D.H. Parker, BA DipEd Adel., DPhil Oxf.
Reader and Head of Department
Introduction
There are two majors in the Department of English and Theatre Studies: English and Theatre Studies. A student may complete a BA course with English and Theatre Studies comprising the two majors for the degree.
The English and Theatre Studies syllabus at the ANU is wide-ranging and varied. There are courses on the whole range of English-language literatures from British and Australian to American and Postcolonial. British literature covers the period from medieval times to the present, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to Samuel Beckett, from Shakespeare and Milton to TS Eliot and Seamus Heaney. There are three courses on Australian writing, two on American writing, and two on Postcolonial (one currently focussed on English writing from South East Asia and the West Indies and the other on ‘first contact’ writings). Australian texts studied include works by Aboriginal authors, by poets of the 60s and by novelists such as Patrick White and Christina Stead. American authors range from Walt Whitman to Toni Morrison. Postcolonial texts include First Fleet journals and work by Salman Rushdie, Jean Rhys, VS Naipaul, KS Maniam and Ee Tiang Hong. There are courses, often taught in collaboration with other departments, of an interdisciplinary kind ¾ on linguistics, on philosophy and literature, on women’s studies, and on literary and cultural theory. There are also film courses, Shakespeare and Film, Australian Film, Classic Novel into Film, and Modern Novel into Film. As well as seeking to broaden students’ knowledge and enjoyment of the literature studied, the Department aims to enhance their powers of analysis, argument and expression, both on paper and in class discussions.
Theatre Studies consists of units that deal both theoretically and practically with the relation between written and performance texts. These units, which deal in the main with European, American, British and Australian Drama, are read in the theatrical context of contemporary acting, directing, performance and production techniques. Where appropriate, classes are supported by practical workshops. Units will include examination of such areas as: theatrical conventions; the physical conditions of the theatre and the art of acting at different historical periods; the reception of the playwright’s work; non-verbal systems of communication in the theatre.
All units are semester-long. All first-year units have a value of 6 credit points. All later-year units have a value of 8 credit points. Later-year units are normally offered in alternate years.
The following are offered in 1999:
ENGLISH
Summary of units offered in English in 1999
|
First semester |
Second semester |
|
First year |
|
|
Introduction to Literary Study ENGL1001 |
Introduction to Australian Literature ENGL1004 |
|
Later years |
|
|
20th Century Australian Fiction ENGL2011 |
20th Century American Literature ENGL2006 |
|
Fourth year |
|
|
English IV |
|
THEATRE STUDIES
Summary of units offered in Theatre Studies in 1999
|
First semester |
Second semester |
|
First year |
|
|
Page to Stage 1: Acting DRAM1005 |
Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition DRAM1006 |
|
Later years |
|
|
Modern European Theatre DRAM2001 |
Design and the Theatre DRAM2010 |
|
Fourth year |
|
|
Theatre Studies IV |
|
All units are offered subject to staff availability and sufficient enrolments.
General requirements
Students are required to submit written work by the due dates, to attend all lectures, workshops and tutorial classes, and to present any prescribed tutorial exercises. Any student who does not fulfil these requirements will fail the unit. Students are expected to possess copies of the prescribed texts.
Taping of lectures
Lectures are normally taped.
Assessment
Methods of assessment will be discussed with students enrolled in each unit before they are finalised. In 1998 a substantial proportion of final marks came from written work presented during the year.
Further information
It is not possible to give full details of courses or full lists of recommended reading in the entries in this Handbook. Prospective students are encouraged to approach the Departmental Administrator for a copy of the Department’s own descriptive brochure. In addition, the Coordinators responsible for each unit will be pleased to provide further information.
ENGLISH
The Pass degree
An English major consists of ENGL1001 and one of the following: #ENGL1002, #ENGL1003, ENGL1004, ENGL1007, ENGL1008, DRAM1006 or LENG1020; plus four later-year units, including at least one unit from the following list:
*#ENGL2001 English Literature 1789-1939
*ENGL2012 Elizabethan Drama
*ENGL2014 Introduction
to Old English
*#ENGL2017 The 1790s: Representations of Revolution
*ENGL2050 Eighteenth-Century
Literature
*ENGL2052 Contact Discourse
*ENGL2055 Shakespeare and Film
*ENGL2056 The
Renaissance and England
*ENGL2059 Literature and Gender in the Eighteenth
Century
*#ENGL2060 Sex and Terror: The Gothic Novel 1764-1824
*ENGL2062 Duchesses
and Drudges
*#ENGL3001 17th and 18th Century English Literature
*ENGL3005 16th,
17th and 18th Century Literature
*#ENGL3013 Literature and Politics in Early
Modern England
These units are also marked with an asterisk in the unit descriptions below. Units marked # are no longer offered.
