AustLit
Texts
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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.)
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y
Tales from Outer Suburbia
Shaun Tan
(illustrator),
Crows Nest
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2008
Z1450931
2008
selected work
single work
short story
art work
young adult
(taught in 13 units)
'do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street?
or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass?
do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?
Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.'
Source: Back cover.
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y
Hoi Polloi
Melbourne
:
Black Inc.
,
2005
Z1214808
2005
single work
autobiography
(taught in 4 units)
'The hilariously compelling memoir that was hailed as an instant classic.
'Hoi Polloi recounts a childhood spent on racetracks and in bars, as the author’s parents struggle to climb the social ladder. It begins in 1968 in the small town of Heritage, New Zealand. Living above the bar of his family’s hotel, the young Craig is exposed to violence, drinking and murky racial politics. His parents, whom Sherborne thinks of as “Winks” and “Heels” in his eccentric personal language, decide to sell the hotel and move to Sydney, Australia – which they imagine as New Zealand’s “England”, a place of boundless wealth, prestige and social opportunities.
'Once in Sydney, the family begins a love affair with the racing scene. Written with extraordinary sympathy and verve, Hoi Polloi is the portrait of an extraordinary childhood – brutal, poignant and unforgettable.' (Publication summary)
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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)
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The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts!$!Kundera, Milan!$!New York!$!HarperCollins!$!2007
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Wild Strawberries [film]!$!!$!, 1957!$!!$!
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Vertigo!$!Sebald, W.G.!$!London!$!Harvill!$!1999
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Sea Change!$!Graham, Jorie!$!New York!$!Farrar Strauss and Giroux!$!2008
Description
This subject addresses the theoretical and practical aspects of critical writing in the key creative and professional genres: literary journalism, essay writing, reviewing (particularly book reviewing) and literary criticism. Students are introduced to examples of critical writing in magazines and journals as well as in the major newspapers, and are encouraged to engage with the nature of informed critical reading in relation to contemporary writing. The subject aims to increase understanding of how appropriate critical writing responds to significant literary issues, and how it may usefully contribute to debate over these issues. This subject includes examination of significant literary or cultural topics, focusing on specific texts or authors and the writing of a profile, essay or review article demonstrating an understanding of and engagement with the institutional, publishing and media context in which critical writing is produced.
Subject objectives/outcomes
At the end of this subject students will be able to:
1. appreciate the requirements of critical writing for different contexts
2. compose book and/or film reviews for a variety of publications
3. produce a longer piece of professional critical writing on a subject of their own choice
4. understand and apply research skills to professional critical writing
5. apply constructive criticism to their own work and that of their peers
6. prepare and present their work in accordance with industry standards and expectations.
Assessment
Assessment item 1: Assessment Portfolio Stage 1
Objective(s):a, b, d, e
Weighting:35%
Task:To select a task or tasks from the overall assessment requirements and submit approx 1500-1800 words of work in progress.
Assessment criteria:Demonstrated ability to:
Write clearly, fluently and persuasively
Engage and maintain the reader's attention
Write to different publication standards (eg: newspaper, academic journal) using expression, language etc suitable for the context
Express opinions and/or reveal characteristics about the topic/subject new to the reader (ie find an original angle on the chosen topic)
Be flexible in conception and approach to the topic/subject
Adhere to required word lengths.
Assessment item 2: Assessment Portfolio Stage 2
Objective(s):a, b, c, d, e, f
Weighting:65%
Task:To submit a portfolio of work totalling approx 5000 words, containing one longer piece as outlined above and based upon class workshopping and discussion with the lecturer. This will include work already submitted as work-in-progress (and revised) for Assessment item 1.
Assessment criteria:Demonstrated ability to:
Write clearly, fluently and persuasively
Engage and maintain the reader's attention
Write to different publication standards (eg: newspaper, academic journal) using expression, language etc suitable for the context
Express opinions and/or reveal characteristics about the topic/subject new to the reader (ie find an original angle on the chosen topic)
Be flexible in conception and approach to the topic/subject
Adhere to required word lengths.
Supplementary Texts
* ed. Becket, Fiona and Gifford, Terry, Culture, creativity and environment: new environmentalist criticism, Amsterdam and New York, Rodopi, 2007.
* Bennie, Angela (ed & intro). 2006, Crme de la Phlegm, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne
* Cixous, Hlne, Stigmata:Escaping Texts,London and New York, Routledge Classics, 2005
* Curthoys, Anne & Docker, J. 2006, Is History Fiction?, UNSW Press, Sydney
* Fletcher, Angus, A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination, Cambridge Mass. and London, England, Harvard university Press, 2004
* Garrard, Greg, Ecocriticsm, London ; New York, Routledge, 2004.
* Harrison, Martin. Who Wants to Create Australia?, Halstead, Sydney, 2004
* Hoy, David Couzens, Critical Resistance : From Poststructuralism to Post-critique, Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2004.
* Jameson, Fredric, The Modernist Papers, London, Verso, 2007
* ed Knellwolf, Christa and Norris, Christopher, The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Twentieth-Century Historical, Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives (Vol 9), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007
* Macintyre, Stuart & Clark, A. 2003, The History Wars, MUP, Melbourne
* Righter, William, The Myth of Theory, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009
* Saluszinsky, Imre, Oxford Book of Australian Essays, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1997
* Salusinszky, Imre, Criticism in Society : Interviews with Jacques Derrida, Northrop Frye, Harold Bloom, Geoffrey Hartman, Frank Kermode, Edward Said, Barbara Johnson, Frank Lentricchia, and J. Hillis Miller, New York : Methuen ; Routledge, 2003
* Sebald, W. G., On the Natural History of Destruction, New York, Random House, 2003
* ed Simons, Jon, Contemporary Critical Theorists : from Lacan to Said, Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, c2004.
Publications for research/reference
* Australian Book Review (published monthly)
* Quarterly Essay: www.quarterlyessay.com
* Griffith Review (published quarterly)
* Meanjin (published quarterly)
* Southerly (published quarterly)
* Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum (published weekly)
* Weekend Australian Review (published weekly).
* Australian Literary Review (first Wednesday each month in The Australian)
* The Book Show (ABC Radio National)
* London Review of Books
* Times Literary Supplement
* New York Review of Books
* The New Yorker
Other Details
Offered in:
2009
Levels:
Undergraduate
Categories:
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