Please note - Swinburne University of Technology

~ ~ 3 0 4 Cross-cultural Perspectives
No. of hours per week: three hours
Prerequisites: two stage two literature subjects or
approved equivalents
Assessment: essay, class paper, examination,
class contribution
Subject aims and description
The subject seeks to explore, by a close analysis of significant
texts of cross-cultural encounters, the ways in which different
cultures have sought to explain and interpret each other by
thinking about and interacting with each other. It focuses on
non-English writers from mainly India, Africa and the
Caribbean and their creative manipulation of the English
language to comment on their own traditions and history, or
to interpret the interaction between Eastern/African and
Western cultures and values.
-. 0
-5.
g. *~~306 Renaissance Literary Culture
2
% No, of hours per week: three hours
m
Prerequisites: two stage two literature subjects or
&.
approved equivalents
2 Assessment: continuous
Gi
Subject aims and description
The principal aim of this subject is to critically investigate the
ways in which we read and interpret the literature of the
2. Renaissance. Not losing sight of our position as late twentieth
5,
century readers, this subject explores the place that literature
occupied within Renaissance culture as a whole. Drawing on
3
a contemporary theoretical models, it seeks to relate the
historical phenomenon of the Renaissance to the modern1
postmodern debate.
w
c. Recommended reading
Healy, T. New Latitudes. Theory and English Renaissance Literature.
g London, Edward Arnold, 1992
*Not available to students who have previously passed
AL203 Renaissance Literature.
AL~OO
Reading and Writing Seminar
No. of hours per week: two hours per fornight
over two semesters
Assessment: folio and participation in seminars
and workshops
Subject aims and description
The aim of this subject is to present students with a wide
variety of options in writing and its production, together with
a time and a place to explore in greater depth elements of
the elective subjects which are of special interest to them.
Seminars may take a variety of forms, from 'Writers'
Reading' sessions in which original work is presented, to the
formal and informal seminar, the writers' workshop, the
element of dramatic performance. As part of their course
students will be encouraged to attend and report on public
functions such as the Melbourne Writers' Festival and
participate in community arts events, e.g. open reading at
various Melbourne venues. It is envisaged that students will
produce a collection of their writing as part of the year's
activities.
. References .. - - - -
Daniel, H. (ed.) Expressway. Ringwood, Pengum, 1989
Daniel, H. (ed.) Wllennium. Ringwood, Penguin, 1991
~ ~ 4 0 1 Writing Project
No. of hours per week: two hours per fortnight
over two semesters
Prerequisite (or corequisite for full-time students):
AL400 Reading and Writing Seminar
Instruction: workshop and supervision
Assessment: an extended piece of writing and
workshop participation
Subject aims and description
This subject provides students with the opportunity to work
on an extended piece of writing in an atmosphere of support,
encouragement and mutual critical advice. It allows for
expansion and elaboration of themes encountered in previous
writing subjects, with an anticipated outcome being 'finding
one's own voice'. A series of workshops will provide the basis
for the evolution of the longer work out of preliminary drafts.
Reference
Grenville, K. The Writing Book. A Workbook for Fiction Writers.
Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1990
~ ~ 4 0 3 Narrative Writing
No. of hours per week: three hours
Assessment: a folio of writing, workshop
participation and exercises
Subject aims and description
This subject will introduce students to the range of skills
required of the professional writer of fiction. A series of
workshop exercises will develop skills in creating character,
dialogue and dramatic tension. Point of view, voice, form,
style, plot, tone, and description and their place in building a
story will be explored. The importance of revision, listening to
criticism and developing a self-critical stance will be stressed.
together with techniques for developing these personal
skills. Developing skills in critical and creative thinking and
the application of these skills in various practices of writing
fiction will be included: e.g. plugging into both rational and
irrational processes; the role of conjectural thinking, intuition
and luck; the use of analogies, metaphor, and associative
thinking; perceiving and creating relationships. Emphasis is
placed on the participants as writer and critic.
References
Grenville, K. The Writing Book. A Workbook for Fiction Writers.
Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1990
Kinross-Smith, G. Writec A Working Guide for New Writers.
Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1992
Vargas Llosa, M.A Writer's Reality. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1991
AMOS
From Book to Film: Textuality and
Discourse
No. of hours per week: three hours
Assessment: essay, script and seminar
participation
Subject aims and description
This subject explores the relationships between discourse and
reception through the adaptation of texts. It will be
organised around a case study (e.g. multi-media adaptations
of Bram Stoker's Dracula), and involve the examination of
issues of reproduction and authenticity, as well as the
cultural impact of new writing technologies on popular