Australian Literature (ENGL205)
Semester 1 / 2016

Texts

y separately published work icon Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature Nicholas Jose (editor), Kerryn Goldsworthy (editor), Anita Heiss (editor), David McCooey (editor), Peter Minter (editor), Nicole Moore (editor), Elizabeth Webby (editor), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2009 Z1590615 2009 anthology correspondence diary drama essay extract poetry prose short story (taught in 23 units)

'Some of the best, most significant writing produced in Australia over more than two centuries is gathered in this landmark anthology. Covering all genres - from fiction, poetry and drama to diaries, letters, essays and speeches - the anthology maps the development of one of the great literatures in English in all its energy and variety.

'The writing reflects the diverse experiences of Australians in their encounter with their extraordinary environment and with themselves. This is literature of struggle, conflict and creative survival. It is literature of lives lived at the extremes, of frontiers between cultures, of new dimensions of experience, where imagination expands.

'This rich, informative and entertaining collection charts the formation of an Australian voice that draws inventively on Indigenous words, migrant speech and slang, with a cheeky, subversive humour always to the fore. For the first time, Aboriginal writings are interleaved with other English-language writings throughout - from Bennelong's 1796 letter to the contemporary flowering of Indigenous fiction and poetry - setting up an exchange that reveals Australian history in stark new ways.

'From vivid settler accounts to haunting gothic tales, from raw protest to feisty urban satire and playful literary experiment, from passionate love poetry to moving memoir, the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature reflects the creative eloquence of a society.

'Chosen by a team of expert editors, who have provided illuminating essays about their selections, and with more than 500 works from over 300 authors, it is an authoritative survey and a rich world of reading to be enjoyed.' (Publisher's blurb)

Allen and Unwin have a YouTube channel with a number of useful videos on the Anthology.

y separately published work icon Jandamarra Steve Hawke , Mona Oscar (translator), Patsy Bedford (translator), Selina Middleton (translator), June Oscar (translator), Danny Marr (translator), Leederville : Prickly Pear Playscripts , 2008 Z1397771 2008 single work drama (taught in 2 units)

'Growing up just as the first pastoralists were cutting a swathe through his native lands, Jandamarra is one of Australia's great tragic heroes. Station child, angry young man, police tracker of his own people and finally inspirational leader of the most successful indigenous resistance against white settlement, his life was lived on the jagged edge of change and uncertainty. This story belongs the the Bunuba people of the Kimberley-but it speaks to everyone. (Source: Publisher)

y separately published work icon Collected Poems : Francis Webb Francis Webb , Toby Davidson (editor), Crawley : UWA Publishing , 2011 Z1706175 2011 collected work poetry (taught in 9 units)

'UWA Publishing welcomes the return of Australia's most gifted and prodigious poet, Francis Webb, whose work has been out of print for thirty years in collected form.

'This collection of Francis Webb's poems is the first edition to incorporate Webb's final changes - previously ignored by editors - to several of his poems written in 1969.

'Webb wrote on varied subjects: the sea, postwar Australian cities, mental illness, colonial histories as well as religious and political figures, including St Francis and Hitler.

'His poems are written in a range of styles, from humorous short verse to epics and radio plays.

'The book is introduced by award-winning poet Toby Davidson and accompanied by 100 pages of notes drawing on the latest scholarship and commentaries.'

Source: UWA media release, February 2011, http://www.uwap.uwa.edu.au/
Sighted: 01/03/2011

Description

This unit explores the key works of Australian literature from the nineteenth century to the present. Students are introduced to major writers through the shorter mediums of short stories, poetry, theatre and non-fiction. The representation of relations between place and culture; the city/bush divide; history; memory and subjectivity; class and social change; gender codes and sexuality; recent challenges to unifying national myths; Indigenous and multicultural writing; and (post)colonial frames form some of the unit's concerns. By the end of the unit, students will be able to identify and discuss major Australian writers across different eras, and their relation to one another, with confidence, potentially leading to further Australian literary studies in ENGL308 or at Masters by Research (MRes) level.

X