| TEXTS
Australia:
Thea Astley: It's Raining in Mango
Phyllis Fahrlie Edelson, ed.: Australian Literature: An Anthology
Richard Flanagan: Death of a River Guide
David Malouf: The Great World
Kim Scott: True Country
New
Zealand:
Janet Frame: Owls Do Cry
Patricia Grace: Potiki
Witi Ihimaera: The Whale Rider
Marion McLeod, ed.: New Zealand Short Story Collection
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Discussion
Since much of our time in class will be spent in discussion, you
will all gain from thoughtful and active participation--your own
and that of others. You should come prepared with questions, ideas,
aspects of the reading you wish to talk about. We will work to create
an atmosphere in class that respects everyone's views and allows
each person to feel free to offer his or her ideas. |
Class
Presentations
For your author presentation you will pair up to
make a presentation to the class on one of the authors we are reading;
it should include relevant background, biography, historical and
cultural context, reception at time of publication. These presentations
will be evaluated on the basis of thoroughness, clarity and interest--or,
in other words, information and entertainment.
For
your final project, you will work within one of
the "strands" of the course: indigenous people, cultural
identity, gender issues, natural environment. In all of the readings
you will be paying special attention to the way your issue is dealt
with, to the subtleties and facets of the issue your reading reveals.
By the mid point of the Interim you should have devised a project
relating to fiction and whichever of these issues you are focusing
on.
You might read more by one of the authors we're reading in the course,
and develop a deeper understanding of the way in which that author
addresses, for example, gender issues. You might read and research
one or more Australian and New Zealand authors we are not reading
in this class and show how they illuminate your chosen focus. You
might make comparisons between indigenous Australian and/or New
Zealand authors, or with indigenous American (or other English-language)
novels or writers. You might investigate WWI and/or WWII as a watershed
of cultural identity, show how this is reflected in one or more
works of fiction, possibly comparing Australian and American novels.
You might analyze the geography of New Zealand and demonstrate its
effect on a particular author or authors.
Your
final presentation should be based on research, but can take various
forms: a straight academic presentation; a monologue in the voice
of, say, a 19th century scientist; a persuasive presentation to
a publishing company on an anthology of your design... .
These are general suggestions. You will need to narrow your topic
to manageable proportions;I will be glad to help with this process.
The deadline for proposals to be approved is January 20.
The
end product will be an oral presentation of about 10 minutes, supported
by an annotated bibliography to be handed in. This will constitute
your final exam. |
Reading
responses and discussion questions
In your reading responses you should let us know
what you think of the reading; what comparisons, reflections, observations
it prompts; what questions it raises. It's a plus if you respond
to what other students have written in their reading responses.
(You could propose answers to some of the discussion questions or
react to others' reading response ideas.) These responses can be
informal in tone, but they should still be well written, specific,
and thoughtful.
Discussion
questions, designed to prompt good discussion, should open
up issues and angles that help the class understand what we are
reading and how it relates to the history and culture of Australia
and New Zealand. They should be honest reflections of what you are
thinking; they should not be "teacher questions" or generic
questions that could apply to any piece of writing.
Both
reading responses and discussion questions should be developed on
your own, without recourse to secondary sources.
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