Fort St Texts 2020:

Text 1 - Margaret Atwood - Spotty Handed Villainesses (speech)

By turns humorous and wryly subversive, this 1994 speech provides a modern feminist perspective on the representation of female characters in literature and culture throughout history.

Margaret Atwood is a highly regarded Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic and essayist. She has received numerous awards and prizes including the Canadian Governor General’s Award, the Los Angeles Times Fiction Award and the Booker Prize.

Text 2 - Nam Le - Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice… (prose fiction)

First published in 2006 and combining elements of autobiography, fiction and metafiction, the story presents an examination of identity, familial relationships and the narrator’s Vietnamese heritage. 

Nam Le is an Australian writer of Vietnamese descent. He has received numerous awards including the Pushcart Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

Text 3 - Zadie Smith - ‘That Crafty Feeling’ (nonfiction)

Adapted from a lecture presented to university writing students in 2008, this essay adopts a lively, self conscious style and incorporates a broad range of literary and cultural references to reflect on different approaches to writing fiction.

Zadie Smith is a critically acclaimed English author and professor of creative writing at New York University. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002 and has won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Text 4 - Helen Garner - ‘How to Marry Your Daughters’  (nonfiction)

This 2016 review essay adopts a witty and playful tone as it narrates the author’s experience of reading Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice for, perhaps, the first time.

Helen Garner is a celebrated Australian writer of fiction and nonfiction. She has received numerous awards and prizes including the Melbourne Prize for Literature, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier’s Award for Fiction and the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for nonfiction.

Text 5 - Colum McCann - ‘What time is it now, where you are?’ (prose fiction)

A self-conscious metafiction composed in thirteen sections, the story explores both the possibilities and the limitations of conventional storytelling. 

Colum McCann is an Irish novelist and short story writer. He is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the 2009 National Book Award and the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Text 6 - Wallace Stevens - ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ (poetry)

First published in 1917, the poem presents a series of striking and evocative images and reflections. Marked by contrasts and shifts in perspective, the clipped rhythms and minimalist modes adopted in the thirteen sections of the poem are reminiscent of haiku.

A celebrated American poet of the twentieth century, Wallace Stevens won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1951 and 1955, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1955.

Text 7 - ‘Colum McCann - Thirteen Ways of Looking’ (prose fiction)

Featuring the skilful use of narrative point of view to represent multiple perspectives, the story features an observational style and episodic structure.

 Colum McCann is an Irish novelist and short story writer. He is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the 2009 National Book Award and the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.