Global Contemporary Literature: Australians and the World

• • A week-by-week guide to the topics you will explore in this subject will be provided in your study materials.

You must have successfully completed the following subject(s) before starting this subject:

• MAQ-ENGX1001-Literature: Medieval to Modern
• MAQ-ENGX1002-Literature: Modern and Contemporary

Others

Pre-requisite: 130 cp at 1000 level or above

Additional requirements

• Other requirements -

  Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.

The limitations of Western conceptions of “the human” are highlighted in this unit as we consider how twenty-first century Australian Indigenous, American, postcolonial and other forms of literature challenge and expand Western conceptions of humanity, subjectivity and belonging. This unit looks at how literature is alive in the world today, and how it responds to the new challenges and opportunities afforded to it by the twenty-first century. The premise of this unit is that literature plays an active role in the contemporary public sphere, and that writers are developing exciting and innovative ways of responding both to contemporary debates on matters including race, immigration, gender, terrorism and globalisation, and to new contexts for their work, including the Internet, new forms of literary celebrity, and the rise of creative writing programmes. You will be encouraged to see how the essays you write and the literary analysis you perform can help to create links between the so-called “real world” and the texts you read. We will reflect on how we read literature now, and how we can best write about literature to capture its presence and power in our lives.

• Participation (20%)
• Early Feedback Quiz (10%)
• Secondary Literature Review (30%)
• Research Essay (40%)

For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).