KRS2050

Australian Aboriginal literature

Proposed to be offered next in 1999

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisites: Full first year with one of ABS1, ABS2, GSC1808, ENH1010, ENH1011, ENH1012, ENH2060, ENH2620, ENH2970, KRS2010

Objectives On completion of this subject students should have acquired an understanding of Aboriginal literature as a confirmation of identity and history; gained greater consciousness of Aboriginal literature from a non-Aboriginal reader/audience perspective; developed analytical skills appropriate to an understanding of Aboriginal literature; and understood the uniqueness and diversity of interpretation of the past and present on Aboriginal literature.

Synopsis A study of Australian Aboriginal literature; its content, forms, language, motifs, characters, dictum, aims and objectives; its political and social aspects; critical approaches to its emotional vs rational aspects; its examination in the framework of Aristotelian, Freudian, modern, modernist, phenomenological, structural, deconstructive and models of dialectical criticism. The subject will attempt to provide comparisons and contrasts with writers of ethnic and minority communities to assess the quality of Aboriginal writing in a wider perspective.

Assessment Tutorial paper and written summary (1000 words): 10%
* Assignment (3000 words): 40%
* Examination (2 hours): 40%
* Attendance and participation: 10%

Prescribed texts

David and Hodge Aboriginal writing today AIAS, 1985
Glass and Weller (eds) Us fellas: An anthology of Aboriginal writing Art Book Publications, 1987
Healy J J Literature and the Aborigine in Australia UQP, 1989
Narogin M Writing from the fringe Hyland House, 1990