Yesterday we tackled three stories about people who were either living on the margins or living under circumstances of extreme stress: Patrick White’s “Down at the Dump”, Olga Masters “On the Train” and Tim Winton’s “The Turning”. With the exception of Olga Masters all authors- we decided- were also capable of finding and expressing huge…
A Hard God- by Peter Kenna (Wharf Theatre)
Wow, what an amazing production with Jackie Weaver (Aggie), Kerry Walker (Monica), Max Gillies (Dan), Ralph Cotteral (Martin), Ben Matthews (Joe), David Lyons (Jack) and Maeliosa Stafford (Paddy). Each actor contributed so richly to the dramatic texture of this powerful performance of this classic Australian play. The reason we went to this production was twofold.…
MA Fiction (Week 6 and 7)
We have been having a very rich time exploring the language and meaning of Henry Lawson’s “Send Round the Hat” and Barbara Baynton’s “Squeaker’s Mate”. Both stories reflect on experiences that gave shape to the Australian identity in the late 19th and early 20th century… but what an incredible difference in their point of view…
WebCT and LiveJournal
Hi all… I am plowing through all the LiveJournals for the first half of semester and I am having a ball. Especially with first years who I have not really got to know yet… and their LJs are a mind-expanding, mind blowing experience for the way they put me in touch with their lives (outside…
Hamlet at the Ensemble
This was a magnificent, powerful production at the Ensemble with this year’s third year students. This production brought lines of Shakespeare to life with wonderfully creative interpretations using gesture and many exaggerated movements of character. I noticed in the programme that the director (and performer of Hamlet) Mark Kilmurry has published “A Hamlet Diary” (Currency…
Poetry ENGL104…… fantastic crop of new poets!!!!
Wow, what an amazing crop of new talents emerges in first year as they respond to these 3 paintings and turn these into poetry. Go to the Poetry Community to see the fruits of this creative exercise… yay to First Years!- And please first years… copy your poems into your own LiveJournal and then copy…
Mission Australia Poetry Week 4
We had a stimulating morning discussing Shakespeare’s sonnet “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Number 130). Lots of great ideas flowing in the room… one of the best was John’s comment that Shakespeare was challenging all the conventions about women’s beauty which tend to “FLORALIZE/FLORALISE” women – I have not been able to…
Poetry Competition on Spirit
Hi all – there was such an interesting diversity of offerings that it was very hard to choose “The Best”!… I think all the poets who contributed to the strand are deserving. So I am proposing that ALL the following talented poets read. In 2 groups of 4. And each poet must preface the reading…
New Debate is Raging in Hot Topics
Please go to Hot Topics (click in my side bar) to take part in this new debate on whether Australian Students in 2006 are Apathetic about issues that really matter….. Here is an image of French Students in 2006 who are objecting to laws that affect their studies:
The Importance of Being Earnest
What a great event this was to see some exponents of radical fringe theatre performing in a traditional “straight” play. The discussion with the actors at the end gave a real insight into how and why they were drawn to adapting this “conventional” play to their own radical theatricals. The truth of the matter is…
Bush Walking Around Jerusalem Bay
I went with a friend of mine Graeme on a great walk around Jerusalem Bay (in Kuring-gai Chase) on Saturday. We found an ancient track that led out almost to the mouth of Broken Bay. My passion is the Angophora, the Sydney Red Gum which moulds itself around rocks into some extraordinary shapes. Each tree…
Welcome on board Mission Australia
I have just started teaching an “Introduction to Literature” Course for Mission Australia. This happens at the Mission Headquarters in Surrey Hills. I have thoroughly enjoyed my two sessions there so far where we have introduced the three core genres of literature (poetry, fiction and drama) and are now busily working away at the poetry…
Shakespeare and Romanticism Week 5
Yesterday we explored Golding’s translation of Ovid’s image of the four ages of the world. How much we need the influence of that vision of the Golden Age! How accurate is that depiction of the Iron Age which seems to be the prevailing condition of human life on this planet… and yet we have someone…
New Short Term Poetry Competion: "The Spirit"
