Elysium: To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores...

The theme of this year's English Teachers Association Conference was one of exploration and discovery. Coming off the back of the emergence of the completed English Textual Concepts framework and the oncoming new senior English syllabuses, presenters were encouraged to match the rhetoric of the Shakespeare quote "To unpathed waters, undreamed shores".

I had a few ideas for presentations but the one that fit this concept most readily was Elysium, the 2013 Neill Blomkamp science fiction film, which works rather well when paired with George Orwell's Animal Farm in a Preliminary HSC Comparative Study. 

The PowerPoint Presentation on Elysium can be found here:

Resource: ETA 2016 Elysium PPT.

The majority of the Elysium part of the Comparative Study has been included on this blog with explanations of the resources and programming. These can be found on the links below, with each resource attached at the bottom of each post:

Link: An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Elysium and Animal Farm

Link: Elysium - Comprehension and Analysis

Link: The Language of Elysium - Connotation and Invented Lexicon

Link: Elysium - Characterisation and Representation

Link: Elysium - Allegory, Allusion, and Satire

Elysium - Allegory, Allusion and Satire

This shot illustrates the contrast between the idyllic, verdant world of Elysium and the drab, dirty colours of the 'invading' refugees.

English is such a challenging subject sometimes because we have this focus on looking at how composers construct their text which, inevitably, leads us to look at the techniques they use to create meaning and connect with their audience. I've found that most students are quite responsive to learning about techniques that are new to them, however, what becomes challenging is the idea of quantifying techniques.

What I mean is, students like to be given taxonomies of things. They like to know the relationship between ideas, EG. The text reflects this particular context, and this context has produced this text type, and within this particular text type it's this genre, and this genre involves these particular codes and conventions, and in order to do all this the composers uses these techniques. And to do all this, these techniques are defined as thus.

The problem with this is that it emphasises the quantity of parts that build a text, rather than each part's potential to be a multiplicity of things. Students focus on something being a metaphor and then don't consider that it could also be visceral language (provoking a feeling of repulsion), or that it also ties to a story-wide motif (and therefore supporting larger themes).

In short, elements of a text can be defined in multiple ways. Those who express how challenged they feel by English are those who often struggle with its open-endedness. There's no wrong answer if it's supported by valid and substantiated evidence - we say this to kids all the time - but how do we teach them that there is more than one right answer, and that these correct alternatives don't always fit neatly together either?

I don't have a simple answer to this. The students who understand that meanings can be in flux, hyphenated, or pluralistic, are the ones who often do the best - grappling with ambiguity and ambivalence is something that great authors (IE. Great Englishers, yes, that's a word now!) do throughout the course of their entire careers.

The ongoing presence of drones throughout Elysium has proven to be a rather valid prediction about the enforcing of law and order throughout the world. The shot above is a 'drone's-eye view' of a battle between the film's hero and villain. The villain is blurred, indicating that the camera represents the view of his employers and their corrupt interests in protecting his identity from being recorded.

Elysium isn't a complex text, it's a film that feature multiple layers but it's also a film that was designed for Hollywood's mainstream market, so most students will be able to follow it on at least one level. In comparing it to Animal Farm as a dystopian text that's very much a product of context, students need to be able to illuminate the ways in which it makes use of allegory. This in turn leads to discussion of satire and allusion, and these things are all tied together as interconnected techniques and structural conventions. In the PowerPoint below I've divided my analysis of Elysium into allegory and satire but this is largely an arbitrary distinction as they could be looked at either way. 

Walk your students through the presentation and have them discuss the way the images and ideas link to context. There are numerous examples, including the villain Kruger as a representation of South Africa's dark history of hiring shady mercenaries, the role of the fable that the little girl Matilda tells to Max, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) references to Max's role as a messiah for this bleak, grimy future.

There is also a sheet that students can work through afterwards, in which they are given pre-identified examples of various allusions and asked to explain them. The pre-loading of ready-made examples (IE. Techniques that have already been linked with textual evidence) forces the students to focus on explaining the significance, which is what we really want our Advanced English students to be able to do. 

Resources

Elysium and Our World - PowerPoint Presentation

Allusions - worksheet

Elysium - Characterisation and Representation of Ideas

The first shot of Max establishes a few things: the cramped nature of his house, his criminal or low socio-economic background (reflected in the Latino-styled tattoos), and the dated technology in his home juxtaposed against the robots and space station outside.

I'm a big believer in advocating for students who might not be harnessing their gifts to their fullest potential. In English, this means those students who are naturally gifted in terms of critical thinking and analysis, although they may not have the skills to formulate these gifts into the traditional modes of English communication (writing, representing, reading, etc.) So, with this in mind, I think there's still a lot of room in Preliminary Advanced English for scaffolding students. I don't want to assume that a student comes into Advanced English already knowing everything, and that includes knowing all the "how to" skills. What would be the point of that? If a student already knows what you're teaching and how to do it, then they should be skipping grades and looking for early entrance to university!

I've spoken about using Elysium as part of a comparative study on dystopian texts here, here and here, so I wanted to extend this a little further to show how students can analyse the way characterisation reflects the themes and context of the film.

