Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 2, University of Innsbruck (Department of English), course: The Urban and the Rural in Australian Literature, language: English, abstract: In my paper I want to talk about the book The Bodysurfers (Robert Drewe) by focusing on the description of the different landscapes and the way people identify with it. I also find it important to mention the mixed feelings of the different characters, all of them living by the coast. While I was reading the book, I could notice the rather different ways of describing the landscapes, each narrator and character senses the surroundings differently. The environment in which the characters are living is one of the main topics of the book, it focuses on the descriptions and provides the reader with the opportunity to ‘live’ the book and to understand in a better way, how important the sea and the beach are for Australians. In The Bodysurfers the beach is the most popular and most described landscape. It is fantastic how many different ways of ‘seeing’ and ‘feeling’ the beach can be found in this book and how different varieties of language can influence the reader by providing him with many ways of understanding the characters. The Bodysurfers is not an easy book, maybe you have to read it twice, but it can give you a perfect possibility to deal with other nations and cultures and to distinguish between different characters and their ways of speaking and telling. When I was dealing with my topic I was impressed how ones opinion can change while reading a book, e.g. in one story the beach is described as a lonely and quiet place, in another story as a sand heap full of rubbish. In my paper I want, above all, to show these different ways of describing, on the one hand, describing by using different sorts of language and on the other hand describing, by ‘feeling’ and observing the place you live in. I want to show, that these depictions are the essence of the book and make it vivid, because “these stories breathe. Taut yet teeming with life, they are shot through with gritty phrases that catch at one's throat.” (Goodreads)

On a summer afternoon, Jack finds his life in unexpected transition as his job is eliminated. In response, he decides to take some time at the beach to rediscover who he is and what he wants out of life. To his surprise, his journey brings him together with a peacefully happy bodysurfer/beach philosopher, named Fin, who helps Jack discover that this time of transition is really a time of new beginnings to help Jack reach his highest potential in life. As Fin teaches Jack how to use the energy of a wave to enjoy a great bodysurfing experience, Jack learns how to use the energy of life so that he can trust his gut, jump in and enjoy the ride of his life.

Set among the surf and sandhills of the Australian beach – and the tidal changes of three generations of the Lang family – The Bodysurfers is an Australian classic. A short-story collection which has become a bestseller and been adapted for film, television, radio and the theatre, The Bodysurfers on its first publication marked a major change in Australian literature.

Haunted by the brutal murder of a local couple, David heads to his weekend shack with his new lover, Lydia, and his children from his recently crumbled marriage. Together they find escape, if only briefly, in the ocean and the bush. The Bodysurfers, the title story of Robert Drewe's classic first collection, is a vivid evocation of love, passion, terror and the beauty of the beach.

Set among the surf and sandhills of the Australian beach - and the tidal changes of three generations of the Lang family - 'The Bodysurfers' is an Australian classic. A short-story collection which has become a bestseller and which has been adapted for film, television, radio and the theatre, 'The Bodysurfers', on its first publication, marked a major change in Australian literature.

Tropes and Territories demonstrates how current debates in postcolonial criticism bear on the reading, writing, and status of short fiction. These debates, which hinge on competing definitions of "trope" (motif vs rhetorical turn) and "territory" (political or aesthetic), lead to studies of space, place, influence, and writing and reading practices across cultural divides. The essays also explore the character of diasporic writing, the cultural significance of oral tale-telling, and interconnections between socio/political issues and strategies of style.

Witty and seductive, inventive and disturbing, The Bay of Contented Men ranges in location from east to west coast Australia, to the United States, Japan, and Hong Kong. This is the neighbourhood of edgy suburbanite Australians whose desires and misadventures are conjured here into intriguing fictions. Robert Drewe's characters face the confrontation of gender, race and generation with an ironic desperation born of love, lust and wistful memory.