ENGL102 – Literature, Society & Australian Poets (Harwood & Wright)

Literature & Social Change

• Literature captures social flux: represents norms while questioning them
• Emotional, perceptual focus of fiction/poetry reveals broader historical change
• Keywords method: link textual details to large social concerns

Literature & Australian Society

• English literary study exists in Australia due to British colonisation
• Indigenous storytelling: oral traditions long predating English; now in print & experiencing renaissance
• Course weeks 6, 9, 12 examine literature’s embedding in Australian social contexts

Gwen Harwood – Poet & Social Boundary Rider

• Mid-late 20C white-settler Australian poet; blends passion, intellect, sexuality, spirituality
• Sees writing/reading as risky, vital (per Cixous, Kafka)
• Rejects disembodied intellect; celebrates embodied experience
• Critiques pompous academia (e.g., Prof. Eisenbart)

"The Sharpness of Death" (core ideas)

• Dramatic dialogue with Death; oscillates between plea & defiance
• Interweaves philosophy (Wittgenstein, Heidegger) & Romantic allusion (Keats, Rilke)
• Argues genuine life requires intensity; welcomes death only when passion dims
• Uses “sharpness” metaphor: philosophers dull pain with logic, speaker refuses anesthesia

Judith Wright – Poetry of Place, History, Ecology

• 1915–2000; New England origin shapes early work
• Themes: landscape, ecology, Indigenous rights, gender, motherhood, loss
• Life stages: New England childhood → Queensland adulthood (Mt Tamborine) → Braidwood later years
• Advocated for environment & First Nations justice alongside writing
• Views poetry’s use as aiding understanding of life for poet & reader

Key Poems Mentioned (focus & significance)

• “Train Journey” (1953): returning home; landscape builds emotional identity
• “Woman to Child” (1949): motherhood, creation, connection to place
• “South of My Days” (1946): New England memories, oral stories, sense of loss
• Later work (e.g., “Lament for Passenger Pigeons”, 1973) shifts from lyrical inwardness to outward ecological concern

Study Pointers

• Compare Harwood’s embodied intellectualism with Wright’s ecological ethics
• Trace how both poets negotiate personal experience & broader social debates
• Note ongoing thread: literature as catalyst and participant in societal change

Prescribed Reading (Course)

• Harwood: selected poems in ENGL102 reader
• Wright: selected poems in ENGL102 reader