ENH2155

Fictions of the Australian city

Offered subject to approval

R Gerster

6 points
* 2 hours per week
* Second semester
* Berwick
* Prohibitions: ENH2150 and ENH3150

Objectives Upon completion of this subject students should have gained an understanding of the place of the city in Australian writing and local identity, of differences in urban experience, and of literary innovations aimed at depicting urban challenges and differences.

Synopsis This subject examines the representation of urban life in twentieth-century Australian literature. Redirecting Australian cultural debate away from its traditional emphasis on `the bush', the subject investigates how the fictionalised city has acted as a focus for cultural redefinition and as a catalyst for literary innovation. The selected texts represent a range of modes used to construct the city: popular fiction, social realism, autobiography, social satire, the urban picaresque and the urban dystopia, and recent postmodernist fiction. Specific areas of study include the literary `cartography' of cities in the creation of a spatial and social environment, the use of architectural motifs, the interplay of urban landscape and narrative form, regionalism and expatriation, sociological perspectives and political imperatives in fictionalising the city, and varying responses to inner-urban and suburban environments.

Assessment Written (2500 words): 50%
* Test (1 hour equivalent to 1000 words): 30%
* Seminar participation and presentation (equivalent to 1000 words): 20%

Prescribed texts

Anderson J Tirra Lirra by the River Penguin
Bail M Holden's performance Penguin
Garner H Monkey grip Penguin
Grenville K Lilian's story Allen and Unwin
Malouf D Johnno Penguin
Moloney The brush off Text publishing
Stone L Jonah Angus and Robertson
Winton T Cloudstreet McPhee Gribble