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AustLit

Griffith University
QLD

Works Taught at This Institution

form y separately published work icon The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Stephan Elliott , ( dir. Stephan Elliott ) Australia : Latent Image Productions Specific Films , 1994 Z367706 1994 single work film/TV humour satire (taught in 8 units) 'Tick' Belrose, a Sydney drag queen, accepts his ex-wife's invitation to bring his stage show to the outback. Felicia, a younger drag queen, and the grieving Bernadette. They set out for Alice Springs in a second-hand bus that they name 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'. the journey takes them to Broken Hill, Coober Pedy and are rescued by an open-minded mechanic when Priscilla breaks down in the desert. In Alice Springs, Tick meets the young son he barely knows and the three climb Kings Canyon together in full drag, before making their debut at the Alice Springs casino.
form y separately published work icon Alvin Purple Alan Hopgood , ( dir. Tim Burstall ) Melbourne : Hexagon Productions , 1973 Z1508674 1973 single work film/TV humour (taught in 1 units)

Alvin is an average man, except that women find him irresistible. The only woman that Alvin really wants is his platonic friend Tina, but he appears to feel no sexual desire for her. He follows her to a convent, where he gets a job as gardener.

A 'sexist sex comedy', made during the peak of the feminist debate in Australia, Alvin Purple reverses the feminist polemic of men oppressing women by having its protagonist pursued by a constant stream of predatory women. He is victimised even more when he refuses sex. Paul Byrnes (Australian Screen) notes that 'the film was [also] reacting against entrenched puritanical attitudes in Australian society. To some it was prurient farce; to others, it was exposing the repression that produced such prurience.'

Tom O'Regan notes in 'Cinema Oz: The Ocker Films' (1989) that Alvin's 'ordinariness seems irresistible to women. The comedy is based on incongruity. Sex is rendered as slapstick. Jokes are at the expense of bastions of hypocrisy - psychiatry, the press and the law. The would-be recessive hero is the object of male sexual fantasy - sex without responsibility - a fantasy with which women could also apparently identify.'

[Source: Paul Byrnes, Tom O'Regan, and Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper]
y separately published work icon The Amber Amulet Craig Silvey , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2012 Z1891727 2012 single work novella (taught in 1 units) 'Dear Sir/Ma'am, Please find enclosed this AMBER AMULET. That must sound unusual to a citizen, but you will have to trust me on this count because the science is too detailed for me to outline here. All you need to know is that the AMBER AMULET will eliminate your unhappiness by counteracting it with POSITIVE ENERGY. This should see you straight. Fear not, you're in safe hands now.
Take care,
The Masked Avenger

Meet twelve-year-old Liam McKenzie, who patrols his suburban neighbourhood as the Masked Avenger - a superhero with powers so potent not even he can fully comprehend their extent. Along with his sidekick, Richie the Powerbeagle, he protects the people of Franklin Street from chaos, mayhem, evil and low tyre pressure - but can he save them from sadness? This perfect jewel of a book by the award-winning author of the 2009 Book of the Year Jasper Jones will hold all readers in its irresistible power.' (Publisher's blurb)
y separately published work icon Australian Cinema after Mabo Felicity Collins , Therese Davis , Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 2004 Z1207285 2004 single work criticism (taught in 1 units) This book is a study of Australian national cinema in the 1990s. Felicity Collins and Therese Davis explore the role of Australian cinema in reviewing and reproducing the colonial past in relation to the 1992 Mabo decision which overturned the national founding myth of terra nullius and 'changed the meaning of landscape and identity in Australian films'. Source : Australian Cinema After Mabo (2004).
y separately published work icon The Australian Short Story : An Anthology from the 1890s to the 1980s Laurie Hergenhan (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1986 Z380969 1986 anthology short story (taught in 13 units)
form y separately published work icon The Babadook Jennifer Kent , ( dir. Jennifer Kent ) Australia : Causeway Films , 2013 Z1912336 2013 single work film/TV horror (taught in 2 units) A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son's fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.
form y separately published work icon The Bank Robert Connolly , ( dir. Robert Connolly ) Australia : Arenafilm , 2001 Z1853121 2001 single work film/TV crime thriller (taught in 1 units) 'Jim Doyle (David Wenham) is hired by a major bank to perfect his mathematical discovery. He believes he can predict the stock market using chaos theory. His new boss, Simon O'Reilly (Anthony LaPaglia), gives him the biggest computer in the southern hemisphere, and then applies constant pressure. Meanwhile, a nine-year-old boy drowns himself when the bank forecloses on his family's mortgage. Grief-stricken parents Wayne (Steve Rodgers) and Diane Davis (Mandy McElhinney) bring a court action, alleging the bank failed to disclose the risks of their loan. O'Reilly tells his fixers to make the legal problem go away. Doyle's new girlfriend Michelle (Sibylla Budd) wonders if Jim has sold his soul to the devil. He wonders if she is a spy for his boss.

