The Slap
Crows Nest
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2008
Z1739894
2008
single work
novel
(taught in 40 units)
'At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own.
'This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event.
'In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The Slap is told from the points of view of eight people who were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires.
'What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children, and the fury and intensity - all the passions and conflicting beliefs - that family can arouse. In its clear-eyed and forensic dissection of the ever-growing middle class and its aspirations and fears, The Slap is also a poignant, provocative novel about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth.' (Publisher's blurb)
Beautiful Waste : Poems by David McComb
Chris Coughran
(editor),
Niall Lucy
(editor),
North Fremantle
:
Fremantle Press
,
2009
Z1644163
2009
selected work
poetry
(taught in 2 units)
'When David McComb died in 1999 at the age of 36, he left behind an extraordinary body of work, notably the songs and albums he recorded with Australian post-punk group The Triffids. The fact that McComb also wrote poetry from an early age - much of it collected here for the first time - will come as no surprise to admirers of the songwriter's powerfully evocative lyrics.
Introduced by fellow Western Australian writer John Kinsella, the poems in this book will delight fans of popular music and contemporary poetry alike. Beautiful Waste illuminates a hitherto neglected aspect of McComb's brilliance.' (Publisher's blurb)
Cloudstreet
Melbourne
:
McPhee Gribble
,
1991
Z204365
1991
single work
novel
(taught in 16 units)
'From separate catastrophes two rural families flee to the city and find themselves sharing a great, breathing, shuddering joint called Cloudstreet, where they begin their lives again from scratch. For twenty years they roister and rankle, laugh and curse until the roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.' (Source: Publisher's website)
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this unit students should be able to:
1. demonstrate knowledge of recent Australian literature;
2. recognise the principal themes in the selected texts and relate them to contemporary Australian culture and society; and
3. identify and engage with contemporary debates in Australian art and culture.
UNIT CONTENT
1. Prose fiction as a literary genre: experiments with style and form; representation of class, gender, region, generation or race.
2. Non-fiction: essays; ficto-criticism; life stories.
3. Poetry: regionalism; experiments in form and direction; satire.
4. Drama: trends in Australian theatre.
20%
Case study and presentation
40%
Research essay
40%
Bartlett, A. (Ed.). (1998). Jamming the machinery: Contemporary Australian women’s writing. Association for the study of Australian Literature
Ben-Messahel, S. (2006). Mind the country: Tim Winton's fiction. Perth: UWA Press.
Dalziell, R. (1999). Shameful autobiographies: Shame in contemporary Australian autobiographies and culture. Carlton South: Melbourne University Press.
Davis, M. (1999). Gangland: Cultural elites and the new generationalism. 2nd ed. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin.
Grossman, M. (Ed.). (2003). Blacklines: Contemporary critical writing by indigenous Australians. Carlton: Melbourne University Press.
McCann, A. (Ed.). (1998). Writing the everyday: Australian literature and the limits of suburbia. St. Lucia: Australian Literary Studies/University of Queensland Press.
McDonell, J. & Deves, M. (Eds.). (1997). Land and identity. Association for the study of Australian Literature.
MacPhee, H. (Ed.) (1999). Tim Winton: A celebration. Canberra: National Library of Australia.
Pritchard Hughes, K. (Ed.). (1997). Contemporary Australian feminism 2. South Melbourne: Longman.
Rossiter, R. & Jacobs, L. (Eds.) (1993). Reading Tim Winton. Pymble: Angus and Robertson.
The following journals are recommended as sources of articles and creative works relevant to this unit.
APAIS.
Australasian Drama Studies
Australian Book Review.
Australian Literary Studies.
Heat.
Meanjin Quarterly.
Overland.
Quadrant.
Southerly.
The monthly.
Weekend Australian Review.
Westerly.
