Issues and Themes In Contemporary Writing (ENG00401)
Semester 2 / 2009

Texts

y separately published work icon The Fig Tree Arnold Zable , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2002 Z959940 2002 selected work autobiography prose extract travel (taught in 3 units) The Fig Tree is a book of true stories with an extraordinary scope. It is about family, about home about the journeys that reveal to us who we are, and the ways in which contemporary tales reflect ancient myths. Arnold Zable begins with his own family. (Libraries Australia)
y separately published work icon There'll Be New Dreams Philip McLaren , Broome : Magabala Books , 2001 Z901276 2001 single work novel (taught in 1 units) 'A human and pacey novel about marriage, kidnap, courtroom battles, the charm of youth and the tragedy that lurks in a darkened alley. A dynamic work done by one of Australia's most highly regarded Indigenous writers.' Source: Publishers blurb.
White Teeth!$!Smith, Z.!$! !$!!$!
Beloved!$!Morrison, T.!$! !$!!$!
The Hours!$!Cunningham!$! !$!!$!
y separately published work icon Joe Cinque's Consolation Helen Garner , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2004 Z1132428 2004 single work prose (taught in 26 units)

'In October 1997 a clever young law student at ANU made a bizarre plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party at their house. Some of the dinner guests - most of them university students - had heard rumours of the plan. Nobody warned Joe Cinque. He died one Sunday, in his own bed, of a massive dose of rohypnol and heroin. His girlfriend and her best friend were charged with murder. Helen Garner followed the trials in the ACT Supreme Court. Compassionate but unflinching, this is a book about how and why Joe Cinque died. It probes the gap between ethics and the law; examines the helplessness of the courts in the face of what we think of as 'evil'; and explores conscience, culpability, and the battered ideal of duty of care.' (Source: Pan Macmillan website)

Garner takes 'a deliberately subjective and "literary" approach' to her material with an 'emphasis on a sympatheitic authorial persona as the source of the reader's perspective' (Susan Lever 'The Crimes of the Past: Anna Funder's Stasiland and Helen Garner's Joe Cinque's Consolation'. Paper delivered at the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) conference 2006).

y separately published work icon My Life as a Fake Peter Carey , Milsons Point : Random House Australia , 2003 Z1045776 2003 single work novel (taught in 8 units) Sarah Wode-Douglas is an aristocratic woman who has made her living as the editor of the poetry magazine "First Proof", until she impulsively follows a friend to Kuala Lumpur. She meets Christopher Chubb, an enigmatic wreck of a man whose terrible secrets Sarah is compelled to discover and pursue. (Source: Trove)
y separately published work icon The Empire Writes Back : Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures Bill Ashcroft , Gareth Griffiths , Helen Tiffin , Terence Hawkes (editor), London : Routledge , 1989 Z132291 1989 single work criticism (taught in 7 units)

'The experience of colonization and the challenges of the post-colonial world have produced an explosion of new writing in English. This diverse and powerful body of literature has established a specific practice of colonial writing in cultures as diverse as India, Australia, the West Indies, Africa and Canada. This comprehensive study opens debates about the interrelationships of these literatures, investigates the powerful forces acting on language in the post-colonial text and shows how these texts constitute a radical critique of the assumptions underlying Eurocentric notions of literature and language.' (Publication summary) 

Description

Students are introduced to a number of contemporary written texts. Major issues and themes are identified and a number of critical methods are exploited. Particular attention is paid to those issues and themes which can be seen as having special relevance to post-colonial societies. There is an emphasis on Australian writing.

Other Details

Current Campus: Lismore, Tweed / Gold Coast, Distance Education
Levels: Undergraduate
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