A major in English may contain one from the following list of cognate units
(in place of one later-year English unit):
#AUST2005 Sociology of Australian Literature and Art
DRAM2008 Modern Australian
Drama
DRAM2009 Post-War British Drama
PHIL2068 Aesthetics
PHIL2090 Theories of
Interpretation in Law and Literature
WOMS2012 Fiction and Domesticity
WOMS2016 Writing
a Woman’s Life
Units marked # are no longer offered.
In the case of a student who includes an English first-year unit in an Arts program major, a major in English may consist of six English units (including at least one asterisked unit) at least four of which must be later-year units.
Certain English units may be taken as part of one of the following Program majors — Film Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Contemporary Europe, Applied Linguistics and Women’s Studies — and also the Theatre Studies major. In some cases this involves altered prerequisites. For details see the individual unit entries.
THEATRE STUDIES
The Pass degree
The major consists of Page to Stage I (DRAM1005) and Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition (DRAM1006) plus four units from those listed below under Theatre Studies.
Core units of the major until 1998 consisted of Page to Stage I (DRAM1005) and Page to Stage II (DRAM2005). New core units (DRAM1005 and DRAM1006) will apply from 1999.
ENGLISH UNITS
FIRST-YEAR UNITS
Introduction to Literary Study ENGL1001
(6cp)
Offered in 1999 and succeeding years
First semester
Two lectures and one
tutorial a week
Coordinator: Dr Russell
Prerequisite: None
Syllabus: This unit offers an introduction to literary study at university level. It focuses on the diversity of writing in English in a range of contemporary texts by authors from a variety of countries such as Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, England, and the United States. A central theme of the course will be how these texts use literary language to define and explore issues relating to individual identity, ethnicity, gender, community, place and histories, both personal and national. The texts to be studied encompass a number of genres ¾ drama, poetry, the novel, and autobiography, and we shall also be considering what is involved in translating a literary work to the medium of film. The unit leads to a choice of units in second semester, in some of which students can study authors from earlier historical periods, including Shakespeare. While a significant aim of ENGL1001 will be to illuminate the contexts in which a text is produced, the primary focus of study will be the development of student skills in reading, discussing, and writing about a work of literature.
Proposed assessment: Three written assignments and final examination.
Preliminary reading
Introduction to Australian Literature ENGL1004
(6cp)
Offered in 1999 and succeeding years
Second semester
One lecture and one
tutorial a week
Coordinator: Dr Clark
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 or with permission of the Head of Department
Syllabus: A study of Australian writing, including works by Henry Handel Richardson, Martin Boyd, Patrick White, David Malouf, John Shaw Neilson, Michael Dransfield, Dorothy Hewett, Barry Humphries and David Williamson.
Proposed assessment: One essay of 1000 words, one essay of 1500 words and a final examination.
Preliminary reading
Reading and Writing Short Stories ENGL1007
(6cp)
Offered in 1999 and succeeding years
Second semester
One lecture and one
workshop per week
Coordinator: Dr Parker
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 or with permission of the Head of Department
Syllabus: This unit provides an introduction to the craft of writing short stories. Students will read and analyse a range of short stories of diverse styles and forms from the beginnings of the genre to the present day. They will be encouraged to use these texts as models for their own creative responses. The unit aims both to deepen and broaden students’ understanding of the short story genre as well as to offer them the opportunity of gaining practical expertise in creative writing.
Proposed assessment: One 1000 word essay plus a portfolio of creative work of not less than 4000 words.
Incompatibility: ENGL1003
Introduction To The Novel ENGL1008
(6cp)
Offered in 1999 and succeeding years
Second semester
One lecture and one
tutorial per week
Coordinator: Dr Campbell
Prequisite: ENGL1001 or with permission of the Head of Department.
Syllabus: In this unit we will usually study four or five novels in depth. The detailed exploration of each text will allow students to consider such issues as the depiction of human relationships, gender, and self-realisation in the novel as well as focussing on a variety of aspects including characterisation, structure and themes. The texts selected will usually include at least one work written in the eighteenth century as well as novels from the nineteenth century and they will cover a sufficient chronological range to give students some sense of the history of the genre and of the development of the novel.
Proposed assessment: One 1000 word essay and one 1500 word essay. A two-hour sit-down, open-book examination.
