Slip, slop, slap: rethinking, re-writing and re-viewing Australia

The well-known mantra 'slip on a T-shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat' articulates the Australian Cancer Council's mission to promote an awareness of the need to ensure protection against the harmful effects of the Australian sun. Of the three actions evoked in the above slogan, the one on which we will focus in this paper is 'the slap'. Christos Tsiolkas' novel 'The slap' (2008) builds on and breaks from a wide range of narratives about Australia, its people and preoccupations. These same elements of Australian culture are currently being explored in the adaptation of that novel - an eight-part drama series screened on ABC television which, like the novel before it, has elicited a variety of audience responses, expressed in a range of cultural forms and forums. In this paper, which constitutes a preliminary discussion of what is envisaged as a more extensive research project and research-informed teaching exercise, we focus on a short segment from the novel and a sequence from the television series to illustrate what rethinking, re-writing and re-viewing of Australia they provoke. In addition, we outline our notion of designing a new (replacement) English, Communication and Media (ECM) unit of study based entirely on and around 'The slap' - as prose and film narratives - and their cultural precursors and repercussions.