Australian urban fictions
M Ackland and R Gerster
8 points * 2 hours per week * Second semester * Caulfield
This subject examines the representation of urban life in twentieth-century Australian literature. Redirecting Australian cultural debate away from its traditional emphasis on `the bush,' the subject investigates how the fictionalised city has acted as a focus for cultural redefinition and as a catalyst for literary innovation. The selected texts represent a range of modes used to construct the city: popular fiction, social realism, autobiography, social satire, the urban picaresque and the urban dystopia, and recent postmodernist fiction. Specific areas of study include the literary `cartography' of cities in the creation of a spatial and social environment, the use of architectural motifs, the interplay of urban landscape and narrative form, regionalism and expatriation, sociological perspectives and political imperatives in fictionalising the city, and varying responses to inner-urban and suburban environments.
Assessment
Written (3000 words): 50% * Test (1 hour): 25% * Seminar participation/seminar paper (1500 words): 25%
Prescribed texts
Bail Holden's performance Penguin
Corris The empty beach Allen and Unwin
Garner Monkey grip Penguin
Grenville Lilian's story Allen and Unwin
Malouf Johnno Penguin
Stead Seven poor men of Sydney Angus and Robertson
Stone Jonah Angus and Robertson
White The vivisector Penguin
Winton Cloudstreet McPhee Gribble