Representing Contemporary Australia (HEA319)
School of English, Journalism and European Languages - University of Tasmania
Semester 2 / 2012

Texts

y separately published work icon Being Australian : Narratives of National Identity Catriona Elder , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2007 Z1418401 2007 single work criticism (taught in 6 units)

Catriona Elder explores the origins, meanings and effects of the many stories we tell about ourselves, and how they have changed over time. She outlines some of the traditional stories and their role in Australian nationalism, and she shows how concepts of egalitarianism, peaceful settlement and sporting prowess have been used to create a national identity.
(Publisher's blurb)
y separately published work icon Joe Cinque's Consolation Helen Garner , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2004 Z1132428 2004 single work prose (taught in 26 units)

'In October 1997 a clever young law student at ANU made a bizarre plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party at their house. Some of the dinner guests - most of them university students - had heard rumours of the plan. Nobody warned Joe Cinque. He died one Sunday, in his own bed, of a massive dose of rohypnol and heroin. His girlfriend and her best friend were charged with murder. Helen Garner followed the trials in the ACT Supreme Court. Compassionate but unflinching, this is a book about how and why Joe Cinque died. It probes the gap between ethics and the law; examines the helplessness of the courts in the face of what we think of as 'evil'; and explores conscience, culpability, and the battered ideal of duty of care.' (Source: Pan Macmillan website)

Garner takes 'a deliberately subjective and "literary" approach' to her material with an 'emphasis on a sympatheitic authorial persona as the source of the reader's perspective' (Susan Lever 'The Crimes of the Past: Anna Funder's Stasiland and Helen Garner's Joe Cinque's Consolation'. Paper delivered at the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) conference 2006).
y separately published work icon The Narcissist Stephen Carleton , 2007 Fortitude Valley : Playlab , 2007 Z1356453 2007 single work drama satire (taught in 4 units) 'Xavier is a narcissist. He is a jaded, single, urban professional living in New Farm for whom middle age looms, and the prospects of finding a psycho sexually well-adjusted partner are beginning to fade. Enter Bronwyn, an equally committed boozy malcontent and his best friend, who challenges Xavier to a duel - "Six weeks to bag a man! No ifs, no buts, no limits, no boundaries and no rules!" The gloves are off - whoever scores first, wins!' Source: http://www.theprogram.net.au/ (Sighted 15/02/2007).

Description

This unit examines themes, patterns, and controversies in contemporary Australian writing, film, and theatre, and situates these within critical discourses concerning trends in the nation's cultural life. Through a series of modules the unit uses methodologies from both literary and film studies in order to map a complex picture of Australia's contemporary textual cultures.

Assessment

5,500 words or equivalent of internal assessment (100%). Assessment will involve students undertaking a series of approximately four tasks that may include written essays, student presentations, online discussion exercises, creative writing projects and the production of Digital Narratives."

Supplementary Texts

Dispossession Dreams And Diversity: Issues In Contemporary Australian Studies- Carter

Being Australian: Narratives Of National Identity - Elder

After The Celebration - Gelder & Salzman

Cambridge History Of Australian Literature - Pierce (ed)

Other Details

Offered in: 2011, 2010, 2009
Current Campus: Launceston, Distance
Levels: Undergraduate
Coordinator:
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