Extension English: Elective 4 - Literary Mindscapes

Before looking at each of the texts in close-up, here is a quick breakdown of representation:

• 2 novels, 1 short story suite, 1 suite of poetry, 1 play, 1 film.
• 4 female composers, 2 male composers.
• 3 American composers, 1 Australian, 1 English, and 1 New Zealander.
• Breakdown of eras: 1 text from the 1600s, 1 text written in the 1860s-1880s (but published much later), 1 text from the 1910s, 1 text from the 1930s, and 2 texts from the 2000s.
  

Prose Fiction Options

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
What is it: Addie Bundren, mother of five children and wife to Anse Bundren, lies on her deathbed as her family prepares to fulfill her final wish: to be buried in her birthplace of Jefferson, Mississippi. After Addie's death the family begins a long and arduous nine-day trek by wagon to deliver her to her grave. During this journey the children contend with their own crippling poverty, unwanted pregnancy, life-threatening injury, the class-based prejudices of those they meet, and the slowly increasing stench of their mother's corpse as it rots within her coffin in the subtropical heat of the Mississippi summer.

Scope for Study: Faulkner's groundbreaking multi-perspective rural odyssey is a seminal work in the 'Southern Gothic' genre and pioneered the use of stream-of-consciousness within American fiction. As I Lay Dying features no less than fifteen separate first-person perspectives of events, and uses unreliable narration and careful use of omission to deal with subject matter considered taboo at its time of publication (such as abortion, extramarital affairs, and flawed humanity within the church). Students will be able to examine how Faulkner has utilised each of the aforementioned narrative techniques to structure his writing and how he constructs characterisation through the lenses of multiple narrators.

NESA Annotations: Notes for As I Lay Dying can be found in the 2019-2023 Annotations document. These highlight the novel's cultural significance as a groundbreaking work from an author who won the prestigious Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes. Mention is also made of the text's subversion of the 'romantic quest' trope through the use of farce, black humour, irony and tragedy, the use of interior monologue to provide an insight into the psychology of the marginalised, and multiple narration as a means to present conflicting perceptions and invite students "to participate in the novel in the construction of meaning."

Verdict: I'd never read this before now and I absolutely loved it. It's dark and quirky, moving and evocative, and all of the characters are so finely crafted that their voices cut loud and clear through Faulkner's Gothic rendering of the Mississippi. As part of the Literary Mindscapes elective, I think this novel would provide a perfect segue-way into exploring psychological landscapes afforded by sophisticated characterisation and other deliberately-crafted narrative conceits.

Sixty Lights by Gail Jones
What is it: The reader peers into the life of Lucy Strange, a forthright and confident orphan from 19th century Australia with a love for the emerging new technology of photography. Lucy's relatively short life is revealed in sixty vignettes as she first sails to Victorian England to live with her ne'er-do-will uncle and then on to colonial India to meet a potential husband. Lucy's experiences are textured by light and observation, tragedy and innovation, and a relentless desire to capture the ephemeral and fleeting.

Scope for Study: There's so much to unpack in this relatively brief novel. First and foremost is the text's use of the motif of light and the way this metaphorically and literally links into its themes of memory and what the protagonist terms 'the maculate'. Students will also be able to view the text as a representation of an era on the cusp of change, with Lucy presciently remarking, "Everything that is seen... will one day somewhere be registered". Indeed, it is Lucy's obsession with photography that comes to work as sort of synecdoche for the Victorian world - a realm on the borderlands of the past, where the shadows of history open up to this new technology that captures and prompts and reinvents memory.

NESA Annotations: The 2009-2014 Annotation documents includes notes on Sixty Lights from when it was previously prescribed for Advanced English Module B: Critical Study of Text. Mention is made of the novel's use of metaphors and imagery and the cumulative fashion in which it builds an insight into photography and life in the Victorian era. The bildungsroman genre is also highlighted as a point of discussion in regard to its narrative structure.

Verdict: A wonderful and endearingly enigmatic work of literary beauty, Sixty Lights evokes both modernist and post-modernist sensibilities to tell a story at once tragic and uplifting. I think it functions perfectly as an English Extension text in that it's both sophisticated enough to cue intellectual discussion and short enough not to overwhelm Year 12 students who are already overworked. It's also a masterclass in the way that an author can use motif to reinforce and illuminate theme.