Hi all…. Poetry in the Gallery PIG was such a success that we plan to continue this “Marriage” between LJ and PIG…. a new exhibition of paintings to do with the Spirit is opening on March 31st…. we (the royal we!) are proposing that you find the inspiration to write a poem called “Spirit” or…
New Short Term Poetry Competion: “The Spirit”
Hi all…. Poetry in the Gallery PIG was such a success that we plan to continue this “Marriage” between LJ and PIG…. a new exhibition of paintings to do with the Spirit is opening on March 31st…. we (the royal we!) are proposing that you find the inspiration to write a poem called “Spirit” or…
Outback Journey… near Wagga-Wagga
Hi Folks: this is the latest fantastic update to what you can do with LJ via photobucket…. the resolution is not so hot… but just click on this image and see the Australian Bush roll along… this is the beginning of a new LJ leap…MG
Introduction to Literature Week 4
So we started poetry today and finished fiction – with a bang: Balzac and Poe. Two challenging stories that open the brain corpuscles just a little more. I must admit I do love the intensity of the writing in Balzac. He takes you right inside his characters’ feelings and emotions and there is such a…
Review of a Journal Entry
Hi folks, “59 Elpis” asked me to do a demonstration review of someone’s journal… I have finally got round to doing this…. in haste I may add; but I decided to stop right there with “59 Elpis” himself. Check out the entry for the 12th March which is on a poem by Josh…. I thought…
Visit to the NSW Art Gallery with 19th Century Students
Thank you all for your attendance and for making the exploration of Enlightenment, Romantic and Victorian Art such a joint adventure… you know more than you think you do: your insights are at the tips of your fingers… and you don’t need to be a great art critic to understand how paintings work, how they…
My Own Private Idaho
We watched this full length feature before our Shakespeare class: an amazing re-working of the Henry IV story set in the context of contemporary American gay and drug culture. It gave a real sense of how we might be missing the true flavour of Shakespeare through our sentimentalization of his world and his imagery. His…
PIG in the Gallery
What a great start to this new venture of Hosting poetry readings in the M. Art Gallery: thank you Ross K for the initative. Thank you students for supporting it with your LiveJournal poems and your attendance… and what a great spread of wines, cheezes, fruits of the forest etc. etc… Thank you Bill F…
Week 3
So week 3 is upon us and all is running smoothly. This week PIG (Poetry in the Gallery) happens at 4.45 in the Gallery. Be there or be square. Watch your peers read from their poetry. This is an opportunity for LiveJournal’s Creativity to migrate from cyberspace into real three dimensional space for the duration…
NIneteenth Century Literature Week 2
Sorry about the mishap yesterday! But we still had a very lively engagement with the ideas of the young Romantics. The film Pandaemonium was true “find”. It captured some of the revolutionary enthusiam (and danger) of being a Romantic at the turn of the 18th/19th Century. It is often hard to imagine authors in books…
Shakespeare Week 2
Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation as we ventured into the subversive Shakespeare. Sonnet 130 “My Mistress’ Eyes” really does show that Shakespeare was out to challenge the accepted paradigms of love in his day -and ours! For him the challenge to the artificial veneers of society was his core concern. He was/is an…
Start of Week 2
Hi all- well we are getting into our stride and the LiveJournal URLs are coming in thick and fast. I didn’t get a chance to say it at the end of last week, but I was very excited by the sea of lively first year faces at the lecture on Friday… another 100 Literature students…
Nineteenth Century Literature
So we are launched into the 19th Century with my mate William Blake steering his way through Enlightenment Pomposities and through the muck and muddle of the early days of the industrial revolution. As you can see from “The Garden of Love” and “London” he enjoyed stirring people into thinking hard about the restrictions they…
Shakespeare Unit- more for Week 1
I was really glad to be able to show you those clips from two versions of Twelfth Night. These scenes give so much insight into the core issues of the play as a whole and here we had two very different interpretations. The Trevor Nunn version (with Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham Carter) really explores…
ACU MSM at the start of Autumn term… not a bad place to be!
