POLC 4470 Week 5 Assignment

POLC 4470 Week 5 Assignment | Tulane University

Introduction

The novel for the next two weeks is by Australia's best known novelist, Tim Winton. It's called The Shepherd's Hut and here is a brief interview with Tim Winton. (Links to an external site.)

Among his best known novels is Cloudstreet written in 1991, a chronicle of the lives of two working-class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, through tragic and joyful times. It's a long book well worth reading and has been serialized for television.

Another one is my all-time favorite Winton book, Breath, that has been made into a full-length movie. It's an amazing surfing film set on Australia's West Coast. Here is the official US trailer:

Breath - Official U.S. Trailer (Links to an external site.) 

Since Winton's book does not directly deal with Aboriginal Australians, only with the harshness of the traditional lands that are theirs, in this Module I'd like us to also read a narrative from the Northern Territory (NT) which we started discussing while considering Thea Astley's book. It is by Marie Munkara and is titled Of Ashes and Rivers that Run to the Sea.

Her bio reads: "Of Rembarranga and Tiwi descent, Marie Munkara was delivered on the banks of the Mainoru River in Arnhemland by her two grandmothers and spent her early years on Bathurst Island. Her first novel, Every Secret Thing, won the Northern Territory Book of the Year in 2010."

Her misfortune? "When she was three and a half years old and like many Aborigines of her generation, she was taken from her birth parents to be raised by white parents. She belongs to the Stolen Generations (Links to an external site.). She was sent to a white family in Melbourne." 

Here is the first part of her second book (31 pages). It contains the swearing and the badmouthing we're getting used to in Australia-speak: MarieMunkara-AshesRivers.pdf  Download MarieMunkara-AshesRivers.pdf

In the meantime, there has been one more name change that favors Indigene peoples in the NT. Have a look at this very recent story: Larrakia (Links to an external site.)

Objectives

After this unit you should:

• Appreciate the specific geographical features of not just Western but all Australia.

• Imagine the place where the novel unfolds since our final novel, Terra Nullius, will roughly track much of the same region.

• Identify what threats exist to a settler, when compared to an Aboriginal, who traverses this landscape.

Instructions

As in the case of the previous novel, for this assignment write a three-page + one-page essay, on Winton's novel and on Munkara's memoir. See if you can fuse the two.

Stay on topic by making use of the texts, choosing salient passages, and interpreting them. Pay attention to individual characters at various stages of the novel--avoid focusing on just a single personage. Describe some of the key protagonists, their ambitions, failures, and achievements.

Place is all-important, no more so than in a Winton novel. Identify where/when/why crucial events develop. Conclude by explaining what Winton wants us to learn from his book. 

Use this overview of the novel to provide hunches, when not clear answers, to the story arc:

1) Tim Winton introduces us to Jaxie Clackton, depicted as using rough Aussie vernacular and slang. He runs away from home needing to go off grid, and travels hundreds of miles to rekindle the relationship with the girl he is infatuated with. He is headstrong, resourceful, vulnerable--but also soft-hearted and tender.

His bruising journey through the searing heat and bone-dry landscape of Western Australia--rarely used by settlers but more common for Indigene peoples--takes him to an isolated hut where a chance encounter will shape his life. Who is it that he meets? (It reminds me of a Graham Greene novel.) The final pages of the book are particularly gripping and visionary.

Fill in the blanks to this powerful novel wherever the story arc calls for it. Can you insert Munkara's edgy narrative at any point in your analysis?

Please keep in mind you need to submit your assignment answer by 8pm Sunday week (April 4). And remember, as the syllabus says, that any honest and original attempt to answer the assignment question clearly based on reading earns full credit.

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Submission Instructions

To submit your unit assignment, click the "Submit Assignment" button and upload your document as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.

Grading and Evaluation

See the rubric below for details. Be sure to read my Assignment Comment once your assignment is graded--reply in an Assignment Comment if you have any questions!