Collected Stories by Katherine Mansfield

• Prelude
• Je ne Parle pas Francais
• Bliss
• Pyschology
• The Daughters of the Late Colonel

What is it: In this prescribed collection of short stories, Katherine Mansfield's enigmatic eye is cast over a range of scenarios. 'Prelude' presents a slice of life for a family in New Zealand, conveying the interactions of individuals, the role of women and servants, and the child's view of the world. 'Je ne Parle pas Francais' features a Parisian narrator who recounts a brief friendship with an English man and his almost-wife. In 'Bliss' a seemingly happy middle-class woman becomes increasingly aware of the bisexuality or homosexuality of others in her close circle and confronts (or fails to confront) the implications this has for her own existence and identity. 'Psychology' depicts two writers as they discuss the recent trend of the psychological novel. And finally, 'The Daughters of the Late Colonel' features two sisters in the aftermath of their father's death.

Scope for Study: This would be quite the rabbit hole for students. One key element necessary to understanding this suite would be an introduction to modernism in literature - the idea of a mode of storytelling that can eschew setting, closed-off-explanations, contextualisation, traditional concepts of plotting, the passage of time, etc., will be challenging for many students. An effective way of dealing with this is to undertake guided group reading; asking students what parts of the story the author is allowing the reader to focus on, what this says about the reading/writing process, what subtexts may be at play in this approach, and what might be suggested by particular motifs (EG. The pear tree in 'Bliss', or the interplay of what is said versus what isn't said in 'Psychology').

NESA Annotations: Thankfully there are some notes on this prescribed suite included in the recent 2019-2023 Annotations document. Attention is directed towards Mansfield's innovation as a writer in the 1910s and 1920s, particularly her use of stream-of-consciousness to explore the 'movement' in the minds of her characters, and the way in which she provided a much-needed counterpoint to male-dominated literature at the time. Other identified discussion points include the author's tendency to open her stories in media res, the motif of 'facades and role-playing' across the entire suite, and the use of the epiphany as a stream-of-consciousness device.

Verdict: I think modernism can be one of the most challenging genres of literature for a newcomer to adjust to. With that in mind, the success of this text will depend especially on the teacher's interest and passion regarding Mansfield. I think this particular quintet of stories provides a suitable range of ideas and themes for engagement and, although it would be challenging, I could see this text choice being rewarding if students are open-minded enough. There is a lot to discuss with Mansfield, whether it be her personal context, the reflexivity of the modernist genre, the intellectual construction of her ambiguous stories, or the author's relationship with bowdlerisation in her discussion of taboo topics such as sexuality.  

Poetry Options

The Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson

• I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
• This is my letter to the World
• I died for Beauty - but was scarce
• I had been hungry, all the Years
• Because I could not stop for Death
• My Life has stood - a Loaded Gun
• A word dropped careless on a Page

What is it: These seven poems chosen from Dickinson's rather large body of work are difficult to unify via genre or authorial intention (for Dickinson defies such categorisation). We have, however, the elective descriptor from the syllabus as a thesis from which to explore the prescribed text, and upon reading the poetry there are certain themes that emerge in relation to this. This is much existential angst in 'I died for Beauty...', 'I had been hungry...', and 'My Life has stood', and the use of extended metaphor in 'I felt a Funeral...' allows Dickinson to explore the pains and abstractions that pass within the mind. Some of the poetry selected here, such as 'This is my letter...', is among the shortest to be found in all the Prescribed Texts.

Scope for Study: Dickinson is a 19th century poet but, unlike the Romantic poets featured in the Advanced and Extension text lists, she has two key differences - geography and gender. Students will be able to use these differences to explore Dickinson's context, and to build connections to the obsessions evident within Dickinson's poetry; her preoccupations with death and anxiety and the obstacles of the mindscape. The poetry itself, while brief and of relatively accessible structure, deals with deceptively complex ideas that will need repeated reading and discussion. In terms of language and punctuation, Dickinson's ever-present use of the dash can be examined as a representation of the thinking process.

NESA Annotations: Alas, there are no annotations for Dickinson in any of the last three NESA Annotation documents.

Verdict: It's great. There's a lot to look at in Dickinson's poetry and the comparatively short length of each individual poem allows for discrete deconstruction and analysis without overwhelming the students. There should be ample scope for students to use this text to engage with the overall elective as well. I think this would be a very useful suite that would allow students to create connections with the other texts in a larger exploration of mortality, obsession, mental illness, and more.

Drama Options

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
What is it: Hamlet is the mopey son of the recently deceased Danish king. He is upset that his uncle, Claudius, has married his mother and usurped his father's place in both his family and the kingdom of Denmark. One chilly night, Hamlet investigates reports of a strange apparition on the castle's ramparts, and meets the ghost of his father. This ghost tells him that he was actually murdered by Claudius, setting into motion a series of events that will lead to a lot more moping from Hamlet and untold tragedy for the royal family and Denmark.

Scope for Study: Where do I start? Hamlet represents a major turning point in both Shakespeare's oeuvre and the wider trajectory of modern literature, presenting the inner life of a character in a way that no other text had ever done before. Hamlet's soliloquies (and, really, the entire play) convey a landscape of the mind - a literal literary mindscape, if such a thing can exist. From the protracted and extensive use of the obscure rhetorical device hendiadys, to the use of three distinct foils to refract and reflect the protagonist in subtly different ways, Shakespeare's Hamlet is a masterclass in textual integrity: a single-minded representation of the state of being human. 

NESA Annotations: There are no annotations for Hamlet found in the last three Annotations documents. 

Verdict: I reckon you'd be crazy to pass up an opportunity to teach Hamlet - arguably one of the greatest texts (if not THE greatest) composed in the English language. Doing Hamlet with an Advanced English class was one of the most rewarding and intellectually joyful experiences in my teaching career. Relegating it to the Extension syllabus is almost a crime, but I can imagine there would at least be some fantastic discussions with the smaller, more concentrated cohorts typical of the English Extension course.

Film Options

Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola
What is it: Bob, an American film star in his waning years, comes to Japan to film a whiskey commercial. While there he observes a culture of disconnection and, as he struggles with his own insomnia and boredom, he strikes up a friendship with Charlotte, a disillusioned young college graduate. The two connect over their shared discontent in life and their relationship begins to develop into something deeper, like two drifting entities that have fleetingly found one another in a strange and alien landscape. 

Scope for Study: Coppola's work as a filmmaker is characterised by a lot of silence, a motif that students will be able to examine in connection to the perspectives and themes offered by the film. Other elements to examine include the theme of communication and the ways in which characters do (or don't) connect, Coppola's decision to film in an analog format (rather than a digital one) to create a minimalist colour palette, and the co-opting of the 'male gaze' by a young female director to explore gender and identity. There's a lot of material floating around online in the film criticism blogosphere that covers a wide range of perspectives on the film, many of which will be useful to both the students and the teacher.

NESA Annotations: Lost in Translation can be found in the 2009-2014 Annotations document from when the text was part of English Extension 1 Module B: Texts and Ways of Thinking. Mention is made of connections between the narrative and themes of companionship, loneliness, consumerism, and cultural differences. Owing to the framing of the text within the 'Navigating the Global' Elective, the annotations hone in on Tokyo's cultural and technological differences and the efforts made by the filmmaker to highlight 'cultural dislocation' and alienation. 

Verdict: It seems kind of odd that a young female auteur like Sofia Coppola would choose to position her audience from the perspective of the older male character rather than the aloof young female object of his affections. It's a film that's perhaps very much of its time and now in the process of dating quite quickly. I suspect that Lost in Translation won't soon appear again on a Prescriptions List; it actually attracted quite a negative reception in Japan due to the way in which Japanese society was represented. It's a pretty film with an impressive body of paratext but, despite how nice it looks, I'm sure there's other films that would work much more effectively as part of the Literary Mindscapes Elective.

