Unit Synopsis
The aim of Australian Literature and Identity is to show you how Australia as a nation is imagined through various contemporary works of literature, particularly from the immediate post-war period until now (1945 onwards). You will explore the ways in which Australian identities are constituted, changed and challenged by these texts, through a variety of critical perspectives and contexts of reception. You will also reflect on how the texts challenge or reinforce your thinking about Australian ideologies and/or identity.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Admission to CC10 or completion of 72 credit points in CA10, CB94, CC13, CG85 or CC43. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Reflective Practice Assignment | 25% |
| 2. Critical Review | 25% |
| 3. Essay | 50% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 25% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Student Feedback
Needs more timely content/assessment updates and more timely feedback.
Ensure unit content and assessments updates are completed prior to running the unit, and ensure feedback is delivered on time.
Content and assessment updates were completed ahead of time, and feedback was likewise delivered on time.
Source: Student Feedback
Students indicated that the unit coordinator used clear and knowledge explanations, challenged students to think and to question their ideologies, and created inclusive environments where students were encouraged to interact and explore these ideas.
Continue to run weekly tutorials in a manner that prioritises a safe and supportive environment that encourage engagement and opportunities for questions and personal growth.
Weekly tutorials were continued and emphasis was placed on prioritising a safe and supportive environment. Qualitative student feedback supports this.
Source: Student Feedback
Continue to provide shorter texts that allow for closer reading and more time to complete assessments.
Continue to review the text lists to ensure they contain a mix of short-form and long-form texts. Short-form texts such as short story anthologies allow students to reduce preliminary reading time and make way for close readings and analysis.
The reading list was revised and updated prior to the term commencing.
Source: Unit Coordinator reflection and informal student feedback
The updated reading list that contained a greater diversity of authors, including First Nations, gender-diverse, and ethnically diverse authors, was well-received, particularly from Indigenous students and from students who had not read First Nations authors previously.
Continue to review and revise the text list when and where needed to ensure the list is contemporary and reflective of diverse Australian voices, including First Nations authors, gender-diverse, and ethnically diverse and migrant voices.
As above, the text list was reviewed and revised to broaden the diversity of voices available to students.
Source: Unit coordinator observation.
The unit provided strong support for developing critical theory and analytical skills; however, there is an opportunity to slightly strengthen the connection between these skills and the unit’s thematic focus to encourage more integrated engagement with weekly content.
Review weekly content for small opportunities to link analytical methods with the themes and texts under discussion. This may look like double-checking short activities (testing knowledge) at the end of study guides or within tutorials, question prompts in weekly forums.
In Progress
Source: Student feedback and unit coordinator observation.
Tim Winton's "Dirt Music" is not available as a complete online resource in the e-reading list, therefore its inclusion as an option in the reading text list (for the assessments and essay questions) should be reviewed.
Review text list and ensure all texts (novel and short story collections) are readily accessible for students. Make clear which texts are fully available via the e-reading list or physical library loan, and/or remove unattainable texts.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Conduct textual analysis of Australian literary texts in the context of national identity
- Analyse the historical, cultural and social contexts in which a range of Australian literary texts were produced, and to which they respond
- Critically evaluate significant issues and debates surrounding the reception of Australian literature
- Construct responses to issues raised and ideas about Australian literature, and convey those ideas through interpretive arguments.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Reflective Practice Assignment | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Critical Review | • | • | ||
| 3 - Essay | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | |||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | • | |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |