1. ACL1001 Reading Contemporary Fiction Lecture 1: Introduction

2. Lecturers  Lecturer: Dr Karina Smith  Research Interests: Postcolonial, Caribbean, African-American and African cultural production; Feminist theory; globalization  Dr Ian Syson, Dr David Sornig, Mr Phillip Dimitriadis

3. Consultation Times  Rm 8.221 St Albans campus  Ph: 9919 2469  Email: karina.smith@vu.edu.au karina.smith@vu.edu.au  Tuesdays

4. Reading Contemporary Fiction  In this unit, We read literature published after 1970  The ‘literary canon’ is a collection of literature deemed to be ‘good’ based on particular societal values.  Shakespeare

5.  We think about the notion of a literary canon and the types of texts included in it. The literature taught in this unit challenges ‘the canon’.  Terry Eagleton points out that ‘the so-called “literary canon”, the unquestioned “great tradition” of the “national literature”… is “a construct, fashioned by particular people for particular reasons at a certain time’ (1996: 10).

6. Set Texts  Set Texts:  Christos Tsiolkas, Loaded  Alan Duff, Once Were Warriors  Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye  Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon  Unit Reader

7. Format  Students must attend a 1 hour lecture and a 2 hour tutorial.  It is very important that students in this course do the required readings prior to attending the tutorials.