Extension English: Elective 3 - Reimagined Worlds

The Reimagined Worlds Elective features an eclectic range of text options, some of which are potentially the most 'out there' in the entire Year 12 Prescriptions list. That said, it also has a much narrower range of text types to select from - there are no non-fiction options, no plays, no short stories. Here is a quick breakdown of representation:

• 3 novels, 2 suites of poetry, 1 film.
  
• 4 male composers, 2 female composers.
• 4 texts written in English, 2 in other languages (Calvino's text was originally in Italian, del Toro's film is in Spanish)
• 1 Italian composer, 1 American, 2 English, 1 African-American, and 1 Mexican.
  
• Breakdown of eras: 1 text from the 1720s, 1 text from the 1790s, 2 texts from the 1970s, 1 text from the 2000s, and 1 text from the 2010s.
  

Prose Fiction Options

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller... by Italo Calvino
What is it: Ha! Where do I start with this one? One of the most slippery texts to pin down in the entire syllabus due to its extreme metatextuality, Calvino's novel features (checks book) no less than eleven separate narratives. The main narrative follows a reader who picks up a book in a bookstore, the reader (both the character and you) then read the opening chapter of a thriller novel but - just as it starts to get really good - a printing error breaks the spell and the reader is forced to return the book to the store. He picks up a new copy, meets another reader who has run into the same problem, and then goes home to read the new copy only to find it is a completely different book...

Scope for Study: The entire text, every sentence, every word, has a near-infinite scope for study. The first person and second person points of view play games with the reader - are we, the reader, also the reader in the novel? Questions like this will allow for discussions of metatextuality and reflexivity, the potential for postmodernism to break down all meaning beyond repair, and the way that each framing chapter works as a synecdoche for a different part of the reading process, EG. The role of the bookstore, the act of reading in the home, the act of reading as an academic activity, the act of reading from a publication standpoint, a translation standpoint, the writer's standpoint, a government's standpoint. And the constant starting of new narratives as deliberate disruptions designed to pull the responder out of the passivity of reading. And then there's the other characters in the framing narrative, each one symbolising a different kind of reader. There's a lot to unpack, even in a book that is constantly unpacking itself before out eyes.

NESA Annotations: Infuriatingly, there aren't any notes for this text in any of the last three annotation documents. It's a shame because I am intensely curious as to what would be the best approach in teaching If on a winter's night a traveller...

Verdict: Wow. What a mind-blowing, intellectually stimulating, exhausting, maddening read. I got a lot of this and I imagine it would be exponentially rewarding on a second, third, or fifteenth reading. But I don't know if I would want to teach it to students. It's suited to the Literary Worlds Common Module more than anything... I think I would want to see which students were in aclass and how their tastes and minds work before I tried to put this book in front of them. I think it could go either way, depending on the nature of your class.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

What is it: Genly Ai is in the second year of his diplomatic mission to the cold, inhabited planet of Winter, where he has worked slowly to establish contact with the king of one of the world's nations. Winter, like the other eighty-six known inhabited worlds, is populated by a human society who have long since forgotten their connection to Earth. It is Ai's goal to encourage the inhabitants of this world to join the Ekumen, a confederation of cooperating planets, but first he must gain an audience with one of their leaders. Ai's journey across Winter is not simple, however, as he finds himself fundamentally unable to fully grasp the nature of this alien society - a culture unique among all the worlds in that the people there are biologically androgynous.

Scope for Study: A perfect text for the Reimagined Worlds Elective in that it presents a literary world designed to challenge the way the reader thinks about gender and biological sex, especially the ways in which gendered identity can be constructed. Le Guin's work can be examined by students in terms of its use of the science fiction genre, the way it refracts through a prism of second-wave feminism, and the author's intensive world-building. Students will be able to analyse Le Guin's combination of a first-person perspective with an invented lexicon, in particular the way that it shifts from italicised usage, denoting unfamiliar words, to unitalicised, which reveals the enculturation of Ai. The use of first-person narration to reveal characterisation and to explore theme can also be examined, one example being the initial inability of Ai to trust some of the other characters.