Preliminary reading
Incompatibility: ENGL1003
Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition DRAM1006
(6cp)
Second Semester
See entry under Theatre Studies
Structure of English LENG1020
(6cp)
Offered in 1999 and succeeding years
Second semester
Two lectures and one
tutorial a week
Coordinator: Dr Allen (Department of Linguistics)
Prerequisite: Introduction to the Study of Language, or Introduction to English Literature, or Traditional Grammar (unit offered by the Department of Classical and Modern European Languages).
Syllabus: This unit investigates the elements which comprise English, and how they are organised. The emphasis will be on grammar (syntax and morphology), although we will also explore some of the connections between grammar and semantics. In the first and larger part of the course, students will be introduced to the grammar of Modern English. The structural characteristics of English will be compared with those of other languages. The last third of the course will deal with variation in English, including historical, regional, social and stylistic variation.
This unit may be included in either a Linguistics major or an English major or an Applied Linguistics program major.
LATER-YEAR UNITS
Lines of Growth in Australian Literature ENGL2004
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
Coordinator: Dr Clark
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit.
Syllabus: This unit is divided into two sections. In the first section attention is concentrated mainly on writers of the late nineteenth century and the Federation period who, with the significant exception of Christopher Brennan, took a strong interest in Australian nationalism and bush life. The second section contains the work of writers published in the middle and later parts of this century. Studying their work will naturally raise questions about the evolution of Australian literature — not only its divergences, but also the lines of continuity, which include a continuing interest in what it means to live in Australia ¾ cities, suburbia, or the bush.
Proposed assessment: One 2000-word essay, a second optional 2000-word essay and a final examination.
Preliminary reading
19th Century American Literature ENGL2005
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
Coordinator: Dr Pascal
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: An introduction to the great formative period of American literature in the 19th century. This was the period in which the national literature came of age, as several brilliant, eccentric writers wrought radical changes upon traditional English models of prose and verse and thereby created a body of distinctively American forms of literary art. To read and study the most influential works of this period is thus a particularly exciting project. Not only are the texts themselves marvellous and unusual creations, but, studied in conjunction with one another, they afford us the opportunity of witnessing elements of a national culture that is in the process of forming and becoming conscious of itself. Writers considered will ordinarily include Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, and Kate Chopin.
Proposed assessment: One 1000-word essay, one 2000-word essay, and either a final examination or a 2500-word essay.
Preliminary reading
20th Century American Literature ENGL2006
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
Second semester
One lecture and one
tutorial a week
Coordinator: Dr Pascal
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: A study of some of the most fascinating literary texts produced in the United States in the modern era. While the unit encourages the close reading of each text, it also attempts to address fundamental issues relating to the study of modern American society, such as race, class, and gender divisions. More broadly still, it seeks to raise and explore basic questions about the study of literature and other cultural productions.
Proposed assessment: One 1000-word essay, one 2000-word essay, and either a final examination or a 2500-word essay.
Preliminary reading
Chaucer and His Age ENGL2007
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: A study of a selection of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and of other literature of his period.
Proposed assessment: (i) a mid-semester essay of 2000 words, (ii) a take-home examination including critical comments and a 3000-word essay.
Preliminary reading
ENGL2007 may also be taken as part of a Program major in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
19th and 20th Century Literature (Pass or Honours) ENGL2008
(8cp)
This unit is available to all students but is required for Honours
Offered
in 1999 and succeeding years
Second semester
One lecture and one tutorial
per week
Coordinator: Dr Haines
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: A study of major poetry and prose of the 19th and 20th centuries. The unit concentrates on especially challenging texts and the broader questions of literary analysis they raise.
Proposed assessment: Two 1500-word essays and one two-hour examination.
Preliminary reading
Theories of Literature and Criticism ENGL2009
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
One lecture/seminar a week
Coordinator: Dr Dobrez
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit, or two compulsory units in the Cultural and Critical Studies Program major, or with the permission of the Head of Department
Syllabus: An introduction to different theories of and different ways of thinking about textuality. The course begins with a consideration of 19th century hermeneutics, then goes on to concentrate on 20th century, indeed largely contemporary, theory, including New Criticism, existentialism, Marxism, structuralism, post-structuralism and feminism.
Proposed assessment: one 3000-word essay plus one two-hour examination (with a take-home option).
ENGL2009 can be taken as a designated unit in the Critical and Cultural Studies Program major.
20th Century Australian Fiction ENGL2011
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
First semester
One lecture and one
tutorial a week
Coordinator: Dr Dobrez
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: The course examines ways in which we identify, or fail to identify, ourselves as Australians. It begins by discussing theories of identity, looking at historical mechanisms by which identity is constituted in Australia. It then focuses on ‘alienation and identity’ in Australian writing, with emphasis on the role of women and also on work by Aborigines.
