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AustLit

Body Language (ENGL 2061)
Semester 2 / 2010

Texts

y separately published work icon The Slap Christos Tsiolkas , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2008 Z1739894 2008 single work novel (taught in 40 units)

'At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own.

'This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event.

'In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The Slap is told from the points of view of eight people who were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires.

'What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children, and the fury and intensity - all the passions and conflicting beliefs - that family can arouse. In its clear-eyed and forensic dissection of the ever-growing middle class and its aspirations and fears, The Slap is also a poignant, provocative novel about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth.' (Publisher's blurb)

They Who do not Grieve!$!Sia Figiel!$! !$!!$!
Trumpet!$!Jackie Kay!$! !$!!$!

Description

The broad aim of this course is to look at texts and topics that raise issues around embodiment and identity using contemporary theories and methodologies from literary and cultural studies. The course is organised around literary texts and cultural topics and the primary focus is on examining these texts and topics. However, students are expected to read widely in literary and cultural studies and to situate their analyses of texts and topics by engaging with theories, methodologies and debates that are introduced in the course. These theories, methodologies and debates will be concerned with identities and how they are constructed in relation to some or all of the following notions as they relate to the body: race (including whiteness); indigeneities; gender; sexualities (both heterosexualities and non-heterosexualities) and body modifications.

Assessment

Online and in class participation, essay, exam

Other Details

Current Campus: North Terrace
Levels: Undergraduate
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