NESA Annotations: You'll find annotations for The Left Hand of Darkness in the 2015-2020 Annotations document, from when the text was included as part of the Module A: Genre 'Science Fiction' Elective. The dot points help to contextualise Le Guin's classic as a 'landmark' for both the science fiction genre and modern feminist literature. Highlighted elements also include the interrelationship between the setting and the narrative, the use of multiple points of view, and the novel's 'anthropological and sociological' exploration of gender, sexuality, politics, pacifism, loyalty, sacrifice, mythology, and morality.

Verdict: A wonderful science fiction classic that manages to avoid many of the genre's cliches (laser battles, bug-eyed aliens, glitzy technology) whilst maturely examining complex ideas. Students may need to have some patience and an open mind when they start reading as Le Guin isn't one to weigh her text down with unnecessary exposition - in this case she prefers to start the novel in media res and let the reader's learning happen more gradually and gently. I think I'd love the chance to develop some resources for this text and would probably teach it if the opportunity arose.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

What is it: In the great age of British sail, one Lemuel Gulliver sets out travelling and is shipwrecked in lands hitherto unknown. He becomes caught up in the wars between the miniature Lilliputians and Blefuscudians and becomes a kind of pet in a land of giants known as Brobdingnag. Upon escaping these disproportionate realms, Gulliver visits Laputa, an island in the sky, and the Grand Academy of Lagado, where bizarre forms of research are being undertaken. In other lands he encounters immortals and ghosts and - finally - he spends time in the strangest land of all, the country of the Houyhnhnms, a nation of intelligent talking horses and devolved brutish humans.

Scope for Study: A strong understanding of Gulliver's Travels will need to be heavily framed by context. Coming at the dawning of the Age of Enlightenment, when the intellectuals of Europe were increasingly gripped by a desire to know all that could be known, Swift's novel works as a satirical travelogue. Students should examine the historical, social, and political context of the times in order to better understand the objects of mockery that the narrative takes aim at. In many ways, Swift's novel can be viewed as ahead of its time - a humanist work that critiques the unkind nature of European society. Students will also be able increase their understanding of Swift's context through the way in which he represents his own world through the imaginary realms to which Gulliver travels.  

NESA Annotations: Annotations for Gulliver's Travels can be found in the 2015-2020 document, where it appears as part of the now retired Extension English Genre study. In these notes the focus is on the way the text functions as a comedy. Mention is made of the way in which Swift examines various aspects of human nature and how humour can be used as a tool for social criticism. Opportunities for challenging teaching and learning include: comparing the structure and language of the novel to modern-day comedies, the use of irony and parody, and the other genres this early text can be read as fitting into (science fiction, fantasy, early travel literature, the modern narrative novel, etc.)

Verdict: I love Gulliver's Travels. It's such a hugely influential work on so many texts that it's hard not to read it and join up the dots as you go. That said, it still stands on its own as an entertaining 18th century adventure full of wonder and sharp humour. It's a wonderful view into another time, and hopefully Extension students will appreciate Swift's lively imagination and ability to create a seemingly endless series of curiosities. 

Poetry Options

The Complete Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• The Eolian Harp
• Kubla Khan
• Christabel

What is it: Whilst only comprising of four texts, this suite of selected poetry includes two of the  longest poems to be found in the entire list of Prescribed Texts. Coleridge was instrumental in the popularising of the Romantic genre, with this poetry reimagining his world through a prism of belief in what he called 'One Life' - the idea that all humanity and nature is connected through a relationship with God. The poetry covers such disparate visions as fantastic fever dreams induced by opium ('Kubla Khan'), an unfinished proto-Gothic tale of a mysterious, supernatural woman ('Christabel'), an upcoming marriage as a catalyst for re-assessing one's connection with the world around them ('The Eolian Harp'), and a caution against the folly of man in violating the natural world ('The Rime of the Ancient Mariner').

