ENGL2064 Texts and Contexts: Contemporary Australian Writing

This course provides a snapshot of recent developments and new directions in Australian writing, and will include fiction, poetry, essays and new modes of writing that blur these generic boundaries. We will examine texts in both literary and historical contexts, examining how contemporary writers have challenged the notion of a shared history and a common language as necessarily underpinning Australian identity. We will study writers whose use of language unsettles standard Australian English, and who seek to tell stories that have been forgotten or marginalised by the dominant versions of the Australian story. In short, the course probes the doubts and fears beneath the “relaxed and comfortable” image that Australians often seek to present about themselves, their language, their culture and their history.

Two 2,000 word essays (100%).

Completion of 2 English courses

Malouf, Remembering Babylon

Gibson, Seven Versions of an Australian Badland