As Doyle perfects his computer model, he warns O'Reilly about the implications: if they can foresee a market crash, they could also act to stop it, benefiting millions. O'Reilly sees only a huge profit potential, a score to make his name. To cement Doyle's loyalty, he asks him to lie before the court, in the Davis case. The bank wins, but Doyle loses Michelle and the respect of his close colleague, Vincent (Greg Stone). Wayne Davis decides to kill the banker who killed his son, just as Doyle unleashes his computer program on the financial markets. O'Reilly discovers too late that Doyle has his own plans for the bank.' (Source: Australian Screen website)
form y separately published work icon Barry McKenzie Holds His Own Barry Humphries , Bruce Beresford , Melbourne : Sun Books , 1974 Z919232 1974 single work film/TV satire (taught in 2 units)

This sequel to the enormously popular film The Adventures of Barry McKenzie begins where the other ended. While Barry McKenzie and his aunt Dame Edna are flying home to Australia from England, two henchmen of Count von Plasma (a Dracula-type ruler of an isolated and unnamed Eastern European state) mistake Dame Edna for the Queen of the United Kingdom. They kidnap her during a brief stopover in Paris, believing that she will draw tourists to their country. Barry and his mates subsequently mount a rescue.

form y separately published work icon Beneath Clouds Ivan Sen , ( dir. Ivan Sen ) Sydney : Autumn Films , 2001 Z1440560 2001 single work film/TV (taught in 12 units) Blue eyed, fair skinned Lena is the daughter of an Aboriginal mother, living in a small country town. She longs for the romantic ideal of her absent father and his Irish heritage. When her home life feels set to implode, she hits the road with little money, a backpack and a photo of her dad. When Lena misses her bus to Sydney, she meets up with Vaughn, an Aboriginal teenager who has run away from a minimum-security prison in the desperate hope of reaching his ill mother. Vaughn is hardened by his anger at the world. Initially the two reluctant travelling companions are suspicious and wary of each other, but their journey, mostly by foot and the odd lift, builds an understanding between them. -- Libraries Australia
y separately published work icon Bliss Peter Carey , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1981 8407782 1981 single work novel (taught in 11 units)

'For thirty-nine years Harry Joy has been the quintessential good guy. But one morning Harry has a heart attack on his suburban front lawn, and, for the space of nine minutes, he becomes a dead guy. And although he is resuscitated, he will never be the same. For, as Peter Carey makes abundantly clear in this darkly funny novel, death is sometimes a necessary prelude to real life.' (From the author's website.)
The Bloody Past, the Wandering Future Janette Turner Hospital , 1987 single work short story (taught in 1 units)
— Appears in: Dislocations 1987; (p. 181-189) Collected Stories 1970-1995 1995; (p. 155-162) Making Connections : Six Australian Short Story Writers 1997; (p. 142-149)
y separately published work icon The Boat Nam Le , Camberwell : Hamish Hamilton , 2008 Z1495449 2008 selected work short story (taught in 42 units)

'In the magnificent opening story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice," a young writer is urged by his friends to mine his father's experiences in Vietnam - and what seems at first a satire on turning one's life into literary commerce becomes a transcendent exploration of homeland, and the ties between father and son. "Cartagena" provides a visceral glimpse of life in Colombia as it enters the mind of a fourteen-year-old hit man facing the ultimate test. In "Meeting Elise" an ageing New York painter mourns his body's decline as he prepares to meet his daughter on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut. And with graceful symmetry, the final, title story returns to Vietnam, to a fishing trawler crowded with refugees where a young woman's bond with a mother and her small son forces both women to a shattering decision.' (From the author's website.)
Bondi Janette Turner Hospital , 1989 single work short story (taught in 1 units)
— Appears in: Southerly , September vol. 49 no. 3 1989; (p. 305-314) Isobars 1990; (p. 68-81) Collected Stories 1970-1995 1995; (p. 234-244) Contemporary Classics 65-95 : The Best Australian Short Fiction 1965-1995 1996; (p. 348-363)
form y separately published work icon Bran Nue Dae Reg Cribb , Rachel Perkins , Jimmy Chi , Jimmy Chi (composer), Kuckles (composer), ( dir. Rachel Perkins ) 2009 Australia : Robyn Kershaw Productions Mayfan , 2009 Z1562265 2009 single work film/TV (taught in 5 units)

