Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis This subject focuses on key episodes in Australian social, political and cultural history by examining the different and competing ways in which the nation's future was imagined and the origins, construction and outcomes of these debates about Australia's `tomorrow'. Using the range of written, verbal and visual sources which record the `inventing' of Australia, the subject examines the ways in which different groups have struggled to imagine and then produce a particular future in various spheres, including political debate and the making of policy, popular culture, social protest, utopian and dystopian representations of the nation and its people, and movements of reform and reaction. Further, the subject examines the imagining of the future in such disciplines as architecture, town planning and eduction, and in advertising, fiction and film. Finally, the subject will reflect upon the origins and meanings of contemporary debates and ideas about Australia's future.
Assessment Document exercise (1000 words), tutorial exercises and commentary (1000 words), long essay (3000 words): 75% + Examination (1 hour): 25%