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The University of New South Wales

New Course: Australian Legends

Australian Legends introduces students to key components of Australian self-understanding in their evolving cultural contexts. It explores the origins and shifting meanings of such themes as:
  • the Fatal Shore
  • the Bush Legend
  • the Pioneer Legend
  • the Quiet Continent
  • White Australia and Multicultural Australia
  • the Anzac Legend
  • the Land of the Fair Go
  • Sporting Paradise
  • Man's World
  • Beaches, Islands and the Sea
      • The course examines how a wide variety of writers, artists, feminists, historians, radical nationalists and Indigenous activists have contributed to the making of these images as well as challenged them. It addresses fundamental questions implicit in the field of Australian Studies itself: what is Australian Studies? What do scholars in this field do? What led to its development? Australian Legends thus introduces students to the benefits of interdisciplinary approaches. Its design has been informed by experience of local and international students' needs, interests and preferences.