Swallow the Air
Dust on Waterglass
2003
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
2006
Z1265164
2003
selected work
short story
(taught in 33 units)
Swallow the Air follows the life of 15-year-old May Gibson, an Aboriginal girl from New South Wales whose mother commits suicide. May and her brother go to live with their aunt, but eventually May travels further afield, first to Redfern's Block in Sydney, then to the Northern Territory, and finally into central New South Wales. She travels to escape, but also in pursuit of a sense of her own history, family, and identity.
Praise
North Sydney
:
Allen and Unwin
,
1992
Z563591
1992
single work
novel
(taught in 16 units)
'Praise is an utterly frank and darkly humorous novel about being young in the Australian of the 1990s. A time when the dole was easier to get than a job, when heroin was better known than ecstasy, and when ambition was the dirtiest of words. A time when, for two hopeless souls, sex and dependence were the only lifelines.' (from back cover)
Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Sylvia Plath. The Bell Jar.
Daniel Clowes. Ghost World [graphic novel].
Alison Bechdel. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.
We will look at questions of gender, subjectivity and the formation of individual identity. How do narratives of youth reinforce or subvert dominant ideas of a ‘normal’ transition from childhood to adulthood? How do different narratives of masculine and feminine development write different ‘scripts’ for the lives of young men and women? We will also examine stories in their historical context, asking how the experience of youth and representations of young people have changed over time. In what ways is today’s ‘Generation Y’ different from previous generations? And how meaningful are generation stereotypes anyway? Finally, we will examine the relationship between consumer culture and youth. Is youth culture just a project marketed to and consumed by young people? If so, how can you construct an authentic personal identity?
Essay (30%)
Essay (40%)
Exam (20%)
Tutorial Participation (10%)
