Contemporary Australian poetry and fiction
J Strauss and H Thomson
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, post-colonialism 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 Two essays (2500 words; 30% each): 60%
* 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
Hospital J T Dislocations UQP
Leonard J (ed.) Contemporary Australian poetry: An anthology Houghton Mifflin Australia
Lucas R and McCredden L (eds) Bridgings: Readings in Australian women's poetry OUP
Malouf D Remembering Babylon
Murray L Collected poems Angus and Robertson
Tranter J and P Mead (eds) The Penguin book of modern Australian poetry Penguin
Wright J Collected poems Angus and Robertson
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