Scope for Study: Students will need to make extensive consideration of Coleridge's context - his history of anxiety, depression, and drug addiction, and his role as a poet within the Romantic movement. Each of the individual poems will need to be looked at also in terms of how they fit within the poetry genres and subgenres of the era, with texts such as 'The Eolian Harp' figuring as part of a themed series created by Coleridge, 'Kubla Khan' attracting an 'outlier' status of sorts through virtue of its difference within Coleridge's body of work, and 'Christabel' eventually becoming known as one of the poet's greatest works despite its unfinished nature. Students will also benefit from examining the complicated rhyming schemes of the era, the way in which canonical responses to the poetry have been shaped through criticism over time, and Coleridge's choice to frame his thematic explorations through the use of symbolism or deliberately archaic language.

NESA Annotations: Like several of the older texts in the Prescriptions list, Coleridge is not featured in any of the annotations documents. The Wordsworth entry in the 2015-2020 Annotations features a few cursory mentions of the poet for his part in the growth of the Romantic genre.

Verdict: Coleridge is cool. I remember being a 16 year-old student studying him in Advanced English back in the 1990s and thinking, wow, this old guy smoked heroin and wrote massive poems about cursed albatrosses so Iron Maiden could turn them into epic metal songs... what a rock star! I guess I'm biased as Coleridge is one of the few poets I enjoyed reading back in high school but, that said, I get even more out of his work now that I'm an adult so I think this suite still has a lot of merit. It's placement within the Extension syllabus works fairly well as part of the Reimagined Worlds Elective.

Life on Mars by Tracy K Smith

• Sci-Fi
• My God, It's Full of Stars
• Don't You Wonder, Sometimes?
• The Universe: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• The Universe as Primal Scream

What is it: Tracy K Smith's poetry defies easy definition... it explores so much; the legacy of a parent, the stars as metaphor for our need and/or inability to understand, the divisions and connections between each of us, and the future shape that humanity will take as a collective. It's hard to do justice to Smith's work in a summary (or any poet, for that matter) while trying to remain objective. There are some long poems that take a multiplicity of forms and tones on their journey from start to finish, and there are some shorter poems that are economic and precise.

Scope for Study: Students will be able to engage with Smith's poetry by drawing out the intertextual and philosophical connections prompted by each piece. Breaking each poem down into its component elements will allow for structural understanding and the identification of theme but, perhaps, it will be discussion afterwards as a group that provides a more rewarding experience for students. Smith is also a useful focal point for discussing the context of now, being that the poetry is both of our current times and also looks forward to the times that are yet to come.

NESA Annotations: As one of the newer texts on the syllabus, annotations for this suite can be found in the 2019-2023 version of the document. Attention is called to the diversity of form and tone found throughout the selected poetry. There is also, perhaps to the relief of many a teacher looking at teaching this text, an articulation of a potential synthesis behind the selected poetry - with the annotations connecting the five poems together as a body of work that 'addresses universal questions' regarding the meaning of life. There are some other useful pointers too, making these annotations particularly essential. 

Verdict: Sci-fi poetry! How could you not be interested in that? The problem with reading through all these texts for the Extension English electives is that it makes me want to teach more of them then I could ever possibly manage. I'd love to explore this poetry with a class of curious students. I think if I were to undertake the Reimagined Worlds Elective it would very difficult to narrow my choices down to just three texts.

Film Options

Pan's Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo del Toro
What is it: It is 1944, in the the dark days of post-Civil War Spain, and a young girl named Ofelia finds herself living with a new stepfather. This man, Vidal, is revealed to be a brutal fanatic in opposition to the rebels in the area who still fight on for freedom. Ofelia finds herself navigating a world increasingly filled with tragedy while she is simultaneously drawn into another, more fantastical world by a mythical faun. The Faun charges Ofelia with three magical quests, the reward for which will be immortality and passage to a magical kingdom, and the two worlds begin to bleed into one another.

Scope for Study: There's so much to get stuck into with this film in terms of director Guillermo del Toro's auteur status, with Pan's Labyrinth both functioning as an ongoing exploration of the fantasy and horror genres and as a serious artistic meditation on issues relating to Spanish history, nationalism, and identity politics. Students will be able to examine the use of dual narratives, advanced editing techniques, and the often devastating juxtaposition of reality and fantasy throughout the film. If paired with, say The Left Hand of Darkness, there is also suitable scope for the exploration of gender and the use of speculative fiction to examine divisions between the masculine and feminine.

