Australian Literature 1988 to Present (ASLT2609)
Semester 1, Summer Semester / 2008

Texts

y separately published work icon The Monkey's Mask Dorothy Porter , South Melbourne : Hyland House , 1994 Z528794 1994 single work novel crime (taught in 31 units)
y separately published work icon Drylands : A Book for the World's Last Reader Thea Astley , Ringwood : Penguin Viking , 1999 Z384386 1999 single work novel (taught in 3 units)

'In the dying town of Drylands, Janet Deakin sells papers to lonely locals. At night, in her flat above the newsagency, she attempts to write a novel for a world in which no one reads—‘full of people, she envisaged, glaring at a screen that glared glassily back.’ Drylands is the story of the townsfolk’s harsh, violent lives. Trenchant and brilliant, Thea Astley’s final novel is a dark portrait of outback Australia in decline.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Text ed.)

y separately published work icon Eucalyptus : A Novel Murray Bail , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 1998 Z279634 1998 single work novel (taught in 8 units)

Holland lived with his only daughter, Ellen, by a khaki river four hours west of Sydney. In spite of their remote location, tales of Ellen's beauty had traveled long distances and in the process inscribed a small legend. But Ellen's desirability was Holland's blindspot and finally he decided that the man who correctly named every eucalypt on his property would win the hand of his daughter. (Source: Trove)

Description

This unit will introduce students to some major Australian texts and writers of the last two decades. While its main focus will be on fiction, poetry and non-fiction, there will also be an emphasis on texts which aim to subvert or question such generic boundaries. Other issues to be discussed will include the rewriting of Australian history from postcolonial and Indigenous perspectives; the representation of gender and sexuality in recent Australian writing; cross-cultural writing and literature in translation.

Other Details

Current Campus: Camperdown/Darlington
Levels: Undergraduate
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