ENH4370

Contemporary Australian poetry and fiction

J Strauss and H Thomson

12 points
* 2 hours per week
* First 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, questions of identity - national, gender, racial - will be raised, and the ways in which postmodern fiction interrogates the very concept of identity and destabilises existing definitions through a range of stylistic strategies will be explored.

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
Cambell M Not being Miriam Fremantle Arts Centre Press
Gilbert K Inside black Australia: An anthology of Aboriginal poetry Penguin
Hospital J T The last magician 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 An imaginary life Picador
Malouf D Remembering Babylon Vintage
Modjeska D Poppy Penguin
Murray L Collected poems Angus and Robertson
Tranter J and P Mead (eds) The Penguin book of modern Australian poetry Penguin
Watson S The Kadaitcha Song Penguin
Wright J Collected poems Angus and Robertson