AustLit
Texts
-
y
The Boat
Camberwell
:
Hamish Hamilton
,
2008
Z1495449
2008
selected work
short story
(taught in 42 units)
'In the magnificent opening story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice," a young writer is urged by his friends to mine his father's experiences in Vietnam - and what seems at first a satire on turning one's life into literary commerce becomes a transcendent exploration of homeland, and the ties between father and son. "Cartagena" provides a visceral glimpse of life in Colombia as it enters the mind of a fourteen-year-old hit man facing the ultimate test. In "Meeting Elise" an ageing New York painter mourns his body's decline as he prepares to meet his daughter on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut. And with graceful symmetry, the final, title story returns to Vietnam, to a fishing trawler crowded with refugees where a young woman's bond with a mother and her small son forces both women to a shattering decision.' (From the author's website.)
-
form y
Jindabyne
( dir. Ray Lawrence
)
Australia
:
April Films
,
2006
Z1281547
2006
single work
film/TV
thriller
crime
mystery
(taught in 4 units)
'The story of a murder and a marriage. A powerful and original film about the things that haunt us.'
Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 2/8/2013)
-
y
Dead Europe
Milsons Point
:
Vintage Australia
,
2005
Z1186455
2005
single work
novel
(taught in 14 units)
'The novel comprises two separate narratives. The first, told in the style of a fairytale, is set in a traditional Greek peasant village during and after World War II. Its world is still magical. ... The second narrative is set in the present time. The narrator is a 36-year-old gay, Greek-Australian photographic artist named Isaac. We meet Isaac at a time when he has travelled to Greece for what turns out to be a rather dismal officially funded exhibition of his works.'
Source: Manne, Robert. 'Dead Disturbing'. The Monthly. (June, 2005) -
y
Diary of a Bad Year
Melbourne
:
Text Publishing
,
2007
Z1421986
2007
single work
novel
(taught in 10 units)
'J. M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year is about loneliness, friendship and the possibility of love. It takes the reader from Australian democracy to Guantanamo Bay, from the meaning of dishonour to the creative truth of dreams.' (Publisher's blurb)
-
y
Breath
Camberwell
:
Hamish Hamilton
,
2008
Z1457075
2008
single work
novel
(taught in 21 units)
'Breath is a story about the wildness of youth - the lust for excitement and terror, the determination to be extraordinary, the wounds that heal and those that don't - and about learning to live with its passing.'
Source: Publisher's website
-
y
The Secret River
Melbourne
:
Text Publishing
,
2005
Z1194031
2005
single work
novel
historical fiction
(taught in 69 units)
'In 1806 William Thornhill, a man of quick temper and deep feelings, is transported from the slums of London to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and their children he arrives in a harsh land he cannot understand.
'But the colony can turn a convict into a free man. Eight years later Thornhill sails up the Hawkesbury to claim a hundred acres for himself.
'Aboriginal people already live on that river. And other recent arrivals - Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan and Mrs Herring - are finding their own ways to respond to them.
'Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, soon has to make the most difficult choice of his life.
'Inspired by research into her own family history, Kate Grenville vividly creates the reality of settler life, its longings, dangers and dilemmas. The Secret River is a brilliantly written book, a groundbreaking story about identity, belonging and ownership.' (From the publisher's website.)
-
y
When the Rain Stops Falling
2008
Strawberry Hills
:
Currency Press
,
2009
Z1430823
2008
single work
drama
(taught in 8 units)
'It begins with a miracle. On a rainy day in Alice Springs in 2039 a fish falls like manna from heaven to bless the reunion of a father with his long lost son. Perhaps it's a sign that the pattern of betrayal and abandonment that began on another rainy day in London in 1959 will come to an end.
'Who'll stop the rain? Andrew Bovell's award-winning When the Rain Stops Falling is powerful storytelling in which the voices of our past echo into our future.' (Publisher's blurb)
-
y
Contemporary Indigenous Plays
Windmill Baby, Rainbow's End, King Hit, Bitin' Back, Black Medea
Larissa Behrendt
(editor),
Vivienne Cleven
(editor),
Strawberry Hills
:
Currency Press
,
2007
Z1366759
2007
anthology
drama
(taught in 12 units)
'Five plays from around the country which illustrate that the rich tradition of indigenous storytelling is flourishing in contemporary Australian theatre.' (Source: Australianplays.org)
Description
In this course you will examine recent fictional and factual Australian writing that explores the significance of place to our sense of who we are and of belonging to community. The theme of place in the literary imagination evokes many sub-themes such as perceptions of the Australian landscape; the migrant experience in a new land; the tensions of indigenous/settler relations; among others.
