AustLit
Writing Bodies
(ENGL3950)
School of the Arts and Media (formerly the School of English, Media and Performing Arts)
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University of New South Wales
Semester 2 /
2009
Texts
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y
A Most Immoral Woman
Pymble
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HarperCollins Australia
,
2009
Z1551989
2009
single work
novel
historical fiction
(taught in 1 units)
'It is 1904. At the age of forty-two, the handsome and influential Australian George Morrison, Peking correspondent for The Times of London, is considered the most eligible Western bachelor in China. But Morrison has yet to meet his match - until one night, where the Great Wall meets the sea, he encounters Mae Perkins, the ravishing and free-spirited daughter of a California millionaire, and a turbulent affair begins.
'War, meanwhile, has broken out between Russia and Japan for domination over northeast China. Morrison's colleague Lionel James has an idea that will revolutionise war correspondence. But the Russians, the Japanese, and even The Times's own editor, it seems, would rather see James hung from the nearest yardarm. James believes that only Morrison can help. Just as Mae seems to be slipping away from him, James's quest propels Morrison into her magnetic orbit once more.
'Inspired by a true story, A Most Immoral Woman is a surprising, witty and erotic tale of sexual and other obsessions set in the "floating world" of Westerners in China and Japan at the turn of the twentieth century. At its heart stands an original and devastatingly honest woman, as seen from the perspective of the extraordinary man who was drawn to love her.'
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Ordinary Affects!$!Kathleen Stewart!$! !$!Duke UP!$!2008
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y
Look Who's Morphing
Artarmon
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Giramondo Publishing
,
2009
Z1580990
2009
selected work
short story
(taught in 6 units)
Look Who's Morphing is a collection of bizarre, funny, often menacing stories in which, along with his extended family, the central character undergoes a series of transformations, shape-shifting through figures drawn from film and television, music clips and video games, porn flicks and comics. He is Godzilla, a Muppet, and Whitney Houston's bodyguard; the Fonz, a robot, a Ford Bronco 4x4 - and, as a climax, a Gulliver-sized cock rock singer, played upon by an adoring troupe of sexy Lilliputians in short skirts and sailor suits and cheerleader outfits. Within these fantasies there is a deep intellectual and emotional engagement, a fundamental questioning of the nature of identity, and the way it constructs itself in a world dominated by the images of popular culture. – From the publisher's website.
Description
Investigates bodies as both the object and subject of writing. Examines filmic, literary and theoretical texts, addressing issues such as the racialisation, gendering and intercorporeality of bodies and the relationship between bodies and technology. The literary texts may include fiction, life writing and experimental genres. The theoretical texts will be drawn from a range of writers which may include Gil, Grosz, Butler, Merleau-Ponty, Frankenberg, Foucault, Lingis, Weiss, Fanon, Benston and Ahmed. Includes a range of creative writing exercises and workshops designed to facilitate students not only thinking about bodies but through and with them.
Assessment
Assessment 1 (15%)
In-class presentation (25%)
Major Assignment (40%)
Supplementary Texts
Some of the key journals for this course are Southerly, Meanjin, Westerly, Australian Literary Studies, Australian Feminist Studies, Australian Book Review, Australian Drama Studies, Feminist Theory,Hecate, Southern Review, Cultural Studies Review, Angelaki, Postcolonial Studies.
Anderson, Nicole and Schlunke, Katrina, Cultural Theory in Everyday Practice, Melbourne: Oxford UP., 2008. See esp. Part 1: Bodies and Embodiment.
Brewster, Anne. "Fictocriticism: Pedagogy and Practice," in Crossing Lines: Formations of Australian Culture, eds. Caroline Guerin, Philip Butters and Amanda Nettelbeck, Adelaide: ASAL, 1996, pp. 89-92.
Brewster, Anne. "Fictocriticism: Undisciplined Writing," in Writing- Teaching, Teaching Writing, eds. Jan Hutchinson and Graham Williams, Sydney: UTS, 1996, pp. 29-32.
Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari, 'November 28, 1947. 'How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without
Organs?’ in A Thousand Plateaux, Minneapolis: Uni of Minnesota Press, 1987.
Foucault, Michel, 'We, 'Other Victorians' in The History of Sexuality, Vol.1. London : Allen Lane, 1979,pp. 1-15.
Gil, José. Metamorphoses of the Body (trans S. Muecke) Minnesota University Press, Theory Out of Bounds Series, No 12, 1998.
Grosz, Elizabeth, 'Inscriptions and body-maps: representations and the corporeal' in T. Threadgold & A. Cranny-Francis, eds, Feminine, Masculine and Representation, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990, pp. 63-74.
Hage, Ghassan. Chapters 2,3 and 6 Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for hope in a shrinking society. Victoria, Australia: Pluto Press, 2003.
Hallward, Peter. Out of this world: Deleuze and the philosophy of Creation, New York: Verso, 2006
Hecker, J F C, The Black Death and The Dancing Mania. London, Cassell, 1888.
Highsmith, Patricia, 'The Snail Watcher,’ in Ladykillers: Crime Stories by Women, London: J M Dent & Sons, 1987. Pp. 94-102.
Kafka, Franz, 'In the Penal Settlement,’ in The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka ed. by N. N. Glatzer, London: Vintage, 1999.
Kerr, Heather and Amanda Nettelbeck, Australian Women Writing Fictocriticism, eds. Heather Kerr and Amanda Nettelbeck, Perth: UWA Press, 1998.
Kerr, Heather, 'Fictocritical Empathy and the Work of Mourning,' Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 9 (1), May 2003, pp.180-200.
Latour, Bruno. 'Reflections on Etienne Souriau’s Les différents modes d'existence’ ts.
Lingis, Alphonso, 'Blessings and Curses,’ in Dangerous Emotions, California UP, 2000.
Lingis, Alphonso, 'A Doctor in Havana’ in Abuses, California UP, 1994.
Michael Taussig, 'The Language of Flowers,’ in Walter Benjamin’s Grave, Chicago, 2006.
Muecke, Stephen. 'Literary Reproduction: On Fictional Modes of Existence.’ ts.Muecke, Stephen.
'Choreomanias: Movements through our Body,' in Performance Research, Volume 8/Issue 4 - December 2003, pp. 6-10. Reprinted in Joe in the Andamans, 2008.
Muecke, Stephen. Ancient & Modern: Time, Culture and Indigenous Philosophy, University of NSW Press, September 2004.
Muecke, Stephen. Joe in the Andamans and Other Fictocritical Stories, Sydney: Local Consumption Publications, 2008 978-0-949793-33-1 2008.
Pollock, Della, 'Introduction: Making History Go,' in Della Pollock, ed., Exceptional Spaces: Essays in Performance & History, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998, pp.1-45.
Sullivan, Nikki, 'Tattooing: the bio-political inscription of bodies and selves,’ in Anderson, 2008
Taylor Julie, Paper Tangos, Duke UP, 2003.
Weiss, Gail, body images: embodiment as intercorporeality, London: Routledge, 1999.
Other Details
Offered in:
2008, 2007, 2006
Current Campus:
Kensington Campus
Levels:
Undergraduate
Categories:
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