Australia’s slide into Tyranny # Primitive societies were obsessed with fertility. Any drought, famine or pestilence was seen as a punishment from superior beings. The safety and welfare of the tribe depended on the health and life of a semi-divine or demi-god ruler. A healthy vigorous and virile king ensures natural and human productivity. A sick, maimed or impotent king brings blight and disease to the land and the people.

The Australian Novel # Australians have been uncertain of ourselves, we felt insecure. What was the cause of this? … First … geography, the hostile environment, the fear experienced when alone; far from Europe. Second, the doubt, do we belong here, perhaps this is geography, perhaps history … third, Australia as the harlot, raped by the Europeans, coarse, vulgar, meretricious. We suffer from cultural cringe. Cultural cringe: # Most colonial outposts are conditioned to believe themselves as inferior to their colonisers - why else were they colonised?

Brave New World Brave New World - Blade Runner # Introduction to Brave New World # Brave New World (BNW) is a fable set in 614 AF in a universal state where science is used to create a stable conformist society through test tube incubation, eugenics and memory induced conditioning. The themes include the detrimental effects of science and technology disempowering and enslaving mankind rather than freeing them to enjoy wide ranging human experiences and emotions and enriching their lives.

Characters In Cloudstreet Cloudstreet Characters: # We must remember that character creation is a construct; an artefact and central ones do not necessarily represent the author. Characters are either portrayed sympathetically or unsympathetically. The former are called protagonists, heroes or good guys while the latter are antagonists, villains or bad guys. Sometimes main characters are picaresque – likeable but harmless rogues, larrikins or scoundrels –“loveable rogues”. Martin Amis points out that over two millennia humans first told stories of Gods, then Kings, then Epic Heroes, then ordinary people , then anti-heroes, then villains, then demons and finally themselves.

Characters Emma Main Characters: # We must remember that character creation is a construct; an artefact and central ones do not necessarily represent the author. Characters are either portrayed sympathetically or unsympathetically. The former are called protagonists, heroes or good guys while the latter are antagonists, villains or bad guys. Sometimes main characters are picaresque – likeable but harmless rogues, larrikins or scoundrels –“loveable rogues”. Martin Amis points out that over two millennia humans first told stories of Gods, then Kings, then Epic Heroes, then ordinary people , then anti-heroes, then villains, then demons and finally themselves.

Case Studies Case studies of Post traumatic stress and its symptoms. # Both Uncle Jake Heinrichs and his twin Anne Ogilvie felt inordinate guilt as a result of sitting in the front seat of the car when their father was killed. They were only 19. Each in their own way felt they were in some way responsible for his death. It affected the rest of their lives in different ways.

Biography Mary Shelley Biography of Mary Shelley # 1797 - 1851 Mary Godwin was born on August 30, 1797 in London to Mary Wollstonecraft (an early feminist writer) and William Godwin (also a writer on social and political issues). Mary’s mother died 11 days after giving birth to her, one of the many deaths that were to affect her life. Her father’s devastation at the death of his wife may have influenced the many deaths related in Frankenstein.

1984 George Orwell George Orwell # George Orwell, aka, Eric Arthur Blair, (1903, - Bengal, India, - 1950, London, England) English novelist, essayist, and critic, famous for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), the latter a profound anti-utopian novel that examines the dangers of totalitarian rule. (Britannica) Laura Beers (Norton) writes that in the nearly seventy-five years since George Orwell’s death, his writing has been appropriated for various ideological ends.

Joseph Heller #

catch - 22 Catch 22 # Catch-22 can mean a situation in which your actions invite problems, not solutions, and you let that state continue at the cost of blurring any future solutions to the issues in different areas of action. In Joseph Heller’s anti-war classic Catch-22, the pilots joke while one by one they get shot down. The combination of bleak humour with a serious message played out numerous times throughout the 20th century.

Huck Finn Huckleberry Finn # by Samuel Longhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain (mark- two fathoms) Mark Twain is one of America’s 19th century most quoted writers. His laconic, sardonic wit sums up most of what Bruce Michelson calls “the power of art to affirm life even as it denies all of the illusions that constitute life”. Art attempts to represent reality through illusion - metaphor - analogy or - myth.

Characters In Skin Of A Lion Characters In the Skin of a Lion # We must remember that character creation is a construct; an artefact and central ones do not necessarily represent the author. Characters are either portrayed sympathetically or unsympathetically. The former are called protagonists, heroes or good guys while the latter are antagonists, villains or bad guys. Sometimes main characters are picaresque – likeable but harmless rogues, larrikins or scoundrels –“loveable rogues”.

Banjo Paterson Banjo Paterson 1864 - 1941 # Born in 1864, on his grandparents’ station near Orange, his parents later moved to Yass, Andrew Barton Paterson received a sound education at a day boy at Sydney Grammar, staying with his educated Grandmother in Gladesville who inspired his interest in history and writing. He articled as a solicitor but his real interest was the Bush and writing. He had his first poem published in the Bulletin in 1886 at 22 years old.

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My Place Language Style and Language - My Place - Sally Morgan # LITERARY TECHNIQUE # My Place uses a Craft of Writing by ordinary people for ordinary people. The style appeals to non-literary readers. It is non-fiction yet it uses many of the conventions and processes of literature. It is characterised by anti-intellectual and non-academic research and writing. It is an oral story of personal triumph against whiteman’s way and all odds.

Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men # Steinbeck’s Nobel Award # At the Nobel banquet in 1962, Steinbeck said he was undeserving of the award, but graciously accepted it on behalf of great writers before him. “In my heart, there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence – but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself,”

Pride And Prejudice Introduction to Pride and Prejudice # Jane Austen’s first novel, initially called First Impressions, then Dignity and Perception and finally Pride and Prejudice, was sent to a publisher in 1797 by her father who also offered to pay for its publication. It was sent back immediately with a note; “Declined by return Post”. It was finally published 16 years later as Pride and Prejudice in 1813 by Thomas Egerton for £110.

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“Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St Paul Minnesota the son of an alcoholic failure from Maryland and an adoring, intensely ambitious mother, he grew up acutely conscious of wealth and privilege—and of his family’s exclusion from the social elite. He left Princeton without graduating to join the American army too late to serve overseas. He wrote his first novel at 13. Scott fell in love with a series of rich women who looked down on him.

The Novel as Genre # When we read we eradicate the illusion of our separateness. George Saunders Early forms of literature evolved from imitative re-enactments, to dance, to Epic tales to full fledged drama, Poetry and common Tales. Epic literature demands a detached awe, Poetry engagement of all senses, drama evokes pathos to feel sympathy, while the novel appeals to engagement for empathy. Martin Amis points out that over two millennia humans first told stories of Gods, then Kings, then Epic Heroes, then ordinary people, then anti-heroes, then villains, then demons and finally themselves.