HSC English - Prescribed Texts 2019-2023

Regular readers of this blog will have seen various overviews of electives and modules from the Standard, Advanced and Extension syllabuses. It's been a fun journey (or a bit of a mission) to read each of the Prescribed Texts and write a summary of how they might work as texts in the classroom. 

Now I can present it all together for easy perusal. Hopefully this is useful in providing some information on the various options, assisting in planning a potential pattern of study, or illuminates some of those more obscure texts hanging out alongside the tried-and-true favourites. 

Here is a PDF that collects together every Standard, Advanced, and Extension Prescribed Text.

Download: HSC Prescribed Texts - 2019-2023.

And here are links to each of the individual modules and electives:

• The Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences
• Standard Module A: Language, Identity and Culture
• Standard Module B: Close Study of Literature
• Standard Module C: The Craft of Writing
• Advanced Module A: Textual Conversations
• Advanced Module B: Critical Study of Literature
• Advanced Module C: The Craft of Writing
• Extension Elective 1: Literary Homelands
• Extension Elective 2: Worlds of Upheaval
• Extension Elective 3: Reimagined Worlds
• Extension Elective 4: Literary Mindscapes
• Extension Elective 5: Intersecting Worlds

One omission from the above is an overview of the EAL/D Prescribed Texts. If I do decide to undertaken reading these then it will obviously take some more time - and in that case I'd prefer to just do the EAL/D one as an appendix at a later date.

Now let's see if these Prescriptions remain valid until 2023!

Charity and Change - Extract and Activity

Hello!

Today I wanted to share an extract and activity from a Stage 5-aimed drama text. This play, Charity and Change, is something I've been working on for a while and it's very exciting to now have it finished and in a published form. Here is a quick overview of the text's purpose before we look at the extract and an associated activity:

• Context - the characters and setting have been designed to be contemporary and familiar to Australian students in mixed-ability public high schools. 
• Practicality - a range of parts of varying sizes and difficulties have been included so a portion of the class can be engaged to read them aloud. 
• Content - the text touches on themes and ideas relevant to 21st century Australia; online bullying, whether people are 'good' or 'bad', and the differences between appearances and reality. 
  

The opening section of the first scene introduces most of the characters. In the classroom this becomes a good opportunity for students to learn who these characters are and the way they've been established within the play. 

Here's the extract: Act 1, Scene 1 Extract.

After reading through the play with a class, it can be useful to go back to the start again and look at ways in which students can reconstruct the text. One method of doing this is to storyboard and then film the first page of the text, which is where the above extract comes in. 

Students can use a scaffold to brainstorm their shot design, which can be found here: Storyboard Template.

This template includes five elements for each shot. Students should plan each of these elements ahead of filming so that they are forced to consider the way the shots are staged and edited together to support and/or form a working narrative. These elements are:

1. A box in which the shot can be roughly sketched. This helps visualise how it will look. 
2. Shot Size - extreme long shot, long shot, mid shot, close up, or extreme close up.
   
3. Angle - overhead angle, high angle, eye level angle, low angle, underneath angle, dutch angle.
4. Movement - will the camera be static? Or will it be moving, IE. Zooming in, zooming out, panning left, panning right, tracking, handheld?
5. Mise en scene - where will things be placed in the shot? Who is needed for the shot? This section can be useful if students struggle in particular with getting their sketching right.
   

After the planning is complete, have students negotiate in groups which storyboards they want to use and then let them at it. Students can have a lot of fun translating their storyboards into reality and it's also a great exercise in creative problem-solving, collaborative practice, and imaginative recreation.

The Plays 

The extract above is from a play called Charity and Change and is aimed at Years 9 and 10. A second play, Community and Family, is aimed at Year 10 and English Studies. This second play deals with themes related to leadership, homophobia, casual racism, and mental illness. The plays are both set within the same 'universe', a fictional school called Bexley Hill, and follows a cohort of characters across multiple years. Charity and Change features a group of Year 9 students and Community and Family, which has some overlapping characters, is set two years later with a group of Year 11 students. The plays can be read in any order and both texts come with in-built study guides too.

