E304 2751 LITERATURES IN ENGLISH 1900-PRESENT
Jeffrey Huntsman

1:30p-2:20p D (30 students) 3 cr.

This course will attempt to give a broad survey of contemporary long fiction in English from Australia and New Zealand. This is a vast and rich literature, although its entire history is scarcely two hundred years old, and we cannot hope to be exhaustive or perhaps even representative. Some of the older writers (Patrick White-- Australia’s only Nobel laureate--Miles Franklin, and Christina Stead, for example) have little in print, so we may have to exclude some such from major consideration. But we will have ample younger writers to choose from. The mix will include both men and women in roughly equal proportions and both new writers and well-established ones. The non-European indigenous peoples of both islands will also be represented as far as practicable. The final list has not yet been established, but should include works by such figures as Patricia Grace, Alan Duff, Keri Hulme, Janet Frame, Jessica Anderson, Hugh Atkinson, Murray Bail, Peter Carey, David Malouf, Thomas Kineally, Tim Winton, Richard Flannagan, Mandy Sayer, Nikki Gemmel, and Sam Watson. In a regular semester, we read about 10 novels, although we probably can’t manage quite this many in a summer course. The course will be conducted as much like as seminar as the size allows, so be prepared to attend every day and contribute to the class discussion actively. There should be two papers (4-5 pp each), plus a midterm and final. I should have a final list by the end of March. If you want a copy, please email me at huntsman@indiana.edu.