURING THE PERIOD 1965 TO 1980. THE PAPER EXAMINES FIRST THE RELATIONSHIP IN THEORY BETWEEN EXTERNAL TAKEOVERS AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN INTERNAL COMPANY EFFECTS AND EXTERNAL IMPACTS ON THE WIDER ECONOMY. IT IS SUGGESTED HERE THAT IT IS EFFECT OF ACQUISITION ON LOCAL LINKAGES AND CORPORATE FUNCTIONS THAT LARGELY GOVERNS THE OUTCOME FOR THE WIDER ECONOMY. THE REMAINING SECTIONS DISCUSS THE DATA, METHODS AND RESULTS WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION BEING GIVEN TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE TAKEOVER CHARACTERISTICS MOST ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMOVAL OF LINKAGES AND CORPORATE FUNCTIONS FROM THE SCOTTISH ECONOMY.