Single copies and class sets can be purchased through Five Senses Education.

Standard Module A: Language, Identity and Culture

Some of the texts in Module A for Standard English

Before we get stuck into the prescriptions for Standard Module A: Language, Identity and Culture, here's a quick break-down in terms of representation.

Regarding text types, this module includes:

• 1 fiction novel
• 1 memoir
• 1 suite of short stories
• 2 suites of poetry 
• 3 plays
• 1 documentary
• 2 films

In terms of authorship, it breaks down as thus:

• 7 male composers, 9 female composers
• 14 Australian authors (2 of whom are Aboriginal, 7 Asian-Australian), 1 British, 1 Jamiacan-British
• 7 of the texts were created in the 21st century, 1 in the 1990s, 1 in the 1950s, 1 in the 1910s, and 1 approximately in the late 19th century.

Prose Fiction Options
There are two options in this part of the module; a collection of short stories and a novel. The novel in this section is the only text in the module written by a non-white, non-Australian author.

Short Stories by Henry Lawson

• The Drover's Wife
• The Union Buries Its Dead
• Shooting the Moon
• Our Pipes
• The Loaded Dog

What is it: This suite of short stories covers a range of themes from Australia's colonial period. 'The Drover's Wife' and 'The Union Buries Its Dead' deal with the harsh reality of colonial life in the Australian bush; 'Shooting the Moon' tells a smirking story of fiscal irresponsibility and forged loyalties; 'Our Pipes' uses the symbol of the smoking pipe to explore coming-of-age, identity, and loss, and 'The Loaded Dog' tells the humorous tale of a dog running around with a live explosive in its mouth.

Scope for Study: Context will be key here, especially if working with students from multiple cultural backgrounds. The texture of Lawson's short stories can be hard to get a contemporary grasp on when read quietly and without an understanding of what life was like for white Australians in the second half of the 19th century. Students will need to experience the stories aloud, as if listening to an eloquent raconteur around a fire, and with glossaries on hand to translate the now antiquated colloquialisms that pepper Lawson's narratives.

NESA Annotations: As far as I can tell, there are no annotations for these Henry Lawson short stories in any of the three Annotations documents released by NESA.

Verdict: I'm unsure of this one. I can see the merit in doing this as part of a comparative study but I think, in isolation as a textual study of its own, it would be an increasingly hard sell to win over Standard English students. I'm not even sure if 'The Loaded Dog' is all that funny either. It ends with a bunch of dogs getting blown to pieces and all the characters laughing about it... 'uproarious' isn't a term I'd use for this! Some of the stories are fascinating from a historical standpoint when considered alongside an understanding of yesteryear's values, but I think an examination would need to be made about the absence of Aboriginal representation (aside from racist references in 'The Drover's Wife'). As a Prescribed Text, I think this would live or die on the basis of an individual teacher's passion for it or on the cultural context of the students studying it. 

Small Island by Andrea Levy

What is it: In 1948 London, with the bombings and war with Hitler now over, Queenie Bligh finds herself without her husband and in need of an income. Flying in the face of the attitudes of the times, Queenie opens her house up to Jamaican boarders, most notably former RAF Airman Gilbert Joseph and his newlywed wife Hortense. The West Indian migrants have come to England in search of a better future but instead find a country cold and largely unaccepting of their skin colour. Meanwhile, after disappearing into a military prison in India, Queenie's long-lost husband Bernard begins to make his way back home... 

Scope for Study: Small Island provides fertile ground for exploring complex issues relating to the Jamaican diaspora and England - notably the impact of colonialism and the extra dimensions this brings to the immigration narrative, the role of racism in shaping inter-cultural relations, and the degree to which identity is tied to place. Students will also need to contend with the role of language through the text's use of Jamaican and British dialects in its portrayal of multiple first person perspectives.

