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The course isabout the encounter between the literary imagination and a continent, a hugelydiverse land that is home to some of the oldest surviving Indigenous cultureson the planet, and whose history includes defining and sometimes violentencounters between the old world and the new. In Aboriginal culture, in earlyEuropean encounters, and in later white settlement, we see how the haunting andawe-inspiring landscapes of Australia have shaped and influenced a fascinatingworld of literature.
This courseintroduces you to a varied range of Australian literary works, beginning withIndigenous traditions and including colonial, early twentieth-century andcontemporary writing. The texts for study include works of local and regionalfocus and others that engage with the wider world; some are classic works, someare popular.
The courseoffers a rough guide to some of the traditions and themes of Australianwriting. Our starting point is the country, and each of the four main weeksfocuses on different literary versions of a place, a landscape, or locale.Perspectives on the literary works is from both inside and outside, from withinthe traditions of writing in Australia and from a global view.
There aretales of the deep time of Aboriginal creation in central Australia, of firstcontact between Europeans and the fabled southern continent, of crime andpunishment, of gold-seeking and spiritual quest, of tragedies in the desert, offamilies divided between the southern and northern hemispheres, of expatriatelives. All across a range of songs, fiction, poetry, popular legend andnon-fiction. Throughout the journey of this course we follow the ways writershave adapted their language and narrative to the Australian environment and itshistory.
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Week 1 literature & country
Lesson 1
Lecture 1.1 intro: literature & country (course details)
Lecture 1.2 literature & country (Tim Winton and different coasts)
Lecture 1.3 literature & country (D. H. Lawrence, Kangaroo)
Lesson 2
Lecture 1.4 Central Australia (intro to Hermannsburg & T. G. H. Strehlow)
Lecture 1.5 Central Australia (Songs of Central Australia)
Lecture 1.6 Northern Australia (‘Little Eva at Moonlight Creek’ song cycle)
Lesson 3
Lecture 1.7 Sydney (Farm Cove, Watkin Tench)
Lecture 1.8 Sydney (Barron Field)
Lecture 1.9 Sydney (Charles Harpur)
Week 2 crime & punishment
Lesson 1
Lecture 2.1 intro: crime & punishment (Australia as Hell)
Lecture 2.2 crime & punishment (‘Moreton Bay’)
Lecture 2.3 crime & punishment ('A Convict's Tour to Hell')
Lesson 2
Lecture 2.4 intro: crime & punishment (Port Arthur, Tasmania)
Lecture 2.5 crime & punishment (Marcus Clarke, Fo he Term of His Natural Life)
Lecture 2.6 crime & punishment (Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish)
Lesson 3
Lecture 2.7 crime & punishment (Ned Kelly, 'Jerilderie Letter')
Lecture 2.8 crime & punishment (Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang)
Lecture 2.9 crime & punishment (Peter Temple, The Broken Shore)
Week 3 explorers, frontier & settlement
Lesson 1
Lecture 3.1 intro: explorers, legends, frontier
Lecture 3.2 explorers (Ludwig Leichhardt in literature)
Lecture 3.3 explorers (interlude, discussion)
Lesson 2
Lecture 3.4 explorers (Patrick White, Voss and the literary classic)
Lecture 3.5 explorers (Patrick White, Voss)
Lecture 3.6 explorers (Patrick White, Voss)
Lesson 3
Lecture 3.7 frontier & settlement
Lecture 3.8 frontier & settlement (David Malouf, Remembering abylon)
Lecture 3.9 frontier & settlement (Kim Scott, Tha Deadman Dance)
Week 4 home & away
Lesson 1
Lecture 4.1 intro: home & away (A. D. Hope, ‘Australia’)
Lecture 4.2 home & away (Richardson, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, colonial times)
Lecture 4.3 home & away (Martin Boyd, The Cardboard Crown, Anglo-Australian families)
Lesson 2
Lecture 4.4 home & away (Judith Wright, the Moonbi Range)
Lecture 4.5 home & away (Judith Wright’s New England)
Lecture 4.6 home & away (Judith Wright, pastoralism and ecology)
Lesson 3
Lecture 4.7 home & away (Christina Stead and expatriate life)
Lecture 4.8 home & away (Christina Stead, ‘Sea People,' For Love Alone)
Lecture 4.9 home & away (Christina Stead, ‘Sea People,' For Love Alone)
Week 5
Lesson 1
Lecture 5.1 summary, assignments etc.
Lecture/discussio 5.2 summary-discussion Philip Mead and Claire Jones
Week 6
Assignments due & peer assessed
