Intertextual Perspectives: Revision

This image from 1934 shows a depiction of the Italian dictator Mussolini surrounded by the word 'Yes'. Once I saw this image, I found it hard not to think of Orwell's Big Brother as an echo of it.

A little while back I posted a revision resource for Go Back to Where You Came From that I used with my Year 12 Advanced English class for the Discovery AOS. In this post I explained my thinking in providing modelled analysis to support students. In the spirit of this approach, here is a similar resource that can be used for the Metropolis and Nineteen Eighty-Four option for the Intertextual Perspectives Module.

Click here for the resource.

Here are some additional notes I also used with my students in revising the texts. Again, I'd like to stress that these are just summarised dot points designed to provide a jumping off point for students while they prepare for the HSC.

Ways of Approaching the Rubric / Thematic Concerns of the Text/s

• Surveillance
• Indoctrination
• Orthodoxy
• Sex as a political act
• The role of language
• Gender
• Class and Marxist ideology (the bourgeoisie and the proletariat)
• Dystopia
• Dehumanisation
• Cognitive dissonance
• Values of the 1920s vs. Values of the 1940s
• Historical and Cultural context (Stalin / The Soviet Union, the Weimar Republic)
• Governance (Oligarchy, Totalitarianism, Capitalism)
• Methods of Control
• Apotheosis
• Omnipresence / Ubiquity 
• Power

Techniques / Devices Used

1984

• Historical Allusion
• Allegory
• Euphemism
• Newspeak
• Invented Lexicon
• Connotation
• Rhetorical Question
• Embedded Clauses
• Truncated sentences
• Tricolon sentences
• Visceral language
• Olfactory imagery
• Metaphor
• Symbolism
• Slogans
• Personification
• Contrast, juxtaposition
• Motif
• Irony
• Antimetabole

Metropolis

• Metonymy 
• Matte Painting
• Dutch angle
• Montage
• Collage / Double-exposure
• Close-ups
• Antithesis
• Generic conventions
• Mise en scene 
• Intertitles
• Cross-cutting 
• Foreshadowing
• Set design
• Body language
• Vignetting
• Salience
• Costume
• Long shot
• Choreography
• Contrast / Juxtaposition
• Symbolism
• Religious allusion
• Establishing shot
• Expressionism

Something to consider when revising Module A is to ask each student which of the two texts they prefer or feel more comfortable with. It won't always be the text you expect, and this can help you guide specific students in concentrating more on the text they don't feel so comfortable with. 2018 is the last year we'll see this combination of texts in the HSC (at least for a while)... it's a great pairing so enjoy it while it's still here!