HSY4930

Reading and writing Australian history

Mark Peel

8 points - One 2-hour seminar per week - First semester - Clayton

Objectives A student who successfully completes this subject should have developed an understanding of the main genres of historical writing; critically examined the work of selected Australian historians; and extended their repertoire of historical writing skills.

Synopsis Reading and writing history are inseparable activities; what we read, and how we read it, influence how we write. By reading the work of prominent Australian historians and participating in a series of practical writing exercises, this subject aims to develop craftsmanship in historical prose. The writers to be studied include Manning Clark, Robert Hughes, Paul Carter, Geoffrey Blainey, Henry Reynolds, Margaret Kiddle, Janet McCalman, John Hirst, Peter Cochrane, Ken Inglis, Alan Atkinson, Marilyn Lake, Brian Matthews and selected historical novelists. Some attention will also be given to some non-Australian historians and literary theorists, although the primary orientation of the subject is practical and confessional rather than theoretical. Among the practical issues to be discussed are setting the writer in context, story-telling, description, explanation, beginnings and endings, transitions, scene-setting, characterisation, placing oneself in the text, addressing different readerships, documentation and the onus of proof, irony and the use of different voices and tropes, formal and colloquial prose.

Assessment Written (total 4000 words): 60% - Take-home examination (2000 words): 40%

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