Proposed assessment: one 3000-word essay plus one two-hour examination (with a take-home option).
*Elizabethan Drama ENGL2012
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
One lecture and
one tutorial a week
Coordinator: Dr Russell
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit. Students may include either Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition (DRAM1006), or Introduction to Dramatic Form (#ENGL1002), if counted towards a major in Theatre Studies.
Syllabus: This course is designed to introduce students to some of the most important dramatic texts of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods by authors such as Marlowe, Shakespeare and Jonson. Teaching will be based on a consideration of these plays as literary, cultural and theatrical texts; that is, we shall examine the social and literary environment in which they were first produced, relating this to the conditions of theatrical performance in the period.
Topics to be considered in relation to the drama include ¾ the representation of religion, kingship, sexual and political morality, national histories, gender and the family. Indeed, Elizabethan and Jacobean drama has become the focus for the most dynamic and controversial work in English studies, some of which will be considered in this course. ‘Elizabethan Drama’ will complement present or subsequent work in ENGL3005.
Proposed assessment: One 1000-word essay, one 2000-word essay and a two-hour final examination.
Preliminary reading
ENGL2012 may also be taken as part of the Theatre Studies major and may also be included in a Program major in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
*Introduction to Old English ENGL2014
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 or a first-year unit in History, Linguistics, Medieval Studies or Modern European Languages
Syllabus: An introduction to the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England based on study of selected passages of Old English prose and verse.
Proposed assessment: One take-home mid-semester grammar exercise, and a final take-home examination including passages for translation and a 2000-word essay.
Preliminary reading
If unobtainable:
Note: This course can be offered only if six or more people enrol.
ENGL2014 may also be taken as part of a Program major in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Two Early English Classics ENGL2015
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Prerequisite: ENGL2014
Syllabus: A study of selected passages from Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Proposed assessment: Two 2500-word essays on the set texts.
Preliminary reading
If unobtainable:
ENGL2015 may also be taken as part of a program major in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Postcolonial Literatures ENGL2018
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
First semester
One lecture and one
tutorial per week
Coordinator: Dr Lo
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit or two compulsory units in the Cultural and Critical Studies Program major
Syllabus: A study of selected English language texts by writers from countries originally colonised by Britain (other than the United States and Australia), and of the major overviews proposed in recent decades which attempt to understand post-colonial literatures. The course will focus upon works from various countries or regions, in order to allow students the opportunity to explore some of the social and historical factors influencing the production of the texts. The countries or regions to be examined in some depth may vary from year to year; the conception of the course will not, however, be affected by such variations. In 1999, the course will focus on literatures from the West Indies, Singapore and Malaysia.
Proposed assessment: One 2000-word essay, one key-words list, and either a final examination or a 2500-word essay.
Preliminary reading
ENGL2018 can be taken as a designated unit in the Critical and Cultural Studies Program major and in the Asian Literature major.
*Eighteenth-Century Literature ENGL2050
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
Second semester
One lecture and one
tutorial per week
Coordinator: Dr Higgins
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: This course is an introduction to British literature of the eighteenth century through close critical analysis of selected texts in a variety of genres including poetry, drama, prose fiction, and pamphleteering. Attention will be given to historical context — the social and literary environment in which the texts were produced and to which they refer. Satire is a dominant literary mode in the early decades of the eighteenth century. The course will focus on writings by some of the major satirists of the period such as Pope, Swift, Gay and Fielding. Other influential kinds of writing in the eighteenth century such as the prose pamphlet on social issues, epistolary writing and oriental fiction will also be studied.
Proposed assessment: One essay of 2000 words, one essay of 3000 words and tutorial participation.
Preliminary reading
Incompatibility: ENGL3001
*Contact Discourse ENGL2052
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Coordinator: Dr Dobrez
Prerequisite: For students taking the unit as part of an English major, ENGL1001 plus one other English first-year unit; for others, two first-year Arts units or two compulsory units in the Cultural and Critical Studies Program major
Syllabus: What perceptions of place and of other human beings are generated by the situation of first contact? How are these perceptions constructed? This course examines the phenomenon of contact with reference to Australia and the South Pacific, with some consideration of the Americas. Texts used include those traditionally marginalized in literary studies (journals, diaries, letters), as well as novels, poetry and visual material. We shall analyse European notions of the Savage (Noble and Ignoble) and of the State of Nature from their origins in Antiquity to their application in eighteenth-century explorers’ journals, First Fleet journals, diaries and letters. Robinson Crusoe and Lawrence’s Kangaroo are set, as well as texts aimed at promoting discussion of Aboriginal perceptions of Europeans. The course is suitable for all students, but may be of special relevance to those interested in contemporary theory, postcolonial studies and Australian studies. It focuses on issues still alive today, particularly in the wake of the Mabo debate.
