Reading and writing Australian history
Graeme Davison
8 points or 12 points
* One 2-hour seminar per week
* First semester
* Clayton
Objectives A student who successfully completes this subject should develop an understanding of the main genres of historical writing, critically examine 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 course 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, 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 course 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 fourth year (8 points) Written (6000 words): 100%
Assessment fourth year (12 points) Written (9000 words): 100%
Assessment fifth year (8 points) Written (6000 words): 100%
Assessment fifth year (12 points) Written (9000 words): 100%
Preliminary reading
Moses J Historical disciplines in Australia Australian Journal of Politics and History, 1995
Works of the authors noted in the synopsis.
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