Contemporary Australian poetry and fiction
R Gerster and J Strauss
12 points * 2 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton
This subject will examine issues in contemporary Australian writing and criticism. In studying the fiction, emphasis will be placed on ways in which contemporary ideas about fiction modes and genres have been called into play in fiction which scrutinises the construction of Australia's historical past and explores possibilities of relationships to the rest of the world which are not exclusively oriented towards Europe. These issues will also be relevant to the study of the poetry, which will attempt to delineate the major thematic and formal parameters of modern Australian poetry and to see how these are established not only in the work of particular poets but also through the canon-forming and canon-contesting instrumentality of anthologies.
Assessment
Two essays: 2500 words (30%) each * Essay: 4000 words (40%)
Prescribed texts
Astley Beachmasters Penguin
Astley T A kindness cup Penguin
Astley T It's raining in Mango Penguin
Carey P Oscar and Lucinda Penguin
Castro B Birds of passage Allen and Unwin
Gilbert K Inside black Australia: An anthology of Aboriginal poetry Penguin
Hampton S and Llewellyn K (eds) The Penguin book of Australian women poets Penguin
Hospital J T Dislocations UQP
Leonard J (ed.) Contemporary Australian poetry: An anthology Houghton Mifflin Australia
Murray L Collected poems Angus and Robertson
Tranter J and P Mead (eds) The Penguin book of modern Australian poetry Penguin
Watson S The Kadaitcha sung Penguin
Wright J Collected poems Angus and Robertson