Texts

y separately published work icon The Australian Short Story : An Anthology from the 1890s to the 1980s Laurie Hergenhan (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1986 Z380969 1986 anthology short story (taught in 13 units)
y separately published work icon The Great World David Malouf , London : Chatto and Windus , 1990 Z436200 1990 single work novel historical fiction (taught in 3 units)

'Every city, town and village has its memorial to war. Nowhere are these more eloquent than in Australia, generations of whose young men have enlisted to fight other people's battles - from Gallipoli and the Somme to Malaya and Vietnam. In THE GREAT WORLD, his finest novel yet, David Malouf gives a voice to that experience. But THE GREAT WORLD is more than a novel of war. Ranging over seventy years of Australian life, from Sydney's teeming King's Cross to the tranquil backwaters of the Hawkesbury River, it is a remarkable novel of self-knowledge and lost innocence, of survival and witness.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Vintage reprint).

y separately published work icon Prelude to Christopher Eleanor Dark , Sydney : P. R. Stephensen , 1934 Z824226 1934 single work novel (taught in 22 units)

'Should a woman bear a child knowing that there are traces of insanity in her family? Linda Hainlin, niece of a famous biologist, was aware of the danger when she married Dr. Nigel Hendon, a practical idealist, whose creed was normality and the rational ordering of the world. This book tells how, years later, while temporarily deprived of her husband's sane companionship, Linda feels the oncoming of those homicidal impulses which presage madness. On this tragic theme, 'Prelude to Christopher' is written with strong literary art as a narrative of four days of crisis. The story goes back in memory to the happiness of Linda's love for Nigel, and forward in her frightened imagination to a future from which the strongest must flinch. Christopher, the unborn child, dominates terrific events in which he has no living part to play. The prelude to his birth is told with emotional power.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

It's Raining in Mango Thea Astley , 1987 single work short story (taught in 2 units)
— Appears in: It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1987; (p. 161-176) It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album 1989; (p. 187-204) Collected Stories 1997; (p. 256-275) Australian Women's Stories : An Oxford Anthology 1999; (p. 182-199)
For Aboriginal man, Billy Mumbler, life in north Queensland offers a precarious existence, particularly under the watchful eye of the law. Trying to live peacably and protect his family proves almost impossible.

Description

Continue your exploration of Australian writing, this time between 1930 and 1960 in the context of the three great national crises of those years: The Great Depression; The Second World War; and The Cold War. In this unit students read a selection of novels, poetry and short stories by writers including Eleanor Dark, Frank Hardy, Patrick White, Kenneth Slessor, John Manifold and Katharine Susannah Prichard. This unit examines the inter-relations between literary writing and reading, cultural institutions and political movements and ideologies in Australian history from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Assessment

Critical Analysis (35%)

Essay (40%)

Non-Invigilated Exam (25%)

Other Details

Offered externally through Open Universities and Griffith University. Refer to this unit outline for further information: https://www.open.edu.au/courses/arts/griffith-university-australian-literature-and-history-b--lcs32-2012

Current Campus: External
Levels: Undergraduate
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