ENH2690

Gender and authority in Australian literature

M Ackland

8 points - 2 hours per week - First semester - Caulfield and Clayton - Prohibition: WMN2690/WMN3690

Objectives Upon completion of this subject students should have gained an understanding of the development of local letters, the role of gender and race in its formation, and of the changing and controversial place of literature in contemporary society.

Synopsis This subject is concerned with the contribution of literature to forming and interrogating national identity, and with postwar attempts to assimilate the heritage of modernism to Australian experience. Texts range from the colonial period to the present day, from the little known to contemporary prizewinners like Carey and Malouf. They focus on racial issues, seen from white and black perspectives, on gender codes and sexual conflicts, on the distant and recent historical record as a site of contention, and on ferment in the fifties and sixties. They also represent local responses to landscape and changing conventions of realism; literary experimentation and recent challenges to the myth of a caring, harmonious Australian society.

Assessment Seminar presentation (1500 words) and participation: 30% - Essay (2500 words): 40% - Class test (2000 words): 30%

Prescribed texts

Ackland M (ed.) The Penguin book of nineteenth-century Australian literature Penguin
Carey P The tax inspector UQP
Garner H Cosmo cosmolino Penguin
Jolley E The well Penguin
Malouf D Remembering Babylon Picador
Narogin Doctor Wooreddy's prescription for enduring the ending of the world Hyland House
Nowra L The Golden Age Currency
Prichard K Coonardoo Angus and Robertson
Richardson H H The getting of wisdom Penguin
White P The solid Mandala Vintage

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