Contemporary Australian poetry and fiction
Jennifer Strauss and Helen Thomson
8 or 12 points
* 2 hours per week
* Second semester
*
Clayton
Objectives Students taking this subject should develop the capacity to read a range of contemporary Australian texts in the light of a broad knowledge of contemporary issues in Australian writing and criticism and with particular reference to theories of national identity, postcolonialism and canonicity.
Synopsis 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 fictional 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 (8 points) Assignment/s (2500 words): 40%
* Essay (3500
words): 60%
Assessment (12 points) Two essays (2500 words each): 30% each
*
Essay (4000 words): 40%
Prescribed texts
Astley T Beachmasters Penguin
Astley T It's raining in Mango Penguin
Carey P Oscar and Lucinda Penguin
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
Malouf D Remembering Babylon
Murray L Collected poems Angus and Robertson
Tranter J and Mead P (eds) The Penguin book of modern Australian poetry Penguin
Wright J Collected poems Angus and Robertson
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