Proposed assessment: one 3000-word essay plus one two-hour examination (with a take-home option).
Preliminary reading
ENGL2052 can be taken as a designated unit in the Critical and Cultural Studies Program major.
*Shakespeare and Film ENGL2055
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
Second semester
One lecture, one seminar,
and a film viewing session of two or three hours each week.
Coordinator: Dr Russell
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit or FILM1001
Syllabus: One of the most important media for the interpretation of the plays of Shakespeare in the twentieth century has been the cinema. Directors and actors from widely differing cultural, political and national backgrounds have sought to represent Shakespeare on screen. This course will examine the written texts of a number of Shakespeare plays in relation to their performance history and how they have been interpreted in the cinema. Plays to be studied will include Othello, Henry V and Richard III: we shall then go on to examine how these texts have been represented by directors such as Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, and Kenneth Branagh. The course will complement work in ENGL2012.
Proposed assessment: Two 500-word tutorial papers, and either two 2000-word essays or one 2000-word essay plus a final two-hour examination.
Preliminary reading
ENGL2055 can be taken as part of the Theatre Studies major or as part of a Program major in Medieval and Renaissance Studies or Film Studies.
*The Renaissance and England ENGL2056
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
First semester
Normally three hours
per week
Coordinator: Mr Cullum
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: The course will examine a wide range of literary works from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It will also explore some connections between English literature and the European Renaissance, including creative translations and some parallel developments in painting and music. Works by Wyatt, Surrey, Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson and Milton will provide the focus for study.
Proposed assessment: A combination of essays and one two-hour examination.
Preliminary reading
Incompatibility: ENGL3001
ENGL2056 may also be taken as part of a Program major in Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Representations of Nature ENGL2057
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
Normally three
hours each week
Coordinator: Mr Cullum
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: The course will focus on representations of Nature, primarily in literature but also in some non-literary and philosophical works. It will introduce students to some of the key changes in conceptions and representations of Nature, and will examine some of the social, ethical and political implications of these changes, considering questions such as: Is there such a thing as ‘human nature’? What, if anything, is ‘natural’ about that? Works considered will include Pope’s Essay on Man, Wordsworth’s Prelude and Thoreau’s Walden. It will touch on writings from the Classical world (these will be available in a course anthology) and conclude with an examination of contemporary work.
Proposed assessment: One 1500-word essay, participation in a group project, and a two-hour examination.
Preliminary reading
Theories of Imitation and Representation ENGL2058
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
Second semester
Normally three hours
per week
Coordinator: Mr Cullum
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit, or two compulsory units in the Cultural and Critical Studies Program major, or with the permission of the Head of Department
Syllabus: The course will introduce students to some theories of Imitation and Representation, and to some of the corresponding questions about ‘truth’ and value in literature (with some reference to other art forms).
We shall explore some early conceptions of mimesis, including those of Plato, Aristotle, Sidney and Johnson, but the primary focus will be on literary theory in the modern period.
Proposed assessment: A combination of essays and one two-hour examination.
Preliminary reading
ENGL2058 can be taken as a designated unit in the Critical and Cultural Studies Program major.
*Literature and Gender in the Eighteenth Century ENGL2059
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
One lecture and
one tutorial per week
Coordinator: Dr Campbell
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: This course will explore the construction and representation of gender in a range of 18th-century texts by men and women authors, including autobiographical and biographical materials, poetry, essays, drama and works of prose fiction. The primary focus in studying these texts will be on their dramatisation of such issues as the interrelationships between class and gender and between morality and gender; the ‘performance’ of gender in cultural forms such as the drama, the construction of the gendered self and the gendered construction of 18th-century sensibility and sentiment. Attention will also be given to the social and historical backgrounds against which this literature was written and which it addresses, and to contextual aspects such as the representation of gender in changing modes of masculine and feminine dress. Texts studied will include poems, letters and diaries, as well as novels and drama by such authors as Samuel Richardson, Charlotte Lennox, Hannah Cowley and Laurence Sterne.
Proposed assessment: One 3000-word essay and a final examination.
Preliminary reading
Victorian Literature ENGL2061
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
First semester
One lecture and one
tutorial per week
Coordinator: Dr Clark
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: Students in this course will be asked to study three English novels of the Victorian period, Wuthering Heights, Little Dorrit and The Mayor of Casterbridge, together with the verse of one Romantic poet, Keats, and two Victorians, Tennyson and Browning. They will also be asked to consider more briefly the work of other Victorian poets such as Arnold, Swinburne, Hopkins and Davidson, as well as the poetry that Hardy and Yeats wrote during and after the Victorian era.
