AJ18083 Contemporary Australian Literature

                           Autumn 2010, Wednesdays 11.40-13.10/ 15-16.30

                             Instructor: Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D.

                     office 3009, ph: 54949 3962, email: mhorakov@phil.muni.cz

                                    Office hours: Mon 15-16.30


Week 1: September 29

Introduction to course policies, assignments and readings

The Poetics of “Australiannes”

selection of poetry on Australian identity, history and landscape


Week 2: October 6

National Identity, History and Place

Kate Grenville, The Secret River (2005).

interview with Kate Grenville

secondary essays:

Paul Carter, “Spatial History” and “Naming Place.”

Richard White, “Inventing Australia.”

James Walter, “Defining Australia.”


Week 3: October 13

Aboriginal Voices: The Stolen Generations

Doris Pilkington, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1996).

Doris Pilkington, “The Stolen Generations: Rites of Passage: Doris Pilkington Interviewed by Anne
Brewster.”

secondary essays:

Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith, “Indigenous Human Rights in Australia: Who Speaks for the Stolen

                Generations?”

Anne Brewster, “Aboriginal Life Writing and Globalisation: Doris Pilkington’s Follow the

Rabbit-Proof Fence.”

Aileen Moreton-Robinson, “Telling It Straight.”

Amanda Nettleback, “Presenting Aboriginal Women’s Life Narratives.”

Mark Sanders, “Miscegenations: Race, Culture, Phantasy.”


Week 4: October 20

Aboriginal Voices: Contemporary Urban Experience

Alf Taylor, “The Last Drop” and “Charlie” from Long Time Now (2001).

Alf Taylor, “’That Child is My Hero’: An Interview with Alf Taylor.”

secondary essays:

Anne Brewster, “Humour and the Defamiliarization of Whiteness in the Short Fiction of Australian
Indigenous

writer Alf Taylor.”


Week 5: October 27

Postcolonial Australia: Resistance and Complicity

screening of The Tracker, all students are required to attend


Week 6: November 3

Postcolonial Australia: Resistance and Complicity

The Tracker, dir. Rolf de Heer (2002)

secondary essays:

Gordon Coleman, “A Man Hunter’s Story: Alex Riley in Retirement.”

Marcia Langton, “Out From the Shadows.”

Fiona Probyn, “An Ethics of Following and the No Road Film: Trackers, Followers and Fanatics”


Week 7: November 10

Australian Myths: Bush and Outback

extracts from Kim Mahood’s Craft for a Dry Lake (2000)

secondary essays:

Roslyn D. Haynes, “Introduction” from Seeking the Centre: The Australian Desert in Literature, Art
and Film

Sue Rowley, “Imagination, Madness and Nation in Australian Bush Mythology.”


Week 8: November 17

national holiday, reading week


Week 9: November 24

Australian Myths: Ned Kelly

Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang (2001)

secondary essays:

Bob Hodge and Vijay Mishra, “The Bushranger Myth.”

Susan K. Martin, “Dead White Male Heroes: True History of the Kelly Gang, and Ned Kelly in
Australian

Fictions.”

Carolyn Bliss, “‘Lies and Silences’: Cultural Masterplots and Existential Authenticity in Peter
Carey’s True

History of the Kelly Gang.”


Week 10: December 1

Gendered Australia: Women and the Bush

“Drover’s Wife” short story cycle (Henry Lawson’s “The Drover’s Wife”, Barbara Bayton’s “The Chosen
Vessel”, Murray Bail’s “The Drover’s Wife”, Barbara Jefferis’ “The Drover’s Wife”, Anne Gambling’s
“The Drover’s De Facto”, Mandy Sayers “The Drover’s Wife”).

secondary essays:

Kay Schaffer, from Women and the Bush: Forces of Desire in the Australian Cultural Tradition


Week 11: December 8

The Other Australia: Chinese-Australian Heritage

Brian Castro, Birds of Passage (1982)

secondary essays:

Wenche Omundsen, “Writing as Migration: Brian Castro, Multiculturalism and the Politics of
Identity.”

recommended:

Ien Ang, “Asians In Australia: A Contradition in Terms?”


Week 12: December 15

The Other Australia: Writing Multiculturalism

Merlinda Bobis, “White Turtle.”

Ania Walwicz, “Wogs” and “New World.”

Beverly Farmer, “Melpo.”

secondary essays:

Sneja Gunew, “Denaturalizing Cultural Nationalisms: Multicultural Readings of ‘Australia’.”



Assignments Guidelines:

Readings and discussion: please come prepared to the class, having read all primary texts; your
assessment will be based, among other things, on how actively you participate in discussions and
how well you can formulate and contribute with your ideas; occasional short in-class quizzes about
primary texts will be part of some classes;

Presentations (10 min max.): each student will choose one of the secondary essays, read it
carefully and present and overview of its main argument(s) and issues raised (5min); students
should lead a discussion, elicit questions, overlaps with the text, be in charge of the class
(5min); NO powerpoint, just YOUR reading of the text;

Final essay: full 6 pages minimum, double-spaced, 12p. Times New Roman, page numbers, heading;
please strictly follow MLA for documenting sources, references and format; work with reliable and
scholarly sources only; plagiarism is unacceptable in any form and will result in automatic failing
the course;



Evaluation:

attendance and contribution to discussions:                               30%

presentation                                                                        30%

final essay                                                                           40%