AustLit
Texts
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Popular Fiction!$!Gelder, K.!$!London!$!Routledge!$!2005s
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Fellowship of the Ring!$!Tolkien, J. R.!$!Sydney!$!Harper Collins!$!2005s
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Dune!$!Herbert, F H.!$!!$!VictorGollancz!$!2000s
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The Handbook of Creative Writing!$!Earnshaw, S. (Ed.)!$!Edinburgh!$!EUP!$!2007s
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Farewell My Lovely!$!Chandler, R.!$!London!$!Penguin!$!1949s
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The Da Vinci Code!$!Brown, D.!$!London!$!Corgi!$!2004s
Description
This subject provides a theoretical understanding of, and practice in, the writing of three popular genres: Crime/Adventure, Romance, and Science Fiction/Fantasy. It offers students the opportunity to work in a specific genre while simultaneously exploring the wider codes, conventions, structures and possibilities of writing popular fiction. It examines the historical and contemporary importance of popular fiction as a literary form and ways in which generic forms may be used or subverted. Several key popular fiction texts are examined with critical reflection on linear narrative and the concept and construction of plot.
Subject objectives/outcomes
At the end of this subject students will be able to:
Bring focused critical skills to bear on their work and other's popular fiction narratives.
Develop original narrative ideas in one of three selected fictional genres.
Demonstrate a capacity for critical analysis of popular fiction.
Produce an extended piece of popular fiction which conforms to what is generally expected of a popular fiction genre.
This subject aims to develop student's awareness of the codes and conventions of popular fiction genres with particular emphasis on Crime/Adventure, Romance and Science Fiction/Fantasy. It combines critical analysis of structure and form with practical writing exercises and the discussion and examination of a range of exemplary texts
Assessment
Assessment item 1: Minor assignments
Objective(s):a, b, c
Weighting:40%
Length:2 x 700 word exercises
Task:To write several short generic pieces and workshop them in class
Assessment criteria:
Capacity to utilise critical skills in the completion of two short narrative pieces in the relevant genre
Demonstrated ability to complete narrative pieces in an appropriate genre
Originality of ideas
Inventiveness and accomplishment of writing style.
Assessment item 2: Major assignment
Objective(s):a, b, c, d
Weighting:60%
Length:5000 word narrative
Task:To write an extended narrative in one of the three genres of popular fiction studied. These will be workshopped in class and the work re-drafted before submission.
Assessment criteria:
Capacity to utilise critical skills in the completion of an extended narrative piece in the appropriate genre
Originality of idea
Inventiveness and accomplishment of writing style
Dramatic and suspenseful structuring of work
Supplementary Texts
Jean Bedford, Writing Genre, 2002, The Writer's Reader; a guide to writing fiction & poetry, Brenda Walker (ed), Halstead Press Sydney.
Cawelti, J.G. 1976, Adventure, Mystery and Romance, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Curthoys, C & Docker, J. 1990, Popular Romance in the Postmodern Age, Continuum: the Australian Journal Of Media & Culture, vol 4, no. 1, pp. 60-69.
Day, M. 1996, How to Write Crime, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
Dixon, J. 1998, The Romance Fiction of Mills & Boon 1909 - 90's, Routledge, UK.
Hall, O. 2001, How Fiction Works, Story Press, Ohio.
Other Details
Levels:
Undergraduate
