Patrick White: Voss
This study guide addresses both the context and the content of Patrick White’s classic Australian novel Voss. Under “context” it summarises the novel’s reception,its place in the author’s life, and its inspiration in the expeditions of the lost explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. Under “content” the guide deals with five layers of meaning that are evident both in individual passages and in the novel’s overall design. These are: the physical or plot layer; characterisation; the emotional layer; the moral layer; and the metaphysical or spiritual layer. (more…)
Thea Astley and David Malouf: Australia in the World, A Twentieth-Century Retrospective
Thea Astley’s novel, It’s Raining in Mango, first published in 1987, and David Malouf’s novel, The Great World, first published in 1990, create retrospective views of Australia in the world by telling the stories of Australian families. Written by authors born in Queensland, both novels look back over major international events of the twentieth century, one from the perspective of tropical Queensland and the other from that of “Keen’s Crossing” thirty miles north-west of Sydney. Both novels offer insights into Australia’s complex interconnectedness with the international community especially Asia.
As You Like It: Two Approaches
The first approach is a traditional textual analysis of As You Like It, which tries not to deaden the comedy with too much earnestness. However while As You Like It appeals to all audiences, including those who enjoy on-stage comic action and rude jokes, it does have serious things to say about love, sex, marriage, morals and the clash of human temperaments.
“Approach Two,” livens things up by demonstrating that As You Like It invites interpretation as a witty attack on many of the conventions that governed love, marriage and literature in the middle and upper social levels of Shakespeare’s England.
T.H. White: An Introduction
This lecture is based on my reading of two books:
Sylvia Townsend Warner. T.H. White: A Biography. London: Jonathan Cape, 1967; and Elisabeth Brewer. T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1993. I also recommend the biographical note by Sylvia Townsend Warner, the Afterword to the Harper-Collins edition of The Once and Future King.
King Lear Study Guide
In this Study Guide, we’ll approach King Lear by interweaving an Act-by-Act reading, based on exercises and questions, with discussions of themes, language and characters.
A Companion to Shakespeare’s Richard III
This friendly scene-by-scene guide may help you to keep up with events, characters and themes as you read your way through Richard III. It includes historical background to events and people in Shakespeare’s play, and some simple interpretations.
Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club
These three lectures analyse the interwoven stories in The Joy Luck Club. They focus on the novel’s themes of mother-daughter relationships; of Chinese women in China; and of Chinese and Chinese-American women in America.