Proposed assessment: Two 1500 word essays and a two-hour examination.
Preliminary reading
Incompatibility: ENGL2001
Duchesses and Drudges: A Cultural History of Women in Britain, 1750-1850 ENGL2062
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
First semester
One lecture and one
seminar per week
Coordinators: Dr Russell, Dr Lloyd (Department of History)
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit or any first-year History units to the value of 12 credit points or two compulsory units in the Cultural and Critical Studies Program major
Syllabus : In 1784, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, campaigned for Charles James Fox in a British Parliamentary election. Her controversial intervention into the political domain raises questions about how she and her contemporaries understood this episode. Why was much of the scandal represented in sexual terms and as a reversal of gender order?
This course investigates questions such as these by examining how concepts of ‘public’ and ‘private’ structured eighteenth- and nineteenth-century political and social debate, and how they have been used in modern accounts of the same period. The sexual division of labour and leisure will be of central concern. We will examine critically the notion of a ‘domestic sphere’ and investigate types and uses of space, both material and figurative. Topics covered will include: political scandals, women preachers, actresses, servants and prostitutes, campaigns against slavery and changing constructions of motherhood. The course will be inter-disciplinary, drawing on feminist history, literary criticism and cultural studies. A range of material will be studied, including poems, plays, caricatures, newspapers, novels, pamphlets and diaries. A reading brick of primary and secondary sources will be prepared.
Proposed assessment: A 1000-word document study ¾ 20%; a 2500-word research essay ¾ 40%; a 1500-word synoptic essay or exam ¾ 25%; seminar participation and presentation ¾ 15%.
Preliminary reading
ENGL2062 can be taken as a designated unit in the Critical and Cultural Studies major and may also be taken as part of a Program major in Women’s Studies
Scottish Literature ENGL2063
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and alternate years
One lecture and one
seminar per week
Coordinator: Professor Wright
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: An examination of some major and representative texts of the Scottish literary tradition. Three quarters of the semester will be devoted to 20th century writing, but the course will start with some ‘background’ work on medieval, Romantic and Victorian literature.
Proposed assessment: Two 1500 word essays and either a two-hour examination or a 3000 word essay.
Preliminary reading
Texts and Contexts ENGL2064
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered on an occasional basis depending on availability
of staff
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit
Syllabus: The topic offered will vary from year to year.
Australian English ENGL2065
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
Second semester
One lecture and one seminar per week
Coordinator: Dr Moore
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit, or permission of the Head of Department
Syllabus: This course explores the development of Australian English in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, looking especially at its role in constructions of Australian identity. Dialects of Australian English (e.g. Aboriginal English) and regional Australian English will also be considered. Selections from texts of various kinds will be provided in a ‘reading brick’; for example: convicts and convictism; early explorers naming and describing an alien landscape; the language used to describe and control the indigenous population; accounts of life on the goldfields; creative writing which illustrates the development of an Australian vocabulary; the development of the Australian accent; evidence for the public suppression of Australian English in the first half of the twentieth century; examples of writing in Aboriginal English; texts which demonstrate the American influence on Australian English. The material covered will be wide-ranging, and in work for assessment students will be encouraged to focus on topics which are of special interest to them. In their study, students will be encouraged to use the resources of the Australian National Dictionary Centre.
Proposed assessment: Two 2500-word essays or one 2500-word essay plus a two-hour examination or a long research essay (5000 words).
Preliminary reading
A detailed reading list will be provided in the course book. There is no set text. A ‘reading brick’ will be provided.
This unit may also be taken as part of the BA(Australian Studies).
Australian Film: Ned Kelly to Mad Max ENGL2066
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
One three-hour
period for film screenings and lecture plus one seminar per week
Coordinator: Dr Dobrez
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus any other first-year English unit or FILM1001 or permission of the Head of Department
Syllabus: This unit spans the development of Australian film from its early achievements before 1920 to its internationalisation circa 1980. Its primary focus is the cultural study of Australian film, with particular attention to changing depictions of the bush and the city, of Aboriginal, Australian and immigrant men and women, of Australian nationalism, and of our myths and heroes. The history of Australian film itself and its significant turning points, from the innovations of the silent era to later developments in art films, will also be a continuing consideration. Films chosen for study, such as The Sentimental Bloke, Jedda, Sunday Too Far Away, Breaker Morant, My Brilliant Career, Mad Max, Romper Stomper and The Piano will represent the work of major directors, producers and script writers, and screenings of the principal films will be supplemented by introductory talks and by the screening of related short film material.
