True History of the Kelly Gang
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
2000
Z668312
2000
single work
novel
historical fiction
(taught in 29 units)
'"I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false."
'In TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semi-literate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.' (From the publisher's website.)
Big Brother (Shriver)
Fight Club
Saturday
The Trick is to Keep Breathing
We Need New Names
This unit focuses on a range of novels in English from North America, Australia and Britain in the period from the 1970s to the present. It aims to equip students with the background and literary critical skills to enable them to explore questions of history, time and memory raised by these works. We will discuss questions of literary form, such as the way in which different kinds of texts experiment with narrative, and the way they negotiate the relationship between past and present. The unit also provides opportunities for students to examine broader philosphical, ethical and historical issues.