Assessment
1 x 2,000w essay, due Monday 19 October35% of total mark
2 x 500w reading log entries20% of total mark
Tutorial group presentation10% of total mark
Participation in class discussion and activities10% of total mark
Supplementary Texts
Week 1: Issues in Contemporary Australian Writing
Ken Gelder. Politics and Monomania. Overland 177 (2004): 48-56.
Malcolm Knox. Stories in the Wrong Tense. Sydney Morning Herald (8 December 2001): 8.
David Marr. The Role of the Writer in John Howards Australia. Colin Simpson Lecture (29 March 2003).
Mark Mordue. Fictions Lost Plot. SMH (25-26 January 2003): 4-5.
Geordie Williamson. Wider world in their sights, Australian (23-24 May 2009): 16-17.
Week 2: Australian Short Stories Now!
Tom Cho. Two Stories. Heat 11 (2006): 7-14.
Delia Falconer. Hadrian in Hell. Heat 6 (2003): 43-51.
Catherine Ford. Jet Lag, The Monthly (October 2005).
Cate Kennedy. Cold Snap (2001). In Dark Roots (2006): 46-57.
Joan London. The New Dark Age (2004). In On the Edge: 30 Modern Australian Short Stories. Ed. Barry Oakley (2005): 70-89.
Alice Pung. Letter to A. The Best Australian Stories 2007. Ed. Robert Drewe (2007): 44-48.
Louise Swinn. The Modern Australian Short Stories Tutor (2008). In New Australian Stories. Ed. Aviva Tuffield (2009): 308-313.
Week 3: Tim Wintons Breath (2008)
Essential reading (Co-op Bookshop):
Tim Winton. Breath (2008).
Week 4: Rewriting the Canon Wesley Enochs Black Medea (2005)
Wesley Enoch. Black Medea (2005). In Contemporary Indigenous Plays. Sydney: Currency, 2007: 55-81.
Euripides. Medea.
Week 5: Literature and History Kate Grenvilles The Secret River (2005)
Kate Grenville. The Secret River (2005).
Inga Clendinnen. Quarterly Essay 23: The History Question: Who Owns the Past? (2006).
Kate Grenville. Searching for the Secret River (2006).
Week 6: Literary Magazines in Australia
1 current edition of an Australian literary magazine of your choice (e.g. Meanjin, Heat, Island, Overland, Voiceworks, ABR, ALR, etc.)
Week 7: Literature and Politics J. M. Coetzees Diary of a Bad Year (2007)
J. M. Coetzee. Diary of a Bad Year (2007).
Week 8: American Story to Australian Film - Jindabyne (2006) d. Ray Lawrence
Raymond Carver. So Much Water So Close to Home (1977). In What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981): 235-240.
Jindabyne. Dir. Ray Lawrence. April Films, 2006.
Week 9: Christos Tsiolkas Dead Europe (2005)
Christos Tsiolkas. Dead Europe (2005).
Week 10: The Personal Essay in Australia
James Bradley. Never Real and Always True. Griffith Review 23 (Autumn 2009): 113-121.
Gabrielle Carey. Mexican Masks Heat 8 (2004): 75-101.
Helen Garner. Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice. In The Feel of Steel (2001): 13-34.
M. J. Hyland. Asylum Elegy. Meanjin (2005): 75-80.
Diary. London Review of Books (6 May 2004).
Francesca Rendle-Short. Illicit Desire. Overland 188 (2007): 19-25.
Gabrielle Carey. Narcissistic navel gazing? I think not. ALR (March 2008): 14, 16.
Drusilla Modjeska. Memoir Australia. In Timepieces (2002): 159-200.
Week 11: Nam Les The Boat (2008)
Nam Le. The Boat (2008).
WEEK 12: Andrew Bovells When the Rain Stops Falling (2009)
When the Rain Stops Falling. MTC (2009).
Andrew Bovell. Speaking in Tongues (1998)
Lantana. Dir. Ray Lawrence. AFFC, Jan Chapman Films and MBP: 2001.
Other Details
Current Campus:
City
Levels:
Undergraduate
Coordinator:
Categories:
Homepage