NESA Annotations: Found in the latest version of the Annotations for the 2019-2023 syllabus. Space is given to the text's function as a parable, its exploration of fascism and the human condition in the face of hardship, and del Toro's highly textured allusions to fairytales. Identified challenges include the way the film fits and reflects the magical realism genre, and its use of allusion and intertextuality. 

Verdict: A wonderfully dark and evocative fantasy firmly grounded in a piece of history generally unknown to most people outside of Spain. I think this would be a rewarding film to teach, especially in connection to any of the other texts prescribed here - either as supporting material or a counterpoint. It's also the sort of film that will challenge students in a variety of welcome ways, be it the use of subtitles, its foreign context, or the adult treatment of the fantasy genre by one of its cinematic masters (I know this is off-topic, but if you're interested in this sort of thing then check out one of del Toro's earliest films, Cronos, for its unusual depiction of the vampire myth). Caution though - Pan's Labyrinth is rated MA15+ in Australia, which can be tricky in relation to the Code of Conduct and individual schooling contexts.

Craft of Writing: Ellipsis, Anthimeria, and Antithesis

 

Time for another installment of some Craft of Writing mini-lessons. As mentioned in more detail previously on this blog, these are mini-lessons designed to support students in practising writing craft all year-round. Below are three writing techniques or elements that can be brought into close-up to make the craft of writing more explicit for students.

Ellipsis

What is it: Anything that has been 'cut out' or omitted from a text. This is often explicitly denoted by three dots '...' but can also be implicitly used without the punctuation marks, such as when a key detail is deliberately left unsaid or taken out of the text.

Examples:

• "Did he... peacefully?" - The Dubliners, James Joyce
• "Honestly, Vernon Gregory, if your father was here..." - Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre

Why use it: 

• Omits unnecessary words in everyday language, EG. "I asked for a Pepsi, [I did] not [ask for] Coke."
• Indicates in dialogue when someone loses a train of thought, or gets cut off, or deliberately leaves something unsaid. Can build tension in this way, or reinforce characterisation.
• Used by academics and journalists when quoting, with [...] to signify when a quote has been trimmed down for usefulness.
• Conveys 'jumps' in thinking during stream-of-consciousness.
• In a broader sense, ellipsis is used to remove parts of a narrative that are either unnecessary (the Harry Potter series takes place over 7 years but Rowling only includes the parts of Harry's life that are relevant to the main narrative) or intended to be ambiguous (certain details related to Laura Wishart's life and death are left unsaid in the novel Jasper Jones).

Quick Activity: Write an exchange, using ellipsis, between a character from The Tempestand a character from Hag-Seed.

Anthimeria

What is it: Taking a word and using it in a way contrary to its normal grammar function. This could be using a noun as a verb, or a verb or noun as an adjective. Anthimeria can often start as a form of slang before becoming a permanent part of the language. It demonstrates the way the English language is constantly changing.

Examples:

• "Way to red plague go!" - Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood
• "Teach me how to dougie" - the song 'Teach Me How to Dougie' by Cali Swag District; about a dance named after the '80s rapper Doug E. Fresh.

Why use it: 

• Cultural changes can lead to words being used in new ways, such as a proper noun (Orwell) being used as an adjective (Orwellian).
• Can be used to build a distinct shared lexicon between a set of characters when they talk to each other.
• A lot of neologisms (new words) are often examples of anthimeria - 'texting', 'hashtagging', etc. 
• Used in pop culture to grab attention or emphasise new ideas. 

Quick Activity: Invent two anthimeria and then use them in a sentence each. One must be a noun turned into a verb, the other a noun turned into an adjective.

Antithesis

What is it: An opposition between two things. This can include opposition between two statements or ideas. These pairs are presented in a similar fashion, or in close proximity, and to qualify as antithesis there must be parallel use of grammatical structure or equal weight given to each of the ideas.

Examples:

• "She is ten times more gentle than her father (is ten times) crabbed" - The Tempest, William Shakespeare
• "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" - Neil Armstrong, moon-landing (1969)
• "We will extend a hand if you are unwilling to unclench your fist" - Inaugural speech from Barack Obama (2009)
• On a conceptual scale, Ariel and Caliban are presented as the antithesis of one another in The Tempest - both are servants to Prospero but one is linked to the air, the other the earth.

