ECU Web Unit Outline
 
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS AND ARTS
Full Unit Outline - Enrolment Approved Monday, 30 January 2012
Disclaimer
This unit outline may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.
 
UNIT TITLE Australian Fiction
UNIT CODE ENG3165
CREDIT POINTS 15
FULL YEAR UNIT No
MODE OF DELIVERY On-campus

DESCRIPTION

The exploration and settlement of new lands inspire exciting and moving narratives that develop into a national literature, cross-culturally spanning indigenous and settler writing. Students interrogate and research the concept of and generation of ideas in Australian fiction and the striking elements that define it, both from the perspective of the settlers and from the indigenous people. A range of long and short fiction is examined from the nineteenth-century writers who were predominantly Anglo-Celtic through increasing numbers of writers from Europe and indigenous cultures in the twentieth century to twenty-first century writers from a multitude of lands, including the African and Indian continents as well as the Asian region. Students test a range of critical and theoretical approaches in their own cross-cultural and international analyses of Australian fiction, since our students, too, bring to both the reading and writing of Australian fiction the fresh eyes of new generations of indigenes, settlers and migrants.

 
LEARNING OUTCOMES

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  • discuss the changing life experiences, ideas and challenges described and communicated by Australian writers, cross-culturally and internationally, from the nineteenth century through to the twenty-first century;
  • articulate dominant themes in Australian fiction;
  • analyse the notion of a changing national identity as represented in Australian fiction; and
  • identify the features that define Australian fiction as a distinctive national literature.
 
UNIT CONTENT

1. Short and long Australian fiction, including indigenous and cross-cultural, from the nineteenth century through to the twenty-first century.
2. Literary and cross-cultural features of Australian fiction.
3. Concepts of, and the generation of ideas in, a changing national identity.
4. Notion itself of a national literature.

 
TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESSES

Seminars, individual research.

 
GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES

The following graduate attributes will be developed in this unit:
 
• Ability to communicate
• Ability to generate ideas
• Cross-cultural and international outlook
• Critical Appraisal Skills

 
ASSESSMENT
Grading Schema 1
 
Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.
 

Item

On-Campus Assessment

Value

 

Essay

Analysis of selected Australian fiction

40%

Participation

Tutorial presentation and participation

20%

Examination

Examination

40%

 
In order to pass this unit, it is essential to have completed and passed all three assessment items: essay; turorial presentation and participation, as well as the examination.
 
TEXTS
A selection of fiction. For example:
 
Carey, P. (1997). Jack Maggs. St Lucia, QLD: Queensland University Press.
Facey, A. (1981). A fortunate life. Fremantle, WA: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
Johnson, C. (Mudrooroo Narogin). (1975). Wild cat falling. South Yarra, VIC: Hyland House.
Khan, A. (2005). Homecoming. Sydney, NSW: Harper Collins.
Lawson, J. (2000). Selected stories. Sydney, NSW: A&R Classics.
Lazaroo, S. (2006). The travel writer. Sydney, NSW: Pan Macmillan.
Malouf, D. (1994). Remembering Babylon. NSW, Australia: Chatto & Windus.
Franklin, M. (1901). My brilliant career. London, UK: Virago.
Pilkingdon, D. (1996). Follow the rabbit proof fence. St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press.
Scott, K. (2011). The deadman dance, Sydney: Picador.
Whaten, J. (1952). Alien son. Chippendale, NSW; Pan Macmillan.
White, P. (1957). Voss. London, UK: Eyre and Spottiswoode.
 
SIGNIFICANT REFERENCES
Armellino, P., & Melikoglu, K. (2009). Ob-scene spaces in Australian narrative. An account of the socio-topographic construction of space in Australian literature. Germany: ibidem-verlag, Jessica Huaunshild u Christian Schon.
Arnold, J., & Hay, J (Eds.). (1996). Bibliography of Australian literature project. List of Australian writers 1788-1992. Melbourne, VIC; National Centre for Australian Studies. Monash University.
Bennett, B. (2002). Australian short fiction: A history. St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press.
Birns, N., & McNeer, R. (2007). A companion to Australian literature since 1900. Rochestor, NY: Camden House.
Gelder, K. (2009). After the celebration: Australian fiction 1989-2007. Melbourne, VIC: Melbourne University Publishing.
Huggan, G. (2007). Australian literature: Poscolonialism, racism, transnationalism. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univeristy Press.
Kossew, S. (2003). Writing women, writing place: Contemporary Australian and South African fiction. London, UK: Routledge.
Krauth, N. (Ed.). (1982). New Guinea images in Australian literature: Portable Australian authors. Brisbane, QLD: University of Queensland Press.
Lauer, G. (2010). Darkness subverted: aboriginal Gothic in black Australian literature and Film. Gottingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Reid, R, (1979). Fiction and the great depression: Australia and New Zealand, 1930-1950. Melbourne, VIC: Edward Arnold.
Miller, E. M. (1975). Australian literature, from its beginnings to 1935: A descriptive and bibliographical survey of books by Australian authors in poetry, drama, fiction, criticism and anthology, with subsidiary entries to 1938. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press:
Ouvang, Y. (2008). Chinese in Australian fiction: 1888-1988. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.
Pierce, P. (2009). The Cambridge history of Australian literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Russell, R. (1997). Literary links: Celebrating the literary relationship between Australia nd Britain. Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Weaver, R., Palumbo, D. E., & Sullivan, C. W. (2011). Apocalypse in Australian fiction and film: A critical study. Jefferson, North CA: McFarlane and Co Inc.
 
JOURNALS
Australian Book Review
Australian Literary Studies
Kunapipi
Meanjin Quarterly
Quadrant
Southerly
Westerly
 
WEB SITES
http://www.currency.com.au
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/lit.html
www.nla.gov.au/apps/eresources
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozlit/
http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/sgunew/MININT.HTM
 
 
 
Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)
For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes, Graduate Attributes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Student Equity, Diversity and Disability Service website:
http://intranet.ecu.edu.au/student/support/student-equity
 
 


Academic Misconduct


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  • plagiarism;
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  • cheating in examinations;
  • theft of other students’ work.

Additionally, any material submitted for assessment purposes must be work that has not been submitted previously, by any person, for any other unit at ECU or elsewhere.


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ECU Web Unit Outline