NESA Annotations: Annotations for Small Island can be found in the 2015-2020 document, with reference to the text's inclusion in the old Standard English 'Distinctive Voices' Elective for Module A. The novel's value is highlighted through Levy's winning of multiple awards, as well as its skillful exploration of "themes of prejudice, empire, war and love". Other aspects identified by the annotations are: the text's historical authenticity, the use of extensive flashbacks to create a non-linear narrative, the use of multiple narrative points of view, and the language utilised to craft the distinctive voices of the four protagonists.

Verdict: It's a nice book and I'd probably enjoy it outside of an educational context. But as a text intended for Standard English students to study? I just don't see how it could ever work. For starters, it's over 500 pages along. Then add in the fact that the narrative is quite complex in its use of four separate viewpoints (two of which are rendered in the Jamaican-English dialect), and that the plot unfolds across five years in three different countries. If a teacher somehow saw past all of this and was brave enough to try it with a Standard English class then there's a whole other issue to contend with as well - that of probable parental complaints. Some scenes are quite sexually graphic, and one scene in particular depicts racially-charged sexual violence with an underage prostitute. It boggles my mind how this particular book ended up on this list.   

Poetry / Drama Options

The largest amount of options for this module fall in this section, and this is where I suspect the majority of schools draw their Poetry/Drama text from. There are two sets of poetry, and three plays to choose from.

Contemporary Asian Australian Poets edited by Adam Aitken, Kim Cheng Boey and Michelle Cahill

• 'This is Where it Begins' by Merlinda Bobis
• 'Home' by Mariam Wei Wei Lo
• 'New Accents' by Ouyang Yu
• 'Mother' by Vuong Pham
• 'Circular Breathing' by Jaya Savige
• 'Translucent Jade' by Maureen Ten

What is it: Six Asian-Australian poets from a diverse range of backgrounds explore themes relating to identity and culture. 'This is Where it Begins' looks at the role of storytelling as a cultural event, 'Home' examines the multiple definitions of home that inform the persona's viewpoint of the concept, and 'New Accents' utilises humour and brevity to poignantly lay bare the shame, burden, impact, and prejudices that arise from a migrant's mispronunciation of words. In 'Mother' the persona compares the hopes and dreams of a Vietnamese refugee with that of her privileged daughter, and 'Translucent Jade' considers the idea of cultural heritage being bound up in objects. Finally, the poem 'Circular Breathing' muses on the concept of a connection between the persona and Aboriginal culture.

Scope for Study: The breadth of styles in the poetry of these six poets makes it difficult to create a thesis of study based solely on structure and technique (which is for the best, really!). Instead, students will need to consider the shared 'Asian-Australian' experience and other themes that arise from this, such as the relationship between the past and the present, the role of culture in forging identity, and the sincere wish of each poet in wanting to better navigate the awkward space between the two cultures they inhabit.

NESA Annotations: There are two sets of annotations in the 2019-2023 NESA Annotations document - one for Standard and one for EAL/D. The Standard section asserts that students will develop empathy through their engagement with different perspectives and representations. Stylistic elements of poetry that are singled out for examination include: stanzaic patterns, enjambment, repetition, bilingualism, wordplay, figurative language, and descriptive language. The annotations also suggest that students should reflect on the 'intercultural insights' offered by the poetry in relation to contemporary Australian society.

Verdict: This option is unique among all the Prescriptions in that it is thematically-unified rather than the work of just one author. As such, it presents certain challenges, however, the poetry itself is still quite accessible for Standard English students. Provided that the teacher supplies the level of support needed to understand context, annotate the poems, and write personal responses to the themes therein, I can see this being a rewarding learning experience for our students.  

Inside My Mother by Ali Cobby Eckermann

• Trance
• Unearth
• Oombulgarri
• Eyes
• Leaves
• Key

What is it: This suite of Eckermann's poetry weaves a sparse yet evocative tapestry that taps into the processes of memory, the complex modern connection to culture, the ongoing trauma of the Aboriginal peoples in the wake of the Stolen Generations, and the problematic spaces that exist between the poet and her ancestors. 