Proposed assessment: One 3000-word essay plus one two-hour examination (with a take-home option).
Preliminary reading
Students will be asked to pay a nominal fee for film screenings at the National Film and Sound Archive.
ENGL2066 may also be taken as part of the Film Studies Program and as part of the BA(Australian Studies).
Classic Novel into Film ENGL2067
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
One lecture, one
seminar and occasional film viewing sessions of up to three hours
Coordinator: Professor Wright
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit or FILM1001
Syllabus: An examination of four novels and their adaptations for the cinema or television. The set texts will vary from year to year but will probably include recent film versions of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady.
Proposed assessment: One 1000-word essay, one 2000-word essay and either a final two-hour examination (with take-home option) or a 3000-word essay.
Preliminary reading
Empire and its Fictions: Novels and their contexts 1885-1932 ENGL2068
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and alternate years
Second semester
One lecture and one tutorial
per week
Coordinator: Dr Higgins
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit, or permission of the Head of Department
Syllabus: This course examines some landmarks in the literary history of late 19th and early 20th century imperialism. The focus in 1999 will be on novels of the British Empire, although a French novel in English translation and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land will also be studied. The course involves the analysis of literary works and investigation of germane contexts (political, social, literary etc). Particular attention will be paid to issues of race relations, gender and class generated by the texts. The course will explore some significant metropolitan works that are striated by empire and its discontents. The set texts include novels by H Rider Haggard, Joseph Conrad, HG Wells, Rudyard Kipling and Evelyn Waugh. The course concludes with the incendiary first novel of one of the most infamous authors of the 20th century, Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
Proposed assessment: One course essay of 3000 words (worth 50%) and a two-hour examination or an essay of 2500 words in lieu of the examination (worth 40%), tutorial participation (worth 10%).
Preliminary reading
Modern Novel into Film ENGL2069
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and alternate years
First semester
One lecture, one seminar
and occasional film viewing sessions of up to three hours
Coordinator: Professor Wright
Prerequisites: ENGL1001 plus one other first-year English unit or FILM1001
Syllabus: An examination of four 20th century novels and their adaptations for the cinema or television. The set texts will vary from year to year but in 1999 may include Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, John Le Carré’s The Perfect Spy, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, James Joyce’s Ulysses or Graham Swift’s Waterland.
Proposed assessment: One 1000-word essay, one 2000-word essay and either a final two-hour examination (with take-home option) or a 3000-word essay.
Preliminary reading
16th, 17th and 18th Century Literature (Pass or Honours) ENGL3005
(8cp)
This unit is available to all students but is required for Honours
Offered
in 1999 and in succeeding years
First semester
One lecture and one tutorial
per week
Coordinator: Dr Higgins
Prerequisite: ENGL1001 plus any other first-year English unit
Syllabus: A study of selected poetry, prose and drama of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Discussions of the set texts will be at an advanced level and will raise wider issues of critical theory and practice. Authors to be studied will include Shakespeare, Marvell, Milton, Behn, Pope, Swift, and Johnson.
Proposed assessment: Two 1500-2000 word essays plus one two-hour examination.
Preliminary reading
Structure of English LENG2020
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and succeeding years
Second semester
Two lectures and one
tutorial a week
Coordinator: Dr Allen (Department of Linguistics)
Prerequisite: At least two units of English or Linguistics, or Traditional Grammar and one unit of Latin or Greek (from the Department of Classical and Modern European Languages). Students in their second or third year of university study will normally take LENG2020; first-year students will normally take LENG1020. LENG2020 has the same lectures as 1020 but different tutorials; it involves a larger work load and adopts a more theoretical stance.
Syllabus: As for Structure of English (LENG1020)
This unit may be included in either a Linguistics major or an English major or an Applied Linguistics program major.
Philosophy and Literature PHEN2001
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Coordinator: Mr Cullum
Prerequisite: Completion of at least a unit in English plus any unit of Philosophy, or approved unit in Modern European Literature, or with the permission of the Head of Department
Syllabus: The course will explore the relations and interactions between philosophy and literature through the study of autobiographical works which are either written by philosophers or raise philosophical issues. Topics to be discussed will include — concepts of truth, fiction and authenticity; relations between formal features of autobiography and philosophical treatment of self-knowledge; narrative unity and human identity; selfhood and temporality; the possibility of self-knowledge. Works to be studied will include Augustine, Confessions; Wordsworth, The Prelude; M H Kingston, Woman Warrior.
