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Unit Summary
Unit type
UG Coursework Unit
Credit points
12
AQF level
Level of learning
Intermediate
Former School/College
Pre-requisites
ENG00400 - Introduction to Written Texts AND WRI10001 - Contemporary Reading and Writing Practices OR ENG00410 - Introduction to Creative Writing
Unit aim
Introduces students to a number of contemporary written texts. Major issues and themes are identified and a number of critical methods are exploited. Particular attention is paid to those issues and themes which can be seen as having special relevance to postcolonial societies. There is an emphasis on Australian writing.
Unit content
Module 1: Critiquing contemporary writing practices
Topic 1 Defining aesthetics: Realism, modernity and postcolonial interventions
Topic 2 Other histories
Topic 3 Beyond postcolonial
Module 2: Writing Australia
Topic 4 Australian literary belongings
Topic 5 Away from the centre: Multicultural Australia
Topic 6 Faking identities: Australia's cultural cringing
Topic 7 Literary dreaming: Indigenous writings
Module 3: Gender, sexuality and difference
Topic 8 Gendered writing
Topic 9 Writing facts: Dealing with fictions
Topic 10 Intertextual pluralities: Queering Virginia Woolf
Module 4: Local realisations: Global implications
Topic 11 Beyond postmodernity
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | GA1 | GA2 | GA3 | GA4 | GA5 | GA6 | GA7 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | identify and discuss some of the major issues and themes in contemporary writing | |||||||
2 | demonstrate familiarity with some of the major innovations in writing styles and genres | |||||||
3 | identify issues and themes of particular relevance to postcolonial societies | |||||||
4 | recognise the value of different critical/theoretical approaches (for example, feminist, postcolonial and poststructuralist) in analysing contemporary writing | |||||||
5 | demonstrate essay writing forms and practices. |
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
-
identify and discuss some of the major issues and themes in contemporary writing
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA3:
-
demonstrate familiarity with some of the major innovations in writing styles and genres
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA3:
-
identify issues and themes of particular relevance to postcolonial societies
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA3:
-
recognise the value of different critical/theoretical approaches (for example, feminist, postcolonial and poststructuralist) in analysing contemporary writing
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA3:
-
demonstrate essay writing forms and practices.
- GA1:
- GA2:
- GA3:
Prescribed texts
- Ashcroft, B, Griffiths, G & Tiffin, H , 1989, The empire writes back, Routledge, London; New York.
- Carey, P, 2004, My life as a fake, Vintage, Milsons Point.
- Cunningham, M, 2003, The hours, Fourth Estate, London.
- Garner, H, 2004, Joe Cinque’s consolation, Picador, Sydney.
- Morrison, T, 1987, Beloved, Picador, London.
- Scott, K , 2010, That deadman dance, Pan Macmillan.
- Smith, Z, 2001, White teeth, Penguin, Middlesex.
- Zable, A , 2002, The fig tree, Text, Melbourne.