AustLit
Australian Crimes: Crime narratives on page, stage and screen
(ENGL2081/ENGL6024)
School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics (a new School entity from former School of Humanities)
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Australian National University
Semester 1 /
2016
Texts
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y
His Natural Life
For the Term of His Natural Life
1870-1872
Z1032375
1870-1872
single work
novel
(taught in 15 units)
'Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against his wrongful imprisonment. Elements of romance, incidents of family life and passages of scenic description both relieve and give emphasis to the tragedy that forms its heart.' (Publication summary : Penguin Books 2009)
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y
Benang : From the Heart
Fremantle
:
Fremantle Press
,
1999
Z135862
1999
single work
novel
(taught in 31 units)
'Oceanic in its rhythms and understanding, brilliant in its use of language and image, moving in its largeness of spirit, compelling in its narrative scope and style, Benang is a novel of celebration and lament, of beginning and return, of obliteration and recovery, of silencing and of powerful utterance. Both tentative and daring, it speaks to the present and a possible future through stories, dreams, rhythms, songs, images and documents mobilised from the incompletely acknowledged and still dynamic past.' (Publisher's website)
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y
The Boys
1991
Paddington
:
Currency Press
,
1994
Z273156
1991
single work
drama
(taught in 7 units)
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y
Last Drinks
St Leonards
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2000
Z668642
2000
single work
novel
crime
(taught in 2 units)
'It's a decade since the infamous Inquiry into corruption tore the state of Queensland apart. But for George Verney, disgraced journalist and bit-player in the great scandals of his day, the Inquiry has never quite finished. After ten years of self-imposed exile, drawn by the terrible death of a man who was his friend, he reluctantly returns to Brisbane, the city of his downfall. In a town he no longer recognises and through an underworld that has forgotten him, George must seek out the other hidden survivors of his times, to confront the truth about their common past, and to find a way to let the dead rest in peace.' (from back cover)
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y
The Monkey's Mask
South Melbourne
:
Hyland House
,
1994
Z528794
1994
single work
novel
crime
(taught in 31 units)
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Red Harvest, Hammett, Dashiell
Description
This course examines a range of Australian literary, theatrical and cinematic crime narratives from the 19th century to the present. It explores Australian literary, stage and screen history through the ideas of crime and the criminal, introducing students to key 19th and 20th century Australian texts and investigating the relationships between literature, ethics, law and society. It also introduces students to a range of critical approaches to reading generic or 'popular' fiction and film. Writers considered may include Marcus Clarke, Mary Fortune, Fergus Hume, Peter Temple, Doris Pilkington and Andrew McGahan.
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