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Literature, Culture & Society (LIT114)
Semester 2 / 2014

Texts

y separately published work icon The Hanging Garden Patrick White , 1981 (Manuscript version)x402198 Z1852189 1981 single work novel (taught in 4 units)

'Two children are brought to a wild garden on the shores of Sydney Harbour to shelter from the Second World War. The boy's mother has died in the Blitz. The girl is the daughter of a Sydney woman and a Communist executed in a Greek prison. In wartime Australia, these two children form an extraordinary bond as they negotiate the dangers of life as strangers abandoned on the far side of the world. With the tenderness and rigour of an old, wise novelist, Patrick White explores the world of these children, the city of his childhood and the experience of war. The Hanging Garden ends as the news reaches Sydney of victory in Europe, and the children face their inevitable separation.

White put the novel aside at this point and how he planned to finish the work remains a mystery. But at his death in 1990 he left behind a masterpiece in the making, which is published here for the first time.'

Source: Publisher's blurb

y separately published work icon Tiddas Anita Heiss , Cammeray : Simon and Schuster Australia , 2014 6821495 2014 single work novel (taught in 1 units)

'A story about what it means to be a friend … Five women, best friends for decades, meet once a month to talk about books … and life, love and the jagged bits in between. Dissecting each other’s lives seems the most natural thing in the world – and honesty, no matter how brutal, is something they treasure. Best friends tell each other everything, don’t they? But each woman harbours a complex secret and one weekend, without warning, everything comes unstuck.' (Source: Publishers website)

y separately published work icon Deadly, Unna? Phillip Gwynne , Ringwood : Penguin , 1998 Z517608 1998 single work novel young adult (taught in 20 units)

'"Deadly, unna?" He was always saying that. All the Nungas did, but Dumby more than any of them. Dumby Red and Blacky don't have a lot in common. Dumby's the star of the footy team, he's got a killer smile and the knack with girls, and he's a Nunga. Blacky's a gutless wonder, needs braces, never knows what to say, and he's white. But they're friends... and it could be deadly, unna? This gutsy novel, set in a small coastal town in South Australia is a rites-of-passage story about two boys confronting the depth of racism that exists all around them.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Description

Literature, Culture, and Society is an introduction to the role of literature as a cultural form in society. It allows students to grasp the nature and role of English literature and language in schooling and in society. It emphasises the importance of English both in terms of communication and for access and social participation. The subject introduces literature in a variety of contexts in order that students might grasp the sigificance of the discipline, and the way in which it engages with high order social and cultural aesthetics. Students will read a wide range of literary forms and genres, including literary classics and popular texts. The subject is not restricted to Australian texts, but will include at least some contemporary Australian, multimedia, and children's texts. Possible themes in this subject include the varieties and significance of narrative, the formation of genres, the romance, and controversies in literature, culture, and society.

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