Major Authors: Depth Study (ASLT3608)
Department of English - University of Sydney
Semester 2 / 2016

Texts

y separately published work icon The First Stone : Some Questions About Sex and Power Helen Garner , Chippendale : Picador , 1995 Z76144 1995 single work prose (taught in 6 units) When two female university students went to the police claiming that they had been indecently assaulted at a party by the head of their co-ed residential college, the shock of the accusations split the community. Helen Garner examines the issues of sex and power which surround this incident in a blend of reportage and personal experience. (Source: Trove)
y separately published work icon This House of Grief Helen Garner , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2014 7674634 2014 single work non-fiction (taught in 3 units)

'Anyone can see the place where the children died. You take the Princes Highway past Geelong, and keep going west in the direction of Colac. Late in August 2006, soon after I had watched a magistrate commit Robert Farquharson to stand trial before a jury on three charges of murder, I headed out that way on a Sunday morning, across the great volcanic plain.

'On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father’s Day, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother, Cindy, when his car left the road and plunged into a dam. The boys, aged ten, seven and two, drowned. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic accident? The court case became Helen Garner’s obsession. She followed it on its protracted course until the final verdict.

'In this utterly compelling book, Helen Garner tells the story of a man and his broken life. She presents the theatre of the courtroom with its actors and audience, all gathered for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth, players in the extraordinary and unpredictable drama of the quest for justice.

'This House of Grief is a heartbreaking and unputdownable book by one of Australia’s most admired writers.' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Monkey Grip Helen Garner , Melbourne : McPhee Gribble , 1977 Z115661 1977 single work novel (taught in 12 units)

Set in inner suburban 1970s Melbourne, Monkey Grip describes the fluid relationships of a community of friends who are living and loving in new ways. Single parent Nora falls in love with Javo, a heroin addict, and together they try to make sense of their lives and the choices they have made.
y separately published work icon The Watch Tower Elizabeth Harrower , London New York (City) Melbourne : Macmillan St. Martin's Press , 1966 Z453697 1966 single work novel (taught in 2 units)

'Breaking their poses like trees snapping branches, the women urgently regarded each other, cleared away all signs of work in an instant, examined their souls for defects, in a sense crossed themselves, and waited.

'After Laura and Clare are abandoned by their mother, Felix is there to help, even to marry Laura if she will have him. Little by little the two sisters grow complicit with his obsessions, his cruelty, his need to control.

'Set in the leafy northern suburbs of Sydney during the 1940s, The Watch Tower is a novel of relentless and acute psychological power.' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon The Catherine Wheel Elizabeth Harrower , London : Cassell , 1960 Z453806 1960 single work novel (taught in 1 units)

'The wind from Siberia as announced by the BBC came down Bayswater Road from the direction of Marble Arch…Searing skin, and petrifying metal and wood, it took possession of London and this early day of the new year. Gently, somehow sympathetically, with a secret sort of throb, my ears ached against it, but rather more drearily and with a sense of injustice my eyes watered as I narrowed them at the steely dark sky and swirling smoke. The centre of the universe! The brilliance of the winter season!

'Twenty-five-year-old Clemency James has moved from Sydney to a chilly bedsit on the other side of the world. During the day she studies for the bar by correspondence; in the evenings she gives French lessons to earn a meagre wage. When she meets Christian, a charismatic would-be actor, she can see he’s trouble—not least because he’s involved with an older woman who has children. She is drawn to him nonetheless: drawn into his world of unpayable debts and wild promises.

'First published in 1960, The Catherine Wheel is Elizabeth Harrower’s third novel and the only one of her books not set in Australia. In it she turns her unflinching gaze on the grim realities of 1950s London, and the madness that can infect couples.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Text ed.).
y separately published work icon The Long Prospect Elizabeth Harrower , London : Cassell , 1958 Z453910 1958 single work novel (taught in 2 units)

'Sharply observed, bitter and humorous, The Long Prospect is a story of life in an Australian industrial town.

'Growing up neglected in a seedy boarding house, twelve-year-old Emily Lawrence befriends Max, a middle-aged scientist who encourages her to pursue her intellectual interests. Innocent Emily will face scandal, suburban snobbery and psychological torment.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)
y separately published work icon Down in the City Elizabeth Harrower , London : Cassell , 1957 Z454013 1957 single work novel (taught in 1 units) An upperclass woman from the southern harbour suburbs of Sydney meets and quickly marries a "self made man who depended for his livelihood on sharp wits" from King's Cross. - from dust jacket flap (Cassell, 1957)

Description

This unit provides students with the opportunity to undertake in-depth study of the life, work, career and reception of one or more major Australian writers, such as Peter Carey, Helen Garner, Christina Stead, Patrick White or Judith Wright. While focusing on close reading of texts that have come to be regarded as outstanding both nationally and internationally, students will also use methodologies will include career biography, reception history, and the analysis of key works of literary criticism and the economy of literary prestige.

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