Based on the stage musical of the same name by Jimmy Chi and the band Kuckles, Bran Nue Dae is set in 1969 and follows Willie, a young man who struggles to find a balance between the three things that drive his life: his love for his girl Rosie, his respect for his mother, and his religious faith. Willie's uncomplicated life of fishing and hanging out with his mates and his girl in the idyllic world of Broome is turned upside down when his mother returns him to the religious mission for further schooling and entry into the priesthood. After being punished for an act of youthful rebellion, he runs away from the mission on a journey that leads him to meet his 'Uncle Tadpole' and eventually return to Broome. Along the way, Willie and Uncle Tadpole meet a couple of hippies, spend the night in gaol, and meet a gun-toting roadhouse operator, while managing to stay one step ahead of Father Benedictus, who wants to bring Willie back to the mission.

y separately published work icon Breath Tim Winton , Camberwell : Hamish Hamilton , 2008 Z1457075 2008 single work novel (taught in 21 units) 'Breath is a story about the wildness of youth - the lust for excitement and terror, the determination to be extraordinary, the wounds that heal and those that don't - and about learning to live with its passing.'
Source: Publisher's website
form y separately published work icon Buddies John Dingwall , ( dir. Arch Nicholson ) Australia : JD Productions , 1983 7891437 1983 single work film/TV humour adventure (taught in 2 units)

'In the gem fields of central Queensland, knockabout young miners Mike and Johnny (Colin Friels and Harry Hopkins) borrow heavily to take on a claim-jumping newcomer (Dennis Miller) who has money and muscle. Help arrives from an unlikely source – a city doctor (Norman Kaye) and his family, passing though on holiday, and a lonely pilot (Simon Chilvers), who sells them a plane. They band together against the enemy, but Mike and Johnny argue over strategy and the doctor’s adventurous daughter (Lisa Peers).'

Source: Australian Screen.
y separately published work icon Careful, He Might Hear You Sumner Locke Elliott , London : Gollancz , 1963 Z256618 1963 single work novel (taught in 2 units)
— Appears in: Reader's Digest Condensed Books : Volume One, 1964, Winter Selections 1963;

'It’s the Great Depression. Six-year-old PS is an orphan. He lives in Sydney with his Aunt Lila. But all that is about to change. Now his Aunt Vanessa has decided to take proper care of him.

'Careful, He Might Hear You is one of the most extraordinary portraits of childhood in Australian fiction.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)
y separately published work icon The Casuals Sally Breen , Pymble : Fourth Estate , 2011 Z1797418 2011 single work autobiography (taught in 3 units) '"Three things happened at the dawn of the 1990s that would change everything about how we had lived before. We graduated high school, Microsoft shipped Windows 3.0 and America started the Gulf War. We became adults in the 1990s. The start of the world gone mega. Gone global. Gone mad. We became The Casuals and this is our story."

'The Casuals is the story of the life and times of one young woman′s journey through the last two decades of the 20th century; from her pop-fuelled adolescence in the 1980s to a full-blown grunge ride in the 1990s, Sally Breen is the girl your mother warned you about. A charged and heady exploration of sex, drugs and pop culture, it is also a meditation on loss, death and grief as the author struggles to reconcile her place in a chaotic world. Sally Breen gives voice to her generation; those somehow smashed in between all the Xers and Ys -- maybe lost, maybe beat, but most of all casual.' (From the publisher's website.)
form y separately published work icon Chopper Andrew Dominik , ( dir. Andrew Dominik ) Australia : Pariah Films , 2000 Z1361008 2000 single work film/TV crime (taught in 5 units) Based on Mark 'Chopper' Read's autobiography, Chopper is an exploration of the life and complex psyche of a vicious thug who resorts to violence in an instant but can just as easily be filled with remorse. The narrative begins in 1991 with Read in gaol and then shifts back in time to Pentridge Prison in 1978. It was then that Read established his reputation in jail by stabbing Keithy George, a member of the much-feared criminal gang associated with the Victorian Painters and Dockers Union, and also by getting some fellow inmates to cut off his ears (why Read did this is unclear as he provides at two different reasons in his books). 'Chopper' is later stabbed by his best mate, Jimmy Loughnan, who is attempting to fulfil a contract to kill him. When 'Chopper' is eventually freed in 1985, he moves back home to live with his dad but becomes paranoid, not only because of the large quantities of speed he's consuming but also because he's become a police informant. He shoots a drug dealer called 'The Turk' outside a nightclub in St Kilda, but the police refuse to believe him, and later shoots an old drug-dealing associate, only to drive his victim to hospital. He also later threatens his old mate Jimmy Loughnan with a gun, then apologises. Although Read is eventually arrested for the murder of 'The Turk,' he is acquitted but given a five-year sentence for other offences. The narrative then returns to 1991, by which time Read has sold 250,000 copies of his first book, From the Inside, and become a celebrity.
y separately published work icon Collected Stories Peter Carey , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1994 Z389275 1994 selected work short story satire science fiction (taught in 1 units)
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