This course covers a wealth of literature from the Australian, Asian and South Pacific region, from Australia's earliest colonial outback and horsemen stories to the city-focused cosmopolitanism of the 1980s, Aboriginal and Asian literature of the 1990s and 2000s, and the contemporary Polynesian literatures? reformulations of place that respond to both contemporary and traditional understandings of islands, archipelagos, and identity.

Students will be encouraged to consider the issues of "now", namely the anxieties shared by many nations and ethnicities in the Asia-Pacific region concerning identity politics, the environment and globalization, as they are depicted in literature from across the region.

This course gives students experience in writing and completing assessments in a range of styles and genres, from the short form to the formal scholarly essay, and will even give students the opportunity to do a small amount of their own creative fiction writing if desired.