Abstract

Students will be introduced to Indigenous Australian writing, performance and cinema to explore the ways Indigenous Australian peoples use creative endeavours to express Indigenous perspectives and challenge dominant culture control over Indigenous cultural expression. Critical perspectives are applied to identify underlying constraints inherent in non-Indigenous portrayals of Indigenous Australian peoples … For more content click the Read More button below.

Syllabus

NON-INDIGENOUS REPRESENTATIONS OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANSConstructing Indigenous people through textsBeing ?written about? as a form of disempowermentThe parameters of the industryINDIGENOUS LITERARY PRODUCTIONKey Indigenous literary productions since 1788The continuity of oral traditionsRECLAIMING THE AGENDALiterary products as political activismWriting identityCultural expression and Indigenous perspectivesCONTEMPORARY TEXT PRODUCTIONCollaborative productionsTowards an Indigenous Australian literary tradition

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:
1.
Contextualise Indigenous Australian texts within specificities of history and culture
2.
Explore meaning in literature as mediated by the cultures and ontologies of the writer and reader
3.
Identify themes and textual features and conduct structural and stylistic analysis
4.
Use critical perspectives to analyse representations of Indigenous Australians and cultures in literary productions
5.
Create a literary text that demonstrates negotiation of Indigenous agendas in text production

Assumed knowledge

Understanding of Indigenous Australian Culture, Histories and contemporary realities