CLS2070

Popular fiction and popular culture

Andrew Milner

8 points
* 2 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton

Objectives On completion of this subject students should have the skills to discuss and analyse popular fiction critically, using contemporary methodologies; be able to explain the relations between our culture and the fictions which circulate in it; be able to write effectively and articulately on these issues; and have developed their personal and cultural reflexivity as they observe and interpret contemporary cultural forms and productions.

Synopsis The subject will investigate popular fiction in contemporary culture. What fiction is widely read and seen in our society? How is it consumed? What functions do popular texts serve? In what ways do gender and ideology intersect with the genres and structures of popular narratives in books and films? How are national myths (re) produced in fictional narratives? What are the interactions between written fictional narratives and narratives in other media? How are the stories by which people live affected by the myths and narratives circulated in our society?

Assessment Seminar paper (1500 words): 20%
* Essay (2500 words): 50%
* Examination (2 hours): 30%

Prescribed text

Ashley B (ed.) Reading popular narrative: A source book Leicester U P, 1997

Recommended texts

Alomes S and den Hartog D (eds) Post pop: Popular culture, nationalism and postmodernism FIT Cultural Studies Unit, 1991
Bennett T (ed.) Popular fiction: Technology, ideology, production, reading Routledge, 1990
Guldberg H Books - who reads them? A study of borrowing and buying in Australia Australia Council, 1990
Knight S Form and ideology in crime fiction Macmillan, 1980
MacCabe C (ed.)High theory/low culture Manchester U P, 1986
Moretti F Signs taken for wonders: Essays in the sociology of literary forms Verso, 1983
Palmer J Potboilers Routledge, 1991
Radway J Reading the romance verso 1984
Turner G National fictions: Literature, film and the construction of Australian narrative Allen and Unwin, 1986
Williams R Culture Fontana, 1981