Australian Fiction (58320)
Semester 2 / 2011

Texts

y separately published work icon The Tree of Man Patrick White , New York (City) : Viking , 1955 Z470597 1955 single work novel (taught in 6 units)

'Stan Parker, with only a horse and a dog for company journeys to a remote patch of land he has inherited in the Australian hills. Once the land is cleared and a rudimentary house built, he brings his wife Amy to the wilderness. Together they face lives of joy and sorrow as they struggle against the environment.' (Publication summary)

y separately published work icon Tirra Lirra by the River Jessica Anderson , South Melbourne : Macmillan , 1978 Z300858 1978 single work novel (taught in 19 units)

'Liza used to say that she saw her past life as a string of roughly-graded balls, and so did Hilda have a linear conception of hers, thinking of it as a track with detours. But for some years now I have likened mine to a globe suspended in my head, and ever since the shocking realisation that waste is irretrievalbe, I have been careful not to let this globe spin to expose the nether side on which my marriage has left its multitude of images.

'Nora Porteous has spent most of her life waiting to escape. Fleeing from her small-town family and then from her stifling marriage to a mean-spirited husband, Nora arrives finally in London where she creates a new life for herself as a successful dressmaker.

'Now in her seventies, Nora returns to Queensland to settle into her childhood home.

'But Nora has been away a long time, and the people and events of her past are not at all like she remembered them. And while some things never change, Nora is about to discover just how selective her 'globe of memory' has been.

'Tirra Lirra by the River is a moving account of one woman's remarkable life, a beautifully written novel which displays the lyrical brevity of Jessica Anderson's award-winning style.' (Publication summary)

y separately published work icon The Summer Exercises Ross Gibson , Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2009 Z1553941 2009 single work novel (taught in 3 units)

'A civilian chaplain records whispered confessions and low urgings into a notebook during his summer tenure at Central Street Police Station. His Summer Exercises are habitual - five times a day - his terseness can generate feelings so sharp that sometimes a great notion gets pared clean with a meagre swatch of syllables.

'Constructing this notebook of a sharp observer, author Ross Gibson builds a world: Sydney in 1946 - sordid and bruised after decades of depredations. A war will take your innards out. In The Summer Exercises, Gibson uses approximately 175 carefully selected black and white photographs from the collection of the Justice & Police Museum taken during the years immediately after World War II.

'These photographs, generated by NSW Police in the course of their investigations between 1945-1960, form a visual reference for richly imagined and experimental storytelling to take place. Anchored in the realities of 1940s Sydney police investigative procedure, the work is an artistic re-invention of history as it happened.' (Publisher's blurb)

Description

This subject combines the in-depth study of Australian literature with the practice of literature. It examines key tropes in Australian fiction over the past 100 years with particular emphasis on 'the city', 'the outback', and 'the road'. It also explores the ways in which indigenousness, diaspora, class and gender have influenced and continue to shape Australia's literary identity.

Subject objectives/outcomes

At the completion of this subject, students are expected to be able to:

a) critically discuss key Australian literary texts

b) analyse the historically changing notions of “national identity” in key Australian literary texts

c) critically discuss key tropes in key Australian literary texts

d) trace the material and historical circumstances informing the production of Australian writing

e) analyse these key tropes and the notion of national identity in relation to their own creative practice

Assessment

Assessment Item 1: Location of an Australian Literature Resource. 500 words 20%; Assessment Item 2: Response to a Key Text. 1,500 words 30%; 58320 Australian Fiction; Assessment Item 3: Major Project. 3,000 words 50%

Supplementary Texts

Carter, Paul, 1987, The Road to Botany Bay, Faber and Faber, London.

Dale, John, (ed), 2008, Car Lovers: Twelve Australian Writers on Four Wheels, ABC Books, Sydney.

Falconer, Delia ,(ed) 2008, The Penguin Book of the Road, Penguin, Camberwell.

Gelder, Ken & Salzman, Paul, 1989, The New Diversity: Australian Fiction 1970-88, McPhee Gribble, Melbourne.

Gelder, Ken & Salzman, Paul, 2009, After the Celebration: Australian Fiction 1989-2007, Melbourne University Press.

Jose, Nicholas (ed), 2009, The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.

Pierce, Peter (ed), 2009, The Cambridge History of Australian Literature, Cambridge University Press, Oakleigh, Vic.

Webby, Elizabeth, (ed), 2000, The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature, Cambridge University Press, Oakleigh, Vic.

Whitlock, Gillian and Carter, David, (eds), 1992, Images of Australia, UQP, St Lucia.

Yuendumu, 2002, Bush Mechanics, Northern Territory, Australian Film Commission and Warlpiri Media Association.

Other Details

Offered in: 2010
Current Campus: City campus
Levels: Undergraduate
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