Why use it:

• To show contrast in order to emphasise one side of the contrast.
• Separating an idea into two halves in this manner can demonstrate its duality and/or complexity.
• Separating an idea into two opposing halves can indicate a sense of tension between the halves.
• Builds a sense of difference between ideas when presented on a larger scale. 

Quick Activity: Write a 4-8 line piece of poetry about the view from a window. Make sure that it demonstrates antithesis.  

You can find these all together on a handy sheet below:

• Writology Issue 7

Happy writing!

The Secret River: A Study Guide

The Extension English 1 Elective Literary Homelands offers both teacher and student the chance to parse some quite accessible texts in a sophisticate fashion. The choice of texts for Extension English, perhaps more so than those prescribed for Advanced English, are representative of the fine-toothed wire upon which our culture sits. There's a sharpness, an edginess, a robust and stinging conversation that echoes through some of the texts that have been made available for study in this part of our syllabus.

One such text is Andrew Bovell's dramatic adaptation of Kate Grenville's The Secret River - a play that courted some degree of controversy upon its release and will no doubt provide fertile ground for discussion in the Extension English classes that grapple with its polemical and forthright narrative of colonial confrontation.

What follows is a study guide for the play that seeks to identify key quotes or examples from the text that allow for analysis in relation to Literary Homelands. Each example is paired with both the kernels of analysis (the second column) and an evaluative/critical breakdown of how this links to the elective (the third column). Approximately two out of every three examples are accompanied by some prompts outlined in bold, which students can use to demonstrate their understanding of how the text can be synthesised into an understanding of the elective. 

Study Guide: The Secret River (click to download)

A few key overarching ideas to note that will help students crystalise the play's placement within the elective:

• The impact of our postcolonial perspective on the way the colonial narrative of settler-era Australia has been represented in The Secret River. Think also of the colonial structures that exist in the way the Thornhills do things, express themselves, and project expectations onto the Dharug.
• The parallels, commonalities, and disparities between the Thornhill/Hawkesbury community and the Dharug people. This can be framed from the standpoint of cross-cultural transition and cultural exchange. 
• The way that notions of homeland shift and change from character to character, particularly Sal and Will Thornhill, over the course of the play. 
• The freed convicts as migrants. Keep in mind, however, that the migrants in this case exist within multiple hierarchies. When compared with the Dharug, the migrants are constructing a dominant power structure rather than settling into a marginalised space. In contrast with this though, the convicts have come from their own marginalised space as an underclass in British society. 
• Consider the above in relation to which voices are privileged marginalised or silence.
•  The role that beliefs play in the shaping of identity and claims to 'homeland'.
• The role of language and dialect as representational elements utilised by the author.
• The nature of transgression in relation to values expressed and reinforced by each cultural group within the text.

Happy reading!

New Assessment Approaches in Stage 6 English

The 2019 ETA Conference emphasis the progression of 'Passion to Practice', which covers a range of conceptual pedagogies for their implementation in the English classroom.This particular session was borne of consideration pertaining to Outcome 9 in the NSW Senior English syllabus and the new HSC specifications rolled out by NESA in the past 18 months.

Extract: With the arrival of the new HSC specifications for Stage 6, the time has never been better for examining new approaches to essay writing that take students away from the stress and anxiety of formal exam settings. In this presentation we will cover how peer editing, conferencing, annotation, and Assessment as Learning can be used to build both confidence and valuable writing skills in senior English students. Teachers will also be given access to a variety of materials that can be adapted to their own classrooms and a number of Year 11 and 12 modules. 

Here is the presentation, which covers multimodal assessment, peer editing, conferencing, lexical density testing, feedback (or analytical) criteria, and dynamic assessment.

• New Assessment Approaches

(I'll add here, as it's as good a place as any, that none of this is really 'new' - it's just new in the sense that these approaches provide alternatives to commonplace formalised assessment strategies that require stripping back in light of the new HSC specifications).

Here are the resources that go with the presentation:

• Resources

Thanks!