ASLT2619 - Australian Gothic

Semester 1, 2011  |  Credit Points: 6

Coordinator: Peter John Kirkpatrick
Phone: +61 2 9351 2270
Email: peter.kirkpatrick@sydney.edu.au

Description

From the earliest days of European colonisation, alongside visions of its promise, Australia has also been seen as the worst of all possible worlds, a hellish place of exile where nature seemed uncannily strange or hostile. The 'gothic' has offered a powerful means of representing this dystopian theme. This unit examines the gothic mode in Australian literature and film from the nineteenth century to the present, taking in such issues as 'Weird Melancholy', ghosts, bunyips, badlands and postcolonial (dis)enchantment.

Assessments

1x2000wd essay (40%), 1x2000wd take-home exam (40%), 1x oral presentation and 1x500wd written summary (20%)

Textbooks

Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver (eds), The Anthology of Colonial Australian Gothic Fiction (Melbourne University Press)
Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life (any complete edition)
Elizabeth Jolley, The Well (Penguin)
Kenneth Cook, Wake in Fright (Text Publishing)
Ross Gibson, Seven Versions of an Australian Badland (UQP)
Peter Weir (dir.), Picnic at Hanging Rock
Greg McLean (dir.), Wolf Creek
Resource book of poetry and critical material

Classes

2x1-hr lectures/week, 1x1-hr tutorial/week

Prerequisites

12 junior credit points from Table A

Additional Information

This unit is available as a designated 'Advanced' unit to students enrolled in the BA (Advanced) degree program.

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