Back on Campus
So we are all back on Campus and it is not such a bad place to be. Let me here officially announce that the Winners of the 2005/2006 Poetry and Review Competitions were Young J for his poem “Hyperion” (which you can view in the Creative Community -click on the side bar for this- on…
Look at this
You would not believe what appeared on the tree fern just outside our front door: massive! at least 2 metres long from head to tip of tail. There clinging for its dear life while my two “docile” pups were barking their heads off… Oh the joys of nature. Click on the image if you want…
Shakespeare Unit off to a great start!
It was very satisfying seeing you all back and ready for another Semester of Literature. I’m sorry yesterday was so crowded- both in terms of the room space AND in terms of the content. I always underestimate HOW LONG it takes to get through all the technical stuff before getting down to the content…. you’d…
Prizes for LiveJournal Entries Autumn 2006
Prizes for LiveJournal Entries Autumn 2006
Hi All: these are the prizes I have selected for contributors to the Poetry Community and the Review Community over the Summer Break. For Poetry, Les Murrays selection of “The Best Australian Poems 2005” is a great prize. Published by Blackincbooks (www.blackincbooks.com) this contains a fantastic line-up of poets publishing NOW. Whoever wins this prize…
Yours truly – on location – near the Wharf Theatre
A great play followed by a relaxing walk under the girders of the bridge and a delightful beer with my wife Rosie in a pub in Lower George Street… Hallelujah
Chaddia and Teresa in the Foyer after the show- "A Knockout"
Chaddia and Teresa in the Foyer after the show- “A Knockout”
A scene from the middle of the play
The stage becomes a dance floor as the cast enjoy a last fling before a new age takes over.
The sparse stage set
As the assistant director explained, they wanted a large, rather empty space to suggest an age in transition… a space that would give each of the characters lots of scope to express their individuality… There was a wonderful effect created by the sun streaming in through doors at the end with the sounds of birds…
Michelle and Adam waiting to go into the theatre… full of anticipation!
The Cherry Orchard- Chekhov
Yesterday a group of us ( see attached pictures) went to see the Sydney Theatre Company production of The Cherry Orchard. The STC had imported the English Director Howard Davies to work with Sydney actors. The result was mind-blowing. Instead of the traditional Chekhov where you have rather listless people gazing into the distance with…
WEbCT 6
Hi all- well I have just finished the basic structure for your English Literature Units on WebCT. This year as you know we have moved “up” to WebCT 6. It has some great new features, but they take getting used to. I hope that you enjoy what you find and that you send me any…
Worth a look: here is the social and historical function of Blogging in action, subverting the media with its hidden agendas: http://smh.com.au/news/technology/blogger-gains-following-with-iraq-reports/2006/01/29/1138319498566.html worth a look MG
Chaplin and Hitler
I watched a documentary on Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” last night. This as an extraordinary case of art attempting to challenge politics. In this case the politics was embodied in “the greatest actor the world has ever seen”. These were Chaplin’swords about Adolf Hitler. So there are huge paradoxes here. Shakespeare was indeed on…
Wagga Wagga Pendulous Gums
Chekhov and other things
Hi all. If you can get to Chekhov on the 1st of Feb then try to do so… see previous post. There is a free lecture before the show (10.30) followed by interviews with actors…. so contact Barbary Vickery and see if she can secure you a place. I had Teresa and David (year 2…
Blowering Dam Snowy Mountains
Sunset over the Snowy Mountain Foothills Tumut
Helen (Cello 3rd from right) Final Concert Wagga
The Cherry Orchard
Hi all- have just secured a deal for all my students who want to see Chekhov’s the Cherry Orchard at the Wharf Theatre (especially applies to 2nd year students- but Chekhov is a MUST for ALL LIterature students). So here goes: contact Barbara Vickery at either: bvickery@sydneytheatre.com.au OR on 92501778. Tell her that you are…
Hi all- I hope you are finding some time to relax and gather your strength for next semester. Those of you doing Shakespeare with me should know about a book I have just finished reading: “Will in the World” by Stephen Greenblatt. If you can get hold of it it is a great introduction to…
Michael Griffith: Home Page- Literature and Life Spring 2025 