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Upcoming titles for the VCAA English and EAL List 2022

VCAA English and EAL List 2022

Upcoming titles for the VCAA English & EAL List 2022

March 11, 2021 | 2-3 minute read (Original article published March 2020)

The VCAA has approved the English & EAL list for 2022. If your school is studying a title that does not appear on the updated list, consider a suitable alternative for your students next year. We have summarised some of these titles below and included links to accompanying study resources.

It is important to keep in mind the themes that you are looking to explore in these units to see if they suit the school and most importantly your students. As an example, new addition Flames explores the ideas of grief, family connection, betrayal, and the development of heterosexual and same-sex relationships. More themes are explored throughout the novel written from different perspectives in alternating chapters. Richard Flanagan calls Flames ‘A Strange and joyous marvel.’

Joining The 7 Stages of Grieving in its exploration of Indigenous themes, False Claims of Colonial Thieves explores the impact of colonisation and how it manifests itself in the modern world. The poems are deeply embedded in the Australian landscape and address the themes of dispossession, ownership, personal and cultural identity and dealing with trauma. Author of Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe praises the poems, ‘Papertalk Green and Kinsella take no prisoners. Tuck your sensitivities away or read something with less salt and gristle. Those wanting to know the heart of Australia’s darkness enter here.’

The Erratics is Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s memoir and explores the impact of her mother’s mental illness on various family members. Readers can explore the extent to which the writer’s responses to the individuals around her constitute a fair and nuanced account of highly complex and traumatic experiences. In an age where mental health is more widely discussed, students may be drawn to these themes. Notable awards include: 2019 Stella Prize, 2018 Finch Memoir Prize and shortlisted for the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Other notable additions to the 2021 list are Jenny Erpenbeck’s Go, Went, Gone, and Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Hate Race. Both novels explore themes of race, privilege and nationality, albeit set In different parts of the world (The Hate Race takes place in suburban Australia).

When choosing your texts, remember to follow the selection guidelines as outlined by the VCAA. If you want to explore your options, replace a removed title or are simply curious to see what titles will be listed in 2022, please keep reading.

VCAA ENGLISH & EAL LIST 2022

LIST 1

NOVELS

Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart
Arnott, Robbie, Flames (New in 2022)
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice
Doerr, Anthony, All the Light We Cannot See
Erpenbeck, Jenny, Go, Went, Gone (New in 2022)
Jordan, Toni, Nine Days
Piper, Christine, After Darkness
St John Mandel, Emily, Station Eleven

SHORT STORIES

Kennedy, Cate, Like a House on Fire (Stories for study: ‘Flexion’, ‘Ashes’, ‘Laminex and Mirrors’, ‘Tender’, ‘Like a House on Fire’, ‘Five-Dollar Family’, ‘Cross-country’, ‘Sleepers’, ‘Whirlpool’, ‘Cake’, ‘White Spirit’, ‘Little Plastic Shipwreck’, ‘Waiting’, ‘Static’, ‘Seventy-Two Derwents’)
Munro, Alice, Runaway (All Stories)

PLAYS

Euripides, The Women of Troy
Rayson, Hannie, Extinction
Shakespeare, William, Much Ado About Nothing

POETRY/SONGS

Papertalk Greene, Charmaine and Kinsella, John, False Claims of Colonial Thieves (New in 2022)
Wordsworth, William, William Wordsworth: Poems selected by Seamus Heaney (New in 2022)

FILMS

Hitchcock, Alfred (director), Rear Window
Polley, Sarah (director), Stories We Tell

OTHER

Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Jonathan Cape

NON-FICTION

Capote, Truman, In Cold Blood
Laveau-Harvie, Vicki, The Erratics (New in 2022)

LIST 2

PAIR 1
Beneba Clarke, Maxine, The Hate Race (New in 2022)
de Heer, Rolf, Charlie’s Country

PAIR 2
Frears, Stephen, The Queen
Malouf, David, Ransom

PAIR 3
Amsterdam, Stephen, Things We Didn’t See Coming (New in 2022)
Ishiguro, Kazuo, Never Let Me Go

PAIR 4
Szubanski, Magda, Reckoning
Tóibín, Colm, Brooklyn (New in 2022)

PAIR 5
Miller, Arthur, The Crucible
Ham, Rosalie, The Dressmaker

PAIR 6
Ziegler, Anna, Photograph 51
Franklin, Miles, My Brilliant Career (New in 2022)

PAIR 7
Mailman, Debra and Enoch, Wesley, The 7 Stages of Grieving
D’Aguiar, Fred, The Longest Memory

PAIR 8
Yousafzai, Malala, with Lamb, Christina, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Warchus, Matthew (director), Pride

The following titles which appear on the 2020-2021 VCAA list ARE NOT listed for 2022:

List 1:

Grenville, Kate, The Lieutenant
London, Joan, The Golden Age
Skrzynecki, Peter, Old/New World: New & Selected Poems
Boo, Katherine, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

List 2:

Davidson, Robyn, Tracks
Funder, Anna, Stasiland
Lahiri, Jhumpa, The Namesake
Atwood, Margaret, The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus

RESOURCES

Once you have selected your texts from lists 1 and 2, you may want to explore what study resources are available to assist students’ learning and comprehension of their set texts.

The Insight Comparison texts are excellent resources that will help students write comprehensive essays comparing the texts being studied in class. Insight have created a range of comparisons that suit the texts being compared from list 2.

Available ATAR Notes Guides for the following VCAA English List titles:

ATAR Notes Text Guide: After Darkness by Christine Piper
ATAR Notes Text Guide: All the Light We Cannot See by Anythony Doerr
ATAR Notes Text Guide: Woman of Troy by Euripides
ATAR Notes Text Guide: Things Fall Apart
ATAR Notes Text Guide: Station Eleven
ATAR Notes Text Guide: Much Ado About Nothing
ATAR Notes Text Guide: Selected Poems by Williams Wordswoth
ATAR Notes Text Guide: Rear Window
ATAR Notes Text Guide: Persepolis
ATAR Notes Text Guide: In Cold Blood

Have a look at the following comparative resources from Insight:

Insight Comparisons: The Queen & Ransom
Insight Comparisons: The Crucible & The Dressmaker
Insight Comparisons: The Seven Stages of Grieving & The Longest Memory
Insight Comparisons: I am Malala & Pride
Insight Comparisons: The Hate Race & Charlie’s Country
Insight Comparisons: Things We Didn’t See Coming & Never Let Me Go
Insight Comparisons: Reckoning & Brooklyn
Insight Comparisons: Photograph 51 & My Brilliant Career

Insight Text Guides available for the following titles:

At this point in time the following information is provided to the best of our knowledge. This article will be updated as new information arises.

Get in touch!

If your school would like more information on these titles or would like any of the above mentioned titles invoiced or on approval please send an email to info@lilydalebooks.com.au.

To view what is on the VCAA Literature text list for 2022, click here.

The information in this article is cited from the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority.

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Keywords

VCAA English list 2022
VCAA EAL list 2022
VCAA Literature 2022
VCAA list
VCE English
VCE Literature
Victoria Curriculum Assessment Authority
Short Stories
Plays
Poetry
Songs
Film
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Text List
Texts
Study Design
English Study Design
Dark Emu
Bruce Pascoe