The Fig Tree
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)
There'll Be New Dreams
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.
Joe Cinque's Consolation
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).
My Life as a Fake
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)
The Empire Writes Back : Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures
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)
