AustLit
Degrees
Description
This unit studies canonical dramatic texts from key Australian eras, principally indigenous, modernist and postcolonial. The workshopping and deconstruction of texts will focus on play structure, character, language, theatrical genre and critical cultural context, towards the generation of dramaturgical and educational resources.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this unit the student will be able to:
- discuss a variety of historically significant playwrights from and indigenous, modernist and contemporary traditions;
- analyse the significance of their work within the Australian theatre canon;
- interpret a historical play text for its contemporary socio-political relevance;
- research dramaturgical material for a director, cast and/or teacher; and
- perform small, key scenes from the repertoire of Australian classic texts.
UNIT CONTENT
- Indigenous, Colonial, Modernist and contemporary playwrights and play texts.
- Key themes and influences on national writers.
- Representations of the shifts in Australian identity.
- Australian drama on the world stage.
- Postcolonial and Modernist theory.
- The rise of dramaturgy in Australia Theatre and education resources.
Assessment
Class exercise - tutorial presentation 20%
Performance project - creative work 20%
Seminar presentation 20%
Dramaturgical resources - assignment 40%
Supplementary Texts
SIGNIFICANT REFERENCES
Australia plays: new Australian drama. (1989). London: Nick Hern.
Bedson, J., & Croft, J. (Eds.). (1993). The Campbell Howard annotated index of Australian plays 1920-1955. Armidale, N.S.W.: Centre for Australian Language and Literature Studies, University of New England.
Brisbane, K. (Ed.). (2000). Plays of the 60s. Sydney: Currency Press.
Brisbane, K. (Ed.). (2001). Plays of the 70s. Sydney: Currency Press.
Brisbane, K., & Parsons. P. (1991). On stage. [Videorecording] Australia: Australia Council.
Bush theatre plays (1996). London: Faber and Faber.
Fotheringham, R. (Ed.). (2006). Australian plays for the colonial stage: 1834-1899. St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press.
Gilbert, H. (1998). Sightlines: Race, gender, and nation in contemporary Australian theatre. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Milne, G., (2004). Theatre Australia (un)limited: Australian theatre since the 1950s. Amsterdam: New York, NY: Rodopi.
Pfisterer, S. (1999). Tremendous worlds: Australian women's drama 1890-1960. Sydney: Currency Press.
Plays from black Australia: Jack Davis, Eva Johnson, Richard Walley, Bob Maza. (1989). Sydney: Currency Press.
Tait, P., & Schafer, E. (Eds.). (1997). Australian women's drama: Texts and feminisms. Sydney: Currency Press.
Webby, E. (1993). Modern Australian plays. Sydney: Sydney University Press in association with Oxford University Press.
Other Details
Offered in:
2012
Current Campus:
Mt Lawler, External
Levels:
Undergraduate
Homepage
