Australian Cultural Studies

Kursbeschreibung / -kommentar

This course aims to promote an understanding of the complexity of Australian national identity by providing a historical background to contemporary debates. Based on the study of primary texts - including government documents, novels, poems, films, historiographical works, newspaper articles, song lyrics, and tourism advertisements - we will scrutinize the tradition of defining Australia. Placing a particular emphasis on historical focal points (e.g., Federation, Gallipoli, the British departure from the South Pacific, the introduction of official multiculturalism, the "History Wars’), we will focus especially on recurring themes such as the outback/bush, whiteness, mateship, and egalitarianism that have functioned as (auto) stereotypes of Australianness. In addition, we will bring to light the ambivalent attitude Australian settlers have adopted towards Australia’s former motherland, Great Britain, its neighbouring Asian countries, and its powerful ally to the east, the United States. Most importantly, we will discuss how Australians have dealt with the legacy of colonial violence and oppression towards Australia’'s Indigenous population and attempt to explain Indigenous-settler relations, mechanisms of otherness, and dominant representations of Aboriginality in contemporary Australian culture. In this endeavor, cultural studies will serve as our core analytical framework. We will draw, in particular, on secondary literature that developed out of the context of the Australian tradition of cultural studies, including works by Stephen Muecke, Ian Hunter, and Philip Morrissey.

Students can choose which texts/films they want to focus on in their research. They are required to read one novel and watch one of the films listed below before the start of the semester.

Novels/Autobiography

Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career (1901)
Patrick White, Voss (1957)
Ruby Langford Ginibi, Don't Take Your Love to Town (1988)
Kim Scott, True Country (1993)
Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang (2000)
Kate Grenville, The Secret River (2005)

Films/Documentary

Jedda (1955)
Walkabout (1971)
Crocodile Dundee (1986)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Australia (2008)
Immigration Nation (2010)

Please note that the seminar starts on May 12. Students enrolled in this course will be invited to attend the conference "Postcolonial Justice: Reassessing the 'fair go'" at Potsdam University (29 May-1 June 2014) free of charge. Attendance of at least two conference panels (or keynotes/readings/ plenaries) or of the teacher's workshop (für Lehramtsstudierende) is mandatory. The conference schedule is available at http://www.uni-potsdam.de/poco_justice/. Students will write a reflective journal on their conference experience which may be used towards a collaborative conference report (optional). A date for a double-session for a film screening of Utopia (2013) and Babakiueria (1986) will be agreed upon during the first session.

Please note that this class has a considerable workload of written assignments. Students will receive individual feedback on their work.

Assessment: Active participation in class (including interactive pair and group work and occasional short presentations), response paper on a book or film, reflective journal based on a conference visit, 200-word exposé of the term paper, short term paper (2,000-3,000 words).