The Ladies' Paradise, Zola
The Farming of Bones, Danticat
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Winterson
A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James
Ghost River
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
2015
8764472
2015
single work
novel
(taught in 1 units)
''You find yourself down at the bottom of the river, for some it's time to give into her. But other times, young fellas like you two, you got to fight your way back. Show the river you got courage and is ready to live.'
'The river is a place of history and secrets. For Ren and Sonny, two unlikely friends, it's a place of freedom and adventure. For a group of storytelling vagrants, it's a refuge. And for the isolated daughter of a cult reverend, it's an escape.
'Each time they visit, another secret slips into its ancient waters. But change and trouble are coming – to the river and to the lives of those who love it. Who will have the courage to fight and survive and what will be the cost?' (Publication summary)
Steam Pigs
St Lucia
:
University of Queensland Press
,
1997
Z399534
1997
single work
novel
(taught in 5 units)
"I haven't got a 'boyfriend', Mum." "Fine way to be carrying on then, out all Sat'dy night with a strange fella..." "Muuum. " "Don't you marm me, my girl. When I was your age I wasn't out running around with any stray bloke with a flash car and the gift of the gab. "And when I'm your age," thought Sue maliciously, "I won't be ringing up my kids to scab money and make their lives a misery into the bargain."
'Sue Wilson, young and Aboriginal, escapes her "too-large, too-poor family in a too-small" north Queensland town for Logan City's frontier sprawl. Entering "the mythic world of Work" she discovers that the view from behind the bar is less than glamorous, but pays the rent. When she meets Roger the good times begin to roll until she finds herself starring in a feature with medium level violence. Melissa Lucashenko's first novel makes no apologies. With direct and gutsy language, her characters live their lives in the shadows cast by indifferent affluence.'
(Source: UQP website: www.uqp.uq.edu.au)
Working Class Writing describes a vast body of literary and other writings produced around the world over the last 200 years. It is a diverse body which includes writings across a range of forms and genres, represents differences of race, gender and class, and varies tremendously in terms of political purposes and effects. What these writings have in common, however, is their acceptance and celebration of the working class and class difference as important issues for exploration. Students are introduced to a range of texts which exemplify both the diverse and singular aspects of working class writing. Verse, prose fiction, plays, criticism and journalism from Australia and around the world are studied. Students engage with two underlying theoretical issues: the definition of the working class and the question of whether working class writing is written by, about or for the working class. The unit also pays attention to questions of critical perspectives and forms of critical responsibility towards working class people, culture and politics.
