Course syllabus
SEMESTER 2, 2017
Course Information
- Course Coordinator
Alex Calder -- a.calder@auckland.ac.nz
- Tutor
Mark Bond
- Course delivery format
2 hours of lectures and 1 hour of tutorial
Lectures are Wed & Fri at 12. See SSO for details
Summary of Course Description
English 355 offers an historical survey of major writers and key issues in New Zealand literature. We look at how versions of the past have been remembered and explore the significance of those pasts for New Zealanders today. We raise questions about the representation of other cultures and other times, about identity and belonging, about the human place in nature, and aim to provide a rich and complex map of our cultural history from the period of first contact until now.
Our first text is F. E. Maning’s Old New Zealand (1863), a memoir of the life and times of a Pakeha who lived with a Maori tribe in the years before the Treaty of Waitangi. We introduce strategies for cross-cultural reading, examine problems of European settlement, and raise questions about the relation between traditional Maori values and modern forms of life—questions that will be asked in different ways by many other works in the course. In our drama section, for example, we explore Maori and Pakeha relations through comparisons between a play written by a Pakeha dramatist in the 1960s, when assimilation was official policy, with another play, set in the same period, written by a young Maori playwright in the ‘bicultural’ 1990s. Both plays involve journeys from the country to the city, and involve conflict between traditional values and the attractions of popular culture and the modern secular world. The tension between old and new is also explored in two novels of family history, Bulibasha and Plumb, written by two of our most eminent living writers, Witi Ihimaera and Maurice Gee.
Early in the semester, we make a detailed study of the short stories of Katherine Mansfield and Frank Sargeson, and pay particular attention to narrative theory and modes of experimentation in representing psychology and social issues in fiction. Robin Hyde’s biography of a World War One soldier, Passport to Hell, puts our theme of representing the past into another key: she is interested in ‘the making of a man who can both murder a surrendering prisoner and carry a wounded comrade across no-man’s land as gently as a kitten’. Gender issues are also important in our study of Frank Sargeson’s stories, which seem coded ‘gay’ to readers today, yet did not strike their first audience that way. C. K. Stead’s All Visitor’s Ashore recreates the energy and confusion of bohemian life in the Auckland of the 1950s. With Stead’s novel, we begin a turn away from realism towards a more ‘metafictional’ treatment of the relation between people and places, as exemplified by Janet Frame’s fascinating novel about New Zealanders travelling to the United States, Living in the Maniototo.
The poetry section of the course offers a detailed study of early and late works by our most distinguished poet, Allen Curnow, alongside poems by his contemporaries writing in the 1930s—Bethell, Mason, Glover—as well as a major mid-century figure, James K Baxter. We also examine work by several contemporary poets.
This course can fit into your degree in a number of ways. For all students majoring in English, a ‘stand-alone’ course in New Zealand Literature makes an ideal introduction to the culture of your own place. Our literature is not only interesting in its own right, but knowing about writing produced here, in a local and familiar context, gives you a counterweight that will enable you to better understand the literature of other times and places. For some students, English 355 might be part of a pathway in World or Postcolonial literatures. Looking beyond our own major, English 355 might also be part of a concentration in New Zealand Studies with strong links to courses in History, Media Film and TV, Maori Studies, and other subjects.
There are unparalleled opportunities at Auckland for graduate research in New Zealand Literature, and there are several Honours level courses in this and related fields. Research options in English 781 will almost always include at least one New Zealand topic.
Course outcomes
Students taking this course will have a solid historical grasp of the main themes and concerns of New Zealand literature from the 1840s until now, and will become familiar with work by each of the four major canonical figures (Mansfield, Sargeson, Curnow, Frame), as well as with work by a selection of writers of historical and/or contemporary interest. Students will also develop competence in each of the following genres: poetry, non-fiction, the short story, the novel, and drama. The course is interested in ideas and argument and will require students to make connections between the various works studied. Students taking this course will also develop their skills in close reading and essay writing.
Weekly Topics
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Prescribed Texts:
F. E. Maning, Old New Zealand and Other Writings (Continuum or e-text)
Katherine Mansfield, Selected Stories (Oxford World Classics)
Frank Sargeson, The Stories of Frank Sargeson (Cape Catley)
Robin Hyde, Passport to Hell (AUP)
Bruce Mason, Awatea (VUP) (out of print; Xerox available from UBS)
Hone Kouka, Wairoa (Huia)
Witi Ihimaera, Bulibasha (Reed)
Maurice Gee, Plumb, (Faber)
C.K. Stead, All Visitors Ashore (Godwit)
Janet Frame, Living in the Maniototo (Hutchinson)
Allen Curnow and other poets, e-texts and Cecil.
Recommended Texts:
Terry Sturm ed. The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature, 2nd ed. (Auckland: OUP, 1998)
Patrick Evans, The Long Forgetting, (Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 2008)
Alex Calder, The Settler’s Plot: How Stories Take Place In New Zealand, (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2011).
Workload:
The University of Auckland's expectation on 15-point courses, is that students spend 10 hours per week on the course. Students manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Students attend two hours of lectures each week and participate in a one-hour tutorial from week 2 of semester. This leaves seven hours per week outside the classroom to prepare for tutorials, assignments and the exam.
English 355: ASSESSMENT INFORMATION
There are three assignments which together are worth 100% of your final grade. The first assignment (1,600 words, 25% of your final grade) combines critical thinking with some sort of creative exercise. The quality of the creative material you produce will have a bearing on the overall mark, but other factors, such as your ability to demonstrate insight into the text, will carry more weight. The second assignment (2,400 words, 40% of your final grade) is based on a research activity and involves the detailed study of one text. The third assignment, a compare and contrast exercise requiring coverage of three of the texts/topics on the course, is designed to be written quickly, and will be due in the second week of the examination period (2000 words, 35% of your final grade).
In Summary:
Assignment 1: 1600 words: 25%; Tuesday August 29, 4pm.
Assignment 2: 2400 words; 40% due: Friday October 20, 4pm
Assignment 3: 2000 words; 35%: due Monday November 13, 4 pm.
Restrictions on Duplication of Material
The first three texts selected for the third assignment must not repeat any text or any writer selected for an earlier assignment. If you wish, you may (but need not) include additional fourth or fifth texts in your comparative essay; these may include texts or writers covered in an assignment, so long as you do not substantially repeat the same work.
Requirements for the presentation of coursework.
Students are required to download a barcoded cover sheet from Canvas.
The first and third assignments will not require a formal bibliography. The second assignment is a formal essay and requires proper referencing and a bibliography. I recommend you follow the Chicago Style guide—see the Student Learning Centre’s ‘Referencecite’ for basic information. MLA style is also acceptable.
Turnitin Students must also submit an electronic copy of each assignment as a single document to turnitin.
Deadlines and submission of coursework:
The English Department requires the timely submission of all coursework.
If you are unable to hand in an assignment by the due date, you should notify your tutor or lecturer beforehand and explain the circumstances in a face-to-face meeting or via email. If an extension is granted, you must attach to your submitted essay either an Extension Request Form bearing the new submission date and signature of the staff member, or a document such as an email from the staff member. Extensions will only be granted for compelling reasons, such as illness, or other unforeseen emergencies. English 355 does not allow penalty grades for late work. Any student who fails to submit the assignment on time must contact the convenor as soon as possible. Work handed in late without explanation or permission will not be marked but may be taken into consideration at the examiners’ meeting.
Course summary:
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