My first-year teaching self would have just asked the students to look at a character and tell me what they represent. I would have left it open-ended in the belief that an Advanced English student could pour their magic mojo on it and interpret the characters independently. My time teaching a multiplicity of students and diverse student-types has taught me that this approach only achieves one thing: it gets answers out of those who already know how to do it. 

The mercenary Kruger is modeled after the notorious rogue soldiers known as 32 Battalion, who served in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. The shot above, where he uses a samurai sword to BBQ meat on a rooftop, reflects the ease and confidence in which he moves within the dangerous favelas.

In recent years I've been taking a different approach to high-achieving students. Why not just give them all the information they need, and therefore force them to focus more explicitly on the skills rather than the content? This isn't a new idea... it's reflected in flipped classrooms, project-based learning, scaffolding, etc., so it's not so much an epiphany as just a reinforcement of where I want to push the students.

The lesson below features character profiles of the major figures in Elysium - Max, Frey, Delacourt, Kruger, Spider, and Carlyle. Each profile contains some basic shot analysis, explanations of the etymology of the character's name, and additional context that links to what writer-director Neill Blomkamp was aiming for in his stylistic choices for how the characters are represented. It's all there for the students. They wouldn't know this stuff automatically; I had to arrive at the contextual knowledge through my own research and analysis so it would be silly to assume that the students could come up with this deep knowledge of content on the spot during the lesson.

The point is to instead discuss and read this stuff with the students and then get them to deconstruct the character with a higher order question (EG. 'In what way...', 'What is the significance...'). The student takes the information given to them and uses it to formulate their own response. It's okay for the information to be explicitly given to them because they're essentially doing what a university student does, which is working with a reading or text to bring a diverse array of content into their own hands as they put pen to paper. The more they do this, the wider and deeper their personal knowledge of the subject will become. It's not a radical concept; I just wanted to share the resource below and explain how it works :)

Resource - Representation/Characterisation in Elysium

Elysium - Connotation and Invented Lexicon

Digging further into analysing Elysium as part of a Preliminary HSC Advanced English Comparative Study, I think it's necessary to address the role that genre plays in the film's context and language choices. 

Elysium is a very much a science fiction text in the most conventional sense of the term. Set in the future, and featuring a high concept collision between the tropes of utopian and dystopian societies, and coming with all the hardware trimmings that modern audiences have come to expect from big screen forays into the genre, I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn't classify it as a science fiction film. 

But what is it that separates Elysium from Animal Farm in its exploration of corrupt governance when we consider genre? Well, as most sci-fi fans will know, nearly any effective piece of speculative fiction will feature some sort of invented lexicon. When composers work with invented worlds, it becomes effective for them to represent the somewhat abstract concept of an imagined space with new terms. Several techniques can come into play here:

• Portmanteaus: a combination of pre-existing words into new words to reflect new contexts.
• Loanwords: words 'borrowed' from other languages to represent the increased influence of particular cultures on one another.
• Euphemisms: softer/dishonest ways of portraying harsh ideas; used to reflect the rhetoric of oppressive governments in their attempts to propagandise and persuade.
• Connotations: the associations people bring in their understanding of certain terms.
• Allusions: references to other bodies of knowledge; be they religious, mythological, historical, cultural, literary, etc. 

Not all of these come into play in Elysium, but some quite clearly do. An example is the term 'undocumented', which is used by the Elysium citizens to refer to the ships that carry desperate Earthlings. These are people who are attempting to travel to the elite space station in the hope of accessing godlike medical technology. Whilst 'undocumented' isn't an unfamiliar term, it is somewhat euphemistic as it belies the true attitude of Senator Delacourt towards the ships (IE. She wants to destroy them). The connotation of the term also calls to mind refugees in our own context; the 'undocumented' illegal immigrants who cross the border from Mexico to the U.S.A. (which should be familiar rhetoric to any student who has seen American television and Donald Trump's recent campaigning).

The document below contains a list of examples from Elysium's invented lexicon, and some of the bigger allusions made (such as the use of favelas and the origins of the term 'Elysium' itself). Students are asked to analyse the allusions made and consider the reasons for the director's choice of imagery. Following this, students can work in pairs to explain the connotations of some of the invented terms. The sheet then finishes by asking students to bring their analysis and understanding of context together as a personal response that assesses just how successfully they think the director has built a realistic vision of the future through the use of this language.  

Resource - The Language of Elysium

Comparative Study: Elysium Comprehension Questions

In this post I outlined my thinking for teaching a Comparative Study on Animal Farm and Elysium. Whilst there isn't much point in presenting resources on Animal Farm (there are plenty of activities on Orwell's fable already out there), I do think there is a niche to fill on Elysium resources. My previous post detailed the contextual elements that Elysium draws on, so the next logical point from here is to have students work through some study guide questions that get them to engage with the text on a more immediate level. 

The resource below presents a mix of comprehension and visual analysis questions, and requires students to interact with the film on literal, figurative and contextual levels.  I recommend projecting it onto the whiteboard so students can see the screenshots in full colour.

