Writing Colonial Culture In Australia (ENGL308)
Department of English - Macquarie University
Semester 2 / 2010

Texts

y separately published work icon Robbery Under Arms Alfred Dampier , Garnet Walch , 1890 Paddington St Lucia : Currency Press Australasian Drama Studies , 1985 Z549990 1890 single work drama (taught in 3 units)
y separately published work icon A Woman's Friendship Ada Cambridge , 1889 single work novel satire (taught in 1 units) 'The grand Melbourne Exhibition of 1888 is a most agreeable place for Margaret Clive, a journalist’s wife, and Patty Kinnaird, married to a squatter, to pursue their ‘purely intellectual friendship’ with handsome, widowed and wealthy Seaton Macdonald ... The triangular relationship changes, however, when the women are house guests at Yattock, Macdonald’s magnificent country property - and unadmitted attractions begin to surface.

'In this gentle satire of class and sexuality, Ada Cambridge opens a window on Melbourne society of the 1880s and illuminates some important issues of the day - reform of dress and diet, the ‘marriage question’, socialism and women’s suffrage.' (Publication summary)
 
y separately published work icon My Brilliant Career [and] My Career Goes Bung Miles Franklin , North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1990 Z407359 1990 selected work novel (taught in 7 units)
y separately published work icon His Natural Life For the Term of His Natural Life Marcus Clarke , 1870-1872 Z1032375 1870-1872 single work novel (taught in 15 units)

'Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against his wrongful imprisonment. Elements of romance, incidents of family life and passages of scenic description both relieve and give emphasis to the tragedy that forms its heart.' (Publication summary : Penguin Books 2009)
y separately published work icon My Brilliant Career Miles Franklin , Edinburgh London : William Blackwood , 1901 Z161522 1901 single work novel (taught in 56 units)

'My Brilliant Career was written by Stella Franklin (1879-1954) when she was just nineteen years old. The novel struggled to find an Australian publisher, but was published in London and Edinburgh in 1901 after receiving an endorsement from Henry Lawson. Although Franklin wrote under the pseudonym 'Miles Franklin', Lawson’s preface makes it clear that Franklin is, as Lawson puts it 'a girl.'

'The novel relates the story of Sybylla Melvyn, a strong-willed young woman of the 1890s growing up in the Goulburn area of New South Wales and longing to be a writer.' (Publication summary)

Degrees

Bachelor of Arts

Description

This unit explores questions about how literature functions as the social memory of a nation. How does it register the making of place and identity in a newly encountered world? How was the conflicted terrain and violence of the colonial enterprise negotiated textually? How does literature conjure the enduring myths of Australian identity? The unit makes accessible much of the fascinating but little known writing of 19th century Australia. It looks closely at a range of different kinds of writing from the beginning of European settlement through to Federation, including work by colonial officers, convict men and women, bush poets, women suffragists, Aboriginal petitioners and popular playwrights as well as contemporary rewritings.

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate
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