Australian Literature
This page covers Australian literature. McKee Library's collection includes numerous titles by Australian authors. We have included a selection of these titles in our reading list, linked below. The resources below cover the general topic, however, more information is available if you search for individual authors by name in the databases.
- Australian Literature Reading List: McKee LibraryAn Australian literature reading list. This is not an exhaustive list, rather a list of titles available in McKee Library's collection.
Internet Resources
- Australian LiteratureThe literature of Australia. Because the vast majority of early Australian settlers were transported prisoners, the beginnings of Australian literature were oral rather than written.
- Australian Literature- BrittanicaPerhaps more so than in other countries, the literature of Australia characteristically expresses collective values. Even when the literature deals with the experiences of an individual, those experiences are very likely to be estimated in terms of the ordinary, the typical, the representative. It aspires on the whole to represent integration rather than disintegration. It does not favour the heroicism of individual action unless this shows dogged perseverance in the face of inevitable defeat. Although it may express a strong ironic disapproval of collective mindlessness, the object of criticism is the mindlessness rather than the conformity.
Podcasts
- The Book PodcastConversations with Australian women authors.
- The Booktopia PodcastThe Podcast of Booktopia, Australia's Local Bookstore. Booktopia has been voted Australia's Favourite Bookshop and Australia's Best Online Bookshop. Join us for author interviews, book reviews and recommendations and bookish banter. We love books, especially Australian ones.
- The Fremantle Press PodcastPerhaps you're a lover of literature or just love book chat of any kind; perhaps you're an aspiring author or illustrator; or perhaps you're someone who hopes one day to work in publishing. If you fit any of these descriptions, this is one podcast you may want to subscribe to. In 2020 we'll be sharing our love of books and publishing throughout the year, starting with podcast episodes direct from The Business of Being a Writer at Perth Festival's Literature and Ideas Weekend. Our exciting new host for 2020 is none other than YA author Rebecca Higgie. Rebecca was the winner of the inaugural Fogarty Literary Award for Western Australian writers aged between 18 and 35. Rebecca will undertake extended interviews with many of our 2020 authors to find out more about their books, their lives and their writing habits. Special guest authors and industry professionals will take you into topics as diverse as international rights sales, social media, events and more.
- The Rereaders PodcastEstablished in 2011, The Rereaders is a fortnightly literary and cultural podcast that has been described as Melbourne’s answer to the Slate Culture Gabfest
- Talking Aussie BooksTalking Aussie Books is a weekly podcast shining a spotlight on Australian fiction run by Claudine Tinellis. It has conducted 55 interviews to date and the podcast can be accessed via Claudine’s personal website, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google and Deezer to name a few.
Literature
The True History of the Kelly Gang
“I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.” In True History of the Kelly Gang, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.
Schindler's List
The acclaimed bestselling classic of Holocaust literature, winner of the Booker Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, and the inspiration for the classic film--"a masterful account of the growth of the human soul" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). A stunning novel based on the true story of how German war profiteer and factory director Oskar Schindler came to save more Jews from the gas chambers than any other single person during World War II. In this milestone of Holocaust literature, Thomas Keneally, author of Daughter of Mars, uses the actual testimony of the Schindlerjuden--Schindler's Jews--to brilliantly portray the courage and cunning of a good man in the midst of unspeakable evil.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Winner of the Man Booker Prize "Nothing since Cormac McCarthy's The Road has shaken me like this." --The Washington Post In The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan displays the gifts that have made him one of the most acclaimed writers of contemporary fiction. Moving deftly from a Japanese POW camp to present-day Australia, from the experiences of Dorrigo Evans and his fellow prisoners to that of the Japanese guards, this savagely beautiful novel tells a story of the many forms of love and death, of war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.
The Book Thief
The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist-books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. "The kind of book that can be life-changing." --The New York Times "Deserves a place on the same shelf with The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank." --USA Today DON'T MISS BRIDGE OF CLAY, MARKUS ZUSAK'S FIRST NOVEL SINCE THE BOOK THIEF.
David Malouf
He is a complex and lyrical poet-novelist whose work, rich in imagery and association, evokes a present in which the past is always just below the surface. In this tantalizing introduction to the fiction and poetry of David Malouf, filmed in 1997, the award-winning writer talks with great humanity about his life and career, focusing on how he relates to the world he so vividly describes. Readings by Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush are skillfully interwoven with archival and specially shot footage of the places and experiences that have shaped Malouf’s unique literary vision.
Source: Films on Demand