Resource - Elysium Student Guide (click to download).

I've also included a teacher version for ease of delivery, which gives possible answers. If you use this, please don't feel restricted by my answers. I actually composed most of these answers via whole class discussion with my Year 11 Advanced English students, and there are no doubt a whole bunch of other interpretations that would work in response to the questions as well.

Resource - Elysium Teacher Guide (click to download).

Happy Dystopias!

Comparative Study: Elysium and Animal Farm

Concept art for the film Elysium

This term I'm teaching Animal Farm to Preliminary Advanced English as part of a comparative study. I had every intention of teaching it alongside V For Vendetta (which is how I've usually seen it paired) but, for a couple of reasons, I changed my mind when I was programming/planning. Here are the reasons:

1. I like V For Vendetta but I hadn't seen it for a long time, so it wasn't all that 'big' in my mind.
2. A recent bit of professional learning with the delightful folks at Into English reminded me that, if I have the option, I should jump on the opportunity to teach a dystopian text of my own choosing. 
3. My choice of text was Elysium - which I feel is much more current and relevant than V For Vendetta.
4. I had recently read Alan Moore's dense and highly literate graphic novel V For Vendetta, which only served to highlight the ways in which the film betrays his vision of post-Thatcherite fascism. I have no actual problem with the film version an an entity of its own, but what I do find problematic is the idea of teaching a text that has a sense of conflicted duality (a film version vs. the original version), especially when I'm already seeking to compare it to another text altogether; Animal Farm. 
5. Elysium, on the other hand, is an original film with a context entirely of its own - it's not an adaptation or an appropriation. It's a film that reflects the now and isn't beholden to a graphic novel. It's that rare thing - a modern sci-fi film that isn't based on another text.
6. I really like Elysium. It's not without its flaws, but few texts are.

The world of Elysium looks very familiar to anyone who's visited or seen images of Latin American slums.

The starting point for looking at Elysium is introducing the students to some of the context. The basis of my comparative study is 'Texts in Time', the comparative module used in the HSC 2009-2014 syllabus. This involves first examining Animal Farm and the political and social context that fuels Orwell's powerfully allegorical satire. The comparison then moves to Elysium, where students are required to recognise the way an entirely different dystopian society reflects a more contemporary context. By the end of the module, students will be assessed on their ability to compose an essay that ties both texts together as reflections of their times. 

The Elysium part is kicked off with a PowerPoint that introduces and familiarises students with the political ideas and events that shaped Neill Blomkamp's Elysium. As the film is incredibly current (filmed in 2013, it was interpreted at the time as a direct partial allegory for the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011), it can be difficult to pull the various influencing threads out of it. Hindsight is, after all, something that can only truly be achieved with some degree of distance. I have therefore done my best to track backwards from the film's release to show a possible line of contextual cause and effect.

The PowerPoint covers the following:

• Neill Blomkamp's South African background and his previous film, the similarly satirical District 9.
• The Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011-2013.
• "We are the 99%" - the idea that influenced the Wall Street protests, and continues to fuel economic and political debate today.
• The Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 that highlighted economic injustice and brought the '99%' debate into sharp focus for most Americans.
• The Arab Spring - not as important as most of the other things here, but still an influential factor for the Occupy Wall Street movement - the term 'Arab Spring' refers to the series of social media-led revolutions that radically changed the political climate of Northern Africa and the Middle East in 2011.
• Obamacare - the Affordable Care Act that made public healthcare an issue of debate in the U.S. from 2010 onward.
• Asylum Seekers - a worldwide issue that has continued to grow from 2001 to the present day, with increasing security in Western countries seeming to contravene the civil rights established by the United Nations.
• 9/11 - the 2001 tragedy that reflected and continues to shape America's strained foreign policy, and links to larger ideas of the West's impact on the Third World (particularly Africa and the Middle East), such as Nigerian bank scams and data theft, African mercenaries and war lords, use of drone technology, international commercial exploitation by large corporations, puppet governments, imperialism, and terrorism.

There's a lot there and I like to make the point to students that they don't need to know all of it. What they do need to know is some of it, and in well enough detail to draw links between the text and the real world, and then again from text to text. 

The PowerPoint ends with a couple of thinking questions on terrorism and how this phenomenon can reflect unequal power relationships, and then a prediction activity where students are asked to imagine how a science fiction film could allegorically represent all these points of context. Ideally, students will have seen Elysium before they work through this PowerPoint and can try and draw links themselves, but the activity should have some merit either way.

A good follow-up activity is to then reinforce student knowledge (or teach it to them for the first time) about the Left and Right wings of politics. This involves getting the students to draw a line and then plotting a series of ideas and events on the line from left to right - things like private healthcare, the Occupy Wall Street movement, drone surveillance, etc. Of course, some of these things are debatable in where they would sit on the spectrum, but then - that's half the fun, right? If you can get your students arguing about this then you've succeeded in engaging them in becoming more aware about politics and political context.

Resources:
1. Elysium - Context (PowerPoint)
2. Spectrum Plotting (Activity sheet)