David Malouf's "An Imaginary Life" teachers' review for NSW HSC 2027-2028

Brief description and distinctive features

An Imaginary Life is set for study in 2027-2028 in Year 12 in Advanced and Standard Texts and human experiences.

Teaching this novel for the HSC cannot commence until Term 4 2026 and will be first examined in 2027.

About the author: David Malouf

David Malouf was born in Brisbane in 1934. He studied at the University of Queensland, taught overseas in the UK and returned to Australia to teach at the University of Sydney. He has published several poetry anthologies, novels, short stories, essays and a play to critical acclaim. Currently poems from his collection Earth Hour are set for the Higher School Certificate in the Advanced course, in A critical study of literature. 

His first novel, Johnno was published, in 1975. In 1978 An Imaginary Life was published. His eighth novel, Conversations at Curlow Creek, was published in 1996.

Awards include the NSW Premier’s Award, Age Book of the Year Award, and the Pascall Prize, the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, and the Miles Franklin Award.

Brief description of An Imaginary Life

An Imaginary Life opens and closes with a memory of a wild child. It follows the life of Ovid, a famous Roman poet from the reign of Augustus in the last century BCE. We would say today that Ovid had been “cancelled”; his poems were too audacious, urbane and critical of the Emperor. He was exiled from Rome to the edges of the known world, to a small settlement called Tomis near the Black Sea, in what we would call Romania today, and in the past was a marginal land of the Roman Empire. The headman in Tomis is set to watch Ovid. The exiled poet shares this man’s mud house and lives among what he considers barbarians who have their own language while he is bereft of his Latin. Cut off from everything he has known and valued, Ovid plunges into despair and spends his days shouting at the landscape. He chronicles his exile and the seasons, saying “I cast this letter upon the centuries” (p18) and gradually finds some solace in the landscape and the simple life of the village. Over time he learns the language of the small community he lives among and finds experiences that are meaningful and free of the overwhelming organisations of his Roman world. He comes to respect the headman, appreciates his wonderful stories and becomes his friend. He rides out with the men of the village to hunt and celebrate their ancestors and joins them as they find small human footprints on the trails, the sign of a wild Child*. Ovid aches to find him, propelled by a connection with his childhood visions of a wild boy with whom he spoke in a “tongue of our own devising” (p9). As the seasons change, recorded by Ovid with an increasing appreciation of their harsh and varied beauty, the men return again and again in autumn to the hunting grounds, and he sees the Child and entices him with food. Ovid hopes to establish communication with the Child though teaching him language and he directs his capture by the men. Returning to the village he cares for and teaches the Child, causing conflict with the family. The boundaries between who is the learner and who is the teacher blur and with the headman’s death the two outsiders flee and seek a new land, past the edges of the Roman Empire. In this world it is the Child, inhabiting nature as he does, who leads Ovid. Watching the Child “walking on the water’s light”, Ovid, who has taken his last step and is preparing for death, records that he is “immeasurably, unbearably happy.” 

*Note: that ‘Child’ is capitalised when referring to the wild Child in the novel, however ‘child’ is not capitalised in the preamble. 

Distinctive features of An Imaginary Life

• The italicized preamble calls attention to the narrator’s memory of an imaginary wild boy in his childhood, which proves prophetic and creates a beautiful connection between the beginning and ending of the novel  
• A compelling re-imagining of a famous Roman poet’s life before and after exile 
• A five-chapter structure separated by Roman numerals and significant events in which flashbacks to Ovid’s former life pre-exile play a part 
• An exploration in dazzling prose of the themes of exile and belonging, of alienation and acclimatisation 
• An acknowledgement of the wild boy phenomenon (e.g. the wild boy of Aveyron) but as the author says in his Afterword set in a remote place and time to allow “more open possibilities”
• Metamorphosis and transformation in the life a Roman poet whose major work was the Metamorphoses – a long narrative poem on the history of the world to the death of Julius Caesar which has greatly influenced western civilisation 
• A connection to the Australian experience, and the dispossession of the Indigenous peoples of the wild and natural places they loved and honoured, by the colonists on the outskirts of the British Empire 
• The novel is rich in poetic language and evocative in descriptions of landscapes and seasons that change and morph from featureless desolation to renewal and vibrancy 
• The Afterword is titled ‘A note on sources’ and contains interesting insights into the author’s inspirations and purpose.  
• The first-person narrative from the point of view of the exiled Roman citizen allows an insight into how the outsider can come, through shared human experiences, to understand himself more completely and distinguishes what it is to be a human being. 

Why choose An Imaginary Life for Texts and human experiences?

