Twenty-First Century Literature: Texts and Contexts (ENGL2260)
2009

Texts

Fingersmith!$!Sarah Waters!$!!$!!$!2002
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We Need to Talk about Kevin!$!Lionel Shriver!$!!$!!$!2003
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Nineteen Minutes!$!Jodie Picoult!$!!$!!$!2007
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Saturday!$!Ian McEwan!$!!$!!$!2005
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The Life of Pi!$!Yann Martel!$!!$!!$!2002
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y separately published work icon In My Skin : A Memoir Kate Holden , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2005 Z1206034 2005 single work autobiography (taught in 1 units)

"I watched the glaze of headlights, the windscreens of oncoming cars: a series of trapezoids with the silhouette of a single male driver. One pulled up in front of me; I reached over and opened the door, slid in. The smell of an unfamiliar car. A middle-aged man looking at me. 'Hi', I said. 'How are you?"...

'There was no single moment when someone looked at Kate Holden and said, 'Why don't you have some?' No one made her try heroin. There was only the sense, with her friends setting out on this forbidden adventure, that she would lose something if she didn't. Just once: to know. So this book is the story of a journey. From a loving family home to the streets of St Kilda; from a shy, bookish life to the ambivalent glamour of an inner-city brothel, Kate Holden describes with breathtaking lyricism and poignancy her travels in an unknown world. Contains explicit sexual scenes.' (Source: Vision Australia Information and Library Service)

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime!$!Mark Haddon!$!!$!!$!2003
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Lunar Park!$!Bret Easton Ellis!$!!$!!$!2005
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Running With Scissors!$!Augusten Burroughs!$!!$!!$!2002
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Description

Twenty-first Century Literature: Texts and Contexts examines a selection of prize-winning, acclaimed and/or notorious twenty-first century fictions from Australia, Canada the UK, and the USA. The topic follows the commercial and critical circulation of these novels and explores some of the cultural and institutional contexts that shape contemporary literature: publishing, bookshops and on-line selling, authors as celebrities, literary prizes and festivals, the prevalence of book clubs, the function of contemporary literature in schools and universities, and literary censorship. The topic examines literary theories of genre, authorship and readership.

Assessment

Short Assignment: 20%

Worksheets: 30%

Major Essay: 40%

Tutorial activities: 10%

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate
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