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Poetics of Transgression (ENG4/5POT)
2009

Texts

y separately published work icon Monkey Grip Helen Garner , Melbourne : McPhee Gribble , 1977 Z115661 1977 single work novel (taught in 12 units)

Set in inner suburban 1970s Melbourne, Monkey Grip describes the fluid relationships of a community of friends who are living and loving in new ways. Single parent Nora falls in love with Javo, a heroin addict, and together they try to make sense of their lives and the choices they have made.

y separately published work icon Working Hot : A Novel Mary Fallon , Melbourne : Sybylla Press , 1989 Z928435 1989 single work novel (taught in 1 units)
y separately published work icon Prowler : A Novel Marion Campbell , South Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 1999 Z249107 1999 single work novel (taught in 1 units)
y separately published work icon The Monkey's Mask Dorothy Porter , South Melbourne : Hyland House , 1994 Z528794 1994 single work novel crime (taught in 31 units)

Description

The sexual body has emerged in contemporary western fiction with an explicitness formerly the preserve of illicit or underground texts, a move which has been celebrated by some cultural critics for the liberatory possibilities it is seen to promise. In this unit students will consider the figuring of the sexual body and the desiring subject in Australian women's writings since the 1970s, particularly in terms of the historical and cultural conditions of their production, including the effects of prevailing discourses concerning liberation and transgression. Students will study texts by Helen Garner, Mary Fallon, Dorothy Porter and Marion Campbell among others.

Assessment

one 2,500-word essay 50%

one 2,500-word essay 50%

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate - Honours
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