Course syllabus

Class lecture times:    Tuesday & Thursday, 12 pm, Clock-tower 039                                 

Teaching Staff

Convenor/Lecturer/Tutor: Alex Calder. extn. 87340

            email: a.calder@auckland.ac.nz;

                   

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 documentary novel set in World War One, 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 important in our study of Frank Sargeson’s stories, which seem coded ‘gay’ to readers today, yet did not necessarily 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: 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 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 perspective 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.   

 

Aims and 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.

Text List

F. E. Maning, Old New Zealand and Other Writings (Continuum or e-text)

Katherine Mansfield, Selected Stories (Oxford World Classics or e-text)

Frank Sargeson, The Stories of Frank Sargeson (Cape Catley)

Robin Hyde, Passport to Hell (AUP)

Bruce Mason, Awatea (VUP) (e-text)

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)

 

Recommended Reading

Terry Sturm ed. The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature, 2^nd 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).

John Newton, Hard Frost: Structures of Feeling in New Zealand Literature, 1908-1945, (Victoria University Press, 2017).

 

Teaching Format

 

This course is taught through lectures and tutorials. English 355 is taught concurrently with English 221. Students for both courses attend the same lectures, but attend different tutorials and follow a distinct method of assessment appropriate to each level.

Expectations of students.

Student workload for this course is expected to be around 10 hours per week. Students are required to attend all lectures and tutorials, and to read texts in advance of the lectures and tutorials.

Suggested tutorial topics (subject to change): please read and think about the material in advance.

 

week 2 Maning Old NZ. 

week 3 Mansfield.  ‘At the Bay’, ‘Daughters of the Late Colonel’  

week 4 Passport to Hell

week 5 Sargeson: ‘The Hole that Jack Dug’, ‘That Summer’

week 6  Drama: Awatea and Waiora.

week 7  Plumb

week 8 Bulibasha

week 9  Poetry

week 10 All Visitors Ashore

week 11 Poetry

week 12 Living in the  Maniototo

 

 

Short Stories to read before lectures

 

Mansfield 1: Prelude

Mansfield 2: The Garden Party, Bliss, The Man Without a Temperament

Sargeson 1: A Good Boy, Old Man’s Story, City and Suburban

Sargeson 2: I’ve Lost my Pal, A Man and his Wife, Sale Day

 

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%; Friday August 17, 4pm.

Assignment 2: 2400 words; 40% due: Friday October 5, 4pm

Assignment 3: 2000 words; 35%: due Monday November 5, 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.

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. Students are required to download a barcoded cover sheet from Canvas.  Essays should be handed in hard copy at the Arts Assignment Centre and online via Canvas.

 

 

Policy on extensions and late work

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 should attach to your submitted essay a note or email from the staff member. Extensions are normally granted for compelling reasons, such as illness or other unforeseen emergencies.  English 221 does not allow penalty grades for late work. Any student who fails to submit an 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 account at the examiners’ meeting.

 

Generic information

 

1. The University’s Statement on Plagiarism.

            The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence.   The work that a student submits for grading must be the student’s work, reflecting his or her learning.  Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced.  This requirement also applies to sources on the world-wide web.  A student’s assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms.  Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.

For more detailed information, see the University’s guidelines on the conduct of  Coursework at

http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/teaching-learning/policies-procedures

 

2. Complaint Procedures

            In the first instance, students or the class representative should take any concerns they have with their course delivery or assessment to the lecturer or  tutor or convenor concerned. Students or staff may approach the Mediator’s Office or the Student Advocacy Network at any time for assistance. In the event that the matter is not resolved satisfactorily at an informal level, students or the class representative should approach the Head of the School with a formal statement of their complaint.

For more detailed information, see the University guidelines regarding Student Learning and Grievance procedures at:

http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/teaching-learning/policies-procedures

AUSA also offers advice on grievance and harassment issues. See the AUSA website’s ‘Need Help?’ section for further information.

 

3. Other sources of information and assistance.

Guides to Library sources for all undergraduate papers in English are available from the Learn home page: follow the links from Resources By Subject / Arts / English

 

Announcements and Resources for this paper are regularly posted on Canvas. The University’s policy is that all communication with students is via their university email address—please check your university email address regularly.

 

TIMETABLE 2018

 

Week	Date	Topic
1	July 17-19	Introduction
		Old New Zealand
2	July 24-26	Old New Zealand
		Mansfield Stories
3	July 31-Aug 2	Mansfield Stories
		Passport to Hell
4	August 7-9	Passport to Hell
		Sargeson Stories
5	August 14-16	Sargeson Stories
		Poetry: Curnow and the 1930s
6	Aug 21 – 23	Awatea
		Waiora
Mid-Semester Break  27 August – 8 September
7	Sept 11-13	Plumb
		Plumb
8	Sept 18 - 20	Bulibasha
		Poetry: Curnow and Baxter
9	Sept 25 - 27	All Visitors Ashore
		All Visitors Ashore
10	October 2 - 4	Poetry: Late Curnow
		Poetry: Contemporary Figures
11	October 9 - 11	Living in the Maniototo
		Living in the Maniototo
12	October 16 - 18	Conclusion for 355
		Conclusion for 221