Proposed assessment: A combination of essay(s) and a final examination.
THEATRE STUDIES UNITS
FIRST-YEAR UNITS
Page to Stage I: Acting DRAM1005
(6cp)
Offered in 1999 and in succeeding years
First semester
Four hours a week:
one lecture, one tutorial and one 2-hour workshop
Coordinator: Dr Borny
Syllabus: The unit will concentrate on what Roger Gross calls the ‘fictional approach’ to drama and will deal essentially with the ways in which the actor works in the process of translating a play text into a performance text. A variety of acting theories will be examined. Acting exercises will be prepared and performed in workshop sessions.
Proposed assessment: Essays and workshop assignments.
Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition DRAM1006
(6cp)
Offered in 1999 and in succeeding years
Second Semester
Four hours per week:
one lecture, one tutorial and one 2-hour workshop
Coordinator: Dr Borny
Prerequisite: Page to Stage I: Acting (DRAM1005) or Introduction to Literary Study (ENGL1001) or with the permission of the Head of Department.
Syllabus: This unit is designed to be a general introduction to the western theatrical tradition. It is intended to provide students with a clear picture of the major dramatic and theatrical developments in terms of playwrighting, acting and staging that have taken place since the fifth century BC. The unit will examine key dramatic texts from the fifth century Greeks to the present day. The theatrical representation of these plays will be historically contextualised and workshops will involve students in an examination of appropriate performance styles.
Incompatibility: #ENGL1002
Proposed Assessment: Two 1500 word essays plus workshop and tutorial contribution
LATER-YEAR UNITS
Modern European Theatre DRAM2001
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years, alternating with Post-War British
Drama (DRAM2009)
First semester
Four hours a week: one lecture, one tutorial
and one 2-hour workshop
Coordinator: Dr Borny
Prerequisite: Two first-year units in the Faculty of Arts
Syllabus: The unit consists of a study of the major developments in theatre and theatrical writing in Europe since the middle of the 19th century through the analysis of representative plays by Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Jarry, Pirandello, Brecht, Lorca, Beckett, and Ionesco in the context of contemporary performance and production techniques.
Proposed assessment: Two essays and workshop participation.
Page to Stage II: Directing DRAM2005
(8cp)
Offered in 1999 and in alternate years
First semester
Four hours a week:
one lecture, one tutorial and one 2-hour workshop
Coordinator: Dr Borny
Prerequisite: Page to Stage I (DRAM1005) or Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition (DRAM1006)
Syllabus: The unit follows on directly from DRAM1005 and concentrates on what Roger Gross calls the ‘functional approach’ to drama. Students will examine the tasks that face a director when working on translating a play text into a performance text. Directing exercises will be prepared and performed in workshop sessions.
Proposed assessment: Essays and workshop assignments.
Modern Australian Drama DRAM2008
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Offered in 2000 and in alternate years
Four hours per
week: one lecture, one tutorial and one two-hour workshop
Coordinator: Dr Borny
Prerequisite: Page to Stage I (DRAM1005) plus one other unit in the Theatre Studies major or Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition (DRAM1006) plus one other unit in the Theatre Studies major or Page to Stage I (DRAM1005) and Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition (DRAM1006)
Syllabus: This unit aims to provide students with an introduction to some of the major developments in Australian drama and theatre in the twentieth century. Works by Seymour, Lawler, White, Kenna, Hewett, Buzo, Nowra, Williamson, Romeril, Hibberd, Gow and Davis will be studied both theoretically and practically. The plays chosen represent the wide range of subject matter and theatrical form that is evident in the modern Australian dramatic repertoire. In order to contextualise the plays studied, some examination will be given to more important elements of the stage history of Australia covering the last 50 years.
Proposed assessment: One 2000-word essay and a tutorial paper plus workshop contribution.
Post-War British Drama DRAM2009
(8cp)
Not offered in 1999
Four hours a week: one lecture, one tutorial and one
2-hour workshop
Coordinator: Dr Borny
Prerequisite: Page to Stage I (DRAM1005) or Introduction to the Western Theatrical Tradition (DRAM1006)
Syllabus: This unit aims to provide an introduction to major developments in post-war British theatre. The unit will focus on plays by Osborne, Pinter, Brenton, Churchill, Stoppard, Poliakoff, Frayn, Bond, Berkoff, Storey and Ayckbourn. In order to contextualise the plays studied, the unit will also consider such important theatrical institutions as the Royal Court theatre, the RSC’s Other Place and the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and will examine the contributions made by innovators such as Joan Littlewood and John McGrath.
Proposed assessment: Two 1500-word essays and tutorial and workshop contribution.