Carpentaria
Artarmon
:
Giramondo Publishing
,
2006
Z1184902
2006
single work
novel
(taught in 47 units)
Carpentaria's portrait of life in the precariously settled coastal town of Desperance centres on the powerful Phantom family, whose members are the leaders of the Pricklebush people, and their battles with old Joseph Midnight's tearaway Eastend mob on the one hand, and the white officials of Uptown and the neighbouring Gurfurrit mine on the other. Wright's storytelling is operatic and surreal: a blend of myth and scripture, politics and farce. The novel is populated by extraordinary characters - Elias Smith the outcast saviour, the religious zealot Mozzie Fishman, leader of the holy Aboriginal pilgrimage, the murderous mayor Stan Bruiser, the ever-vigilant Captain Nicoli Finn, the activist and prodigal son Will Phantom, and above all, Angel Day the queen of the rubbish-dump, and her sea-faring husband Normal Phantom, the fish-embalming king of time - figures that stand like giants in this storm-swept world. (Backcover)
The Eye of the Storm
London
:
Jonathan Cape
,
1973
Z463974
1973
single work
novel
(taught in 7 units)
"Elizabeth Hunter, an ex-socialite in her eighties, has a mystical experience during a summer storm in Sydney which transforms all her relationships: her existence becomes charged with a meaning which communicates itself to those around her. From this simple scenario Patrick White unfurls a monumental exploration of the tides of love and hate, comedy and tragedy, impotence and and longing that fester within family relationships."
Source: Penguin Books Australia.
The Orchard
Sydney
:
Macmillan
,
1994
Z327201
1994
selected work
short story
(taught in 3 units)
The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry
John Leonard
(editor),
Glebe
:
Puncher and Wattmann
,
2009
Z1674214
2009
anthology
poetry
(taught in 16 units)
The aim of Contemporary Australian Literature is to show how Australia as a nation is imagined through various contemporary works of literature (fiction, poetry, short stories, poetry), particularly from the immediate post-war period until now (1945 onwards). Students will explore the ways in which Australian identities are constituted, changed and challenged by these texts, through a variety of critical perspectives and contexts of reception.
