IA5020 - Black Writers

Credit points:	03
Year:	2011
Student Contribution Band:	Band 1
Administered by:	School of Indigenous Australian Studies

Available to all postgraduate students.

This subject looks at the development of Black Australian writing and the way in which Black Australians have used writing to reflect their lives and consciousness. There will be an overview of Indigenous Australian literature in relation to social, historical and political contexts. Fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry and critically acclaimed short feature films will be explored through various models of contemporary literary criticism and students will apply conventions from these, as well as their own perspectives in the appreciation and analysis of selected texts. On completion of this subject students should understand the complexities of black Australian writing in the context of post-colonial Australia and its relation to everyday life in Australia today. This subject will be offered through on-line activities and therefore requires students to have access to the World Wide Web. Those students who do not have access to email must contact the Subject Co-ordinator.

Learning Outcomes

• reflect on the history, forms and conventions of what has come to be recognised as 'literature' and consider how Indigenous literature has been influenced by this framework;
• engage and become familiar with a range of print and film texts by writing responses using traditional conventions of literary criticism;
• analyse the way in which texts operate as social practices within social, historical and political contexts and within relations of power and ideology;
• critically review a range of texts in order to evaluate their effectiveness as counter discourses and self-representation; also: produce personally relevant re-readings and resistant readings.

Graduate Qualities

• The ability to work with people of different gender, age, ethnicity, culture, religion and political persuasion;
• The ability to work individually and independently;
• The ability to appraise information critically;
• The ability to use independent judgment to synthesise information to make intellectual and/or creative advances;
• The ability to think laterally and be original.

Inadmissible Subject Combinations:

IA2010

Availabilities
External, Study Period 2
Census Date 25-Aug-2011
Coord/Lect:	Ms Sharon Moore.
Method of Delivery:	WWW - LearnJCU and Printed materials
Assessment:	assignments (20%); short on-line critiques (30%); centrally-administered final exam (50%).

Note: Minor variations might occur due to the continuous Subject quality improvement process, and in case of minor variation(s) in assessment details, the Subject Outline represents the latest official information.