• In this imaginative recreation of life on the margins of the Roman Empire this novel offers a glimpse into an ancient world and into the life of an exiled poet and a wild child and the extraordinary connection between them and their different human experiences. 
• The novel’s brevity, at 156 pages, could appeal to many students; the length will also allow re-reading which will heighten understanding and appreciation.
• The novel has potential for authentic integration of the Craft of Writing with some excellent examples of close observation, imagery and attention to detail.
• It will appeal to students who enjoy reading and the aesthetics of words as Malouf uses his poetic credentials and the capacity of literature for contemplation of what it is to be human.
• It enables authentic exploration of the key content points of Texts and human experiences and is particularly valuable for considering the ways texts represent identity, culture, acceptance and growth, invite the reader to see the world differently, and challenge assumptions.
• The novel will also help students with this component of Texts and human experiences: Students explore how texts can represent the tension between agency and conformity in our human experience, while examining the paradoxes of motivation and behaviour.

Ways into teaching An Imaginary Life in the HSC classroom

Teaching this text cannot commence until Term 4 2026 and will be first examined in 2027.

Introduce the author to the class

Watch the film David Malouf - An Imaginary Life: emotive exploration into the life and mind of the writer and poet (1997). The film runs for 55 minutes and was written and directed by Don Featherstone, a Film Australia and RM Associates production with the assistance of the ABC.

• You can see it (with annoying advertisements) at YouTube.com
• or watch it with your public library card at Kanopy.com
• or purchase a downloaded copy from National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA)
• A useful resource called Film Australia · An Imaginary Life Viewing Notes by Philip Neilsen Associate Professor of English at Queensland University of Technology can be found from the NFSA website.

This film follows the life of writer David Malouf, looking at places and experiences that have changed him from his early upbringing in Brisbane to time spent in the UK, Ireland and Europe (and particularly Italy where Malouf lived for many years) and in Sydney and on the Gold Coast. Students can see the influence of both his father’s Lebanese background and his mother’s English heritage. Fascinating archival film and sensitive dramatizations of scenes from his novels (voiced by Geoffrey Rush) including scenes from An Imaginary Life will give students an insight into the writer’s craft, and to the importance of landscapes, relationships and friendships in Malouf’s work.

Establish a timeline of specific scenes in the novel

In groups ask students to brainstorm incidents and scenes that highlight human experiences and stand out from their reading of the novel.  Then compile those scenes into a timeline which highlights seasons and incidents in the chronology of the story. Some examples below:

• The finding of the scarlet poppy p.31
• The headman’s story telling p.38
• Assembling for hunting p.40-42
• The celebration of the ancestors p. 43-47
• The finding of the small footprint p. 47
• The sharman’s mystical journey p. 51
• A terrible winter p. 53
• The Dacian attack p.54-56
• The setting out of food for the wild Child p.61
• Ovid’s transformation p.63-6
• Ovid’s garden p.64, 66
• The capture of the Child p.68
• The Child’s fever p.115-119
• The death of Ryzak the headman 128-132
• The flight p.141-152

From this investigation establish a collaborative table which records the type and nature of the human experiences explored in the novel and their collective and individual aspects.

Writing responses

The more opportunities students are given to write about An Imaginary Life the more confident they will be in preparing for their Trial and HSC.

Consider workshopping some of these questions, writing introductions, essay plans and choosing quotations to best suit the questions:

• How effectively does your prescribed text tell stories to reveal both the personal and shared nature of human experiences?
• How does David Malouf represent the emotions arising from human experiences through the features of prose fiction?
• How do authors draw us into the world of the text by inviting us to share a representation of human experiences?

Look for quotations to support your responses e.g.

“Scarlet!
It is the first color I have seen in months. Or so it seems. Scarlet. A little wild poppy, of a red so sudden it made my blood stop.

“My little flowerpots are as subversive here as my poems were in Rome.”

“I have stopped finding fault with creation and have learned to accept it. We have some power in us that knows its own ends. It is that which drives us on to what we must finally become… This is the true meaning of transformation. This is the real metamorphosis.”

HSC style questions for An Imaginary Life

Teaching this text cannot commence until Term 4 2026 and will be first examined in 2027.

Malouf “is interested in searching, through the imagination, for the elements which give life significance.” John McLaren (1978). In what ways does your study of An Imaginary Life support or contradict this statement?

How has your understanding of the complexities of the human experience in An Imaginary Life been shaped by Malouf’s language choices? Discuss with close reference to the text.

Meaningful connections, whether they be to people, places or beliefs, define the quality of human experience. To what extent do you agree with this statement? In your response make detailed reference to your prescribed text.

Relevant details in relation to the new NSW English Stage 6 HSC syllabus

Teaching this text cannot commence until Term 4 2026 and will be first examined in 2027.

There are requirements for particular types of texts to be selected from the prescribed texts list for different courses. Great care must be taken in selecting a pathway of texts that meets all the requirements.

For the Advanced course

Four prescribed texts to be studied with at least ONE from each of the following categories (prose fiction, poetry, and drama OR nonfiction OR film OR media) and ONE authored by Shakespeare

Possible pathways for HSC Advanced English course

For the Standard course

Students are required to closely study 3 prescribed texts, with ONE drawn from each of the following categories:

• prose fiction
• poetry
• drama OR film OR media OR nonfiction.

Possible pathways for HSC Standard English course