Scope for Study: When considering this text Standard English students will be able to connect with various elements that have allowed Eckermann to create meaning through poetry. Among these are the poet's rejection of most forms of punctuation, the use of imagery and sensory descriptions to orient the reader in the poet's memories and thoughts, and the employment of structure to separate or combine ideas into a narrative. Teachers will also need to examine Eckermann's context as a survivor of the Stolen Generations and how her experiences are represented through her poetry in order to build and support student understanding.

NESA Annotations: Being quite a new text (published in 2015), 'Inside My Mother' has only been included in the latest 2019-2023 Annotations document. Recommendations are made to focus on the poet's personal experiences as supporting material for the selected poetry, and for each poem to be viewed "as a synecdoche for the loss of cultural identity". Students are also encouraged to consider the importance of family as a central concept in Aboriginal culture and the ways in which this is reflected in the text.

Verdict: Eckermann has been touted by some as the logical successor to Oodgeroo's legacy, which is quite a big claim but not entirely unfounded. It's just a shame that the poems selected are almost uniformly in the same three-lines-a-stanza style, especially when there are many other poems in the volume that don't follow this structure and creatively play with space and indentation in the 'concrete' style. The inclusion of the latter in particular would've worked really well with helping to 'sell' poetry to Standard English students as an intriguing and highly imaginative art form. I don't know if I could ever see myself teaching this text, I think I'd just feel disappointed that I couldn't use some of more inventive poetry within the volume that hasn't been prescribed.

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler 

What is it: It is 1953 and Melbourne woman Olive patiently awaits the arrival of Roo, a cane cutter from Queensland who travels south every summer to be with her. This is the seventeenth of these summers, and Roo's co-traveller Barney finds himself single once again after his lover Nancy has decided to get married in his seasonal absence. Olive is looking to fix Barney up with her fellow barmaid Pearl, a widowed single mother with reservations about the idea of an ongoing seasonal romance. Things become complicated in this fateful summer when Roo and Barney arrive with some news - Roo has hurt his back and may no longer be able to continue in the harsh work of the sugar cane harvest.

Scope for Study: In reference to Module A, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll offers a portrait of Australian life in another time. In the post-WWII context, cane-cutting was quickly becoming increasingly industrialised and no longer relied on the heavy hands-on input of the 'cane cockies'. Through its examination of this shift, the play offers a snapshot of the end of pre-multicultural Australia - a text written as the industry (and country) was undergoing significant cultural changes in response to the arrival of post-war migrants. Students will be able to examine this context and draw connections between the era and the characters - their dialects and values, the way their personal decisions and word choices are shaped by 1950s Australian morality, and the way in which the plot and structure of the play reflects a world in turmoil and decline.

NESA Annotations: Notes for this text can be found in the 2015-2020 Annotations document. Special note is made of its 'groundbreaking' use of Australian colloquial language and 'distinctly Australian characters', and themes that are particular to Australian society: 'mateship', nostalgia vs. pragmatism, the different kinds of adult relationships acceptable in 1950s Australian society, etc. The annotations also suggest that students compare and contrast the 'voices' of each of the play's characters and the ways in which they represent changing values in Australia at the time.

Verdict: It didn't take me long to read this one because it was so fan-bloody-tastic. I really felt the poignancy of the dying world presented by Ray Lawler, even moreso when you consider that he wrote this at the very time that it's set. It's so prescient and really cuts to the core of Anglo-Australian society in an unsentimental way, and the ending was like a strike of lightning. I think the potential for students to connect with this probably depends on how well the context is taught but, like most context-heavy texts, it will fall into place once enough groundwork is laid. Students should be able to 'get' the themes at its heart with little issue, and the dialogue feels authentic despite the gulf of years between the play's initial performance and the modern day.

Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw

What is it: Quite by chance, the academic phonetics expert Mr. Higgins meets a lower class flower girl called Eliza Doolittle outside the theatre one night and is taken by her accent. Eliza, hoping to better herself, seeks out Higgins afterwards to get tutored in 'speaking proper'. Higgins sees this as an opportunity to conduct an experiment in conquering the strictures of class, and the two begin a troubled journey that sees Eliza transformed (for better or worse) and Higgins challenged in regard to his amorality.

Scope for Study: Some contextual study will be needed to support Standard English students, specifically in understanding why Shaw saw a need to write this now iconic play. Coming at the end of the fin de siecle, the play presents the final days of the class system in England and reflects the rising class consciousness that had eroded the foundations of European society in the 19th century. Shaw's text comes at this issue sideways by highlighting vocabulary and dialect as symbols of class, with a theme of vocabulary being the key to articulating and understanding other people's thoughts. In a nutshell, students will need to understand the relationship between class and language in order to successful engage with Pygmalion.

NESA Annotations: None of the last three NESA Annotations documents (from 2009 to the present day) include annotations for Pygmalion. Bernard Shaw's play has popped on and off the Prescribed Texts list for, I suspect, at least 100 years, so I'm guessing the assumption here seems to be that we should all know it well enough to not need annotations.

Verdict: Pygmalion is undoubtedly a classic and its humour still holds up today, especially considering the ongoing divisions between Australia's own haves and have-nots. Due to its age I think it would be a challenging text to teach to a Standard English class, but not impossible - it just requires passion from the teacher and strong linking to context. Teachers will need to be wary of some of the nuances of language that have radically changed in connotation since the play's initial publication, for example, the line "you know you can't be a nice girl inside if you're a dirty slut outside" will unavoidably be a talking point with students, so you will need to be both brave and very sure of how you want to teach it. 

Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah by Alana Valentine

What is it: Shafana is a young Afghan-Australian woman who is studying science at university. Her closest relative and mentor is her aunt, Sarrinah, who has struggled to find skilled work in Australia due to her engineering qualifications not being formerly recognised in this country. In the course of working on a university assignment, Shafana has rediscovered her faith in Islam and is considering wearing the hijab. In seeking her aunt's blessing, however, Shafana finds that the older woman sees the religious veil as a barrier that will hold Shafana back in Australian society.

Scope for Study: Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah is a perfectly pitched text for Standard English in that it is challenging (in language, construction, and theme) whilst being relatively short. The brevity of this two-character play is such that it will allow plenty of time to examine the issues that are raised and the motifs that tie the text together. Students will need to be orientated to consider the play as a narrative set during the fallout of 9/11, an event that looms a lot larger in the teacher's psyche than it does for those who were born after it happened. Another challenge that the teacher will need to consider is how to present the text to a class - as a two-character piece it doesn't lend itself well to a whole class reading, and would probably be better absorbed as a presentation in which two teachers play the characters.

NESA Annotations: This text was first introduced in the last Prescribed Texts list as part of the previous Standard English Module C and, as such, annotations can be found in the 2015-2020 Annotations document. The text is described as significant due to its connection to the earlier multiculturally-themed 1968 play Norm and Ahmed. Attention is also paid to the play's role in challenging the negative attitudes that some students may hold towards Islam as a result of the media, particularly in relation to stereotypes regarding Muslim women and the impact of 9/11. 

Verdict: As it's written by a non-Afghan writer Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah could be viewed as problematic, however, there are several elements that may mitigate this, such as the author's close collaboration with refugees and the Afghan-Australian community. There is some scope here for students to engage with the marginalisation of voices in a multicultural society, and there will be many points that prompt class-wide discussion. I haven't taught this text but several colleagues at my school have, and it's worth noting that there were particular students who refused to engage with the text as a result of their own prejudices. Student performance in assessment tasks reflected this and, with that in mind, I feel that this might therefore be better utillised as a Year 11 text rather than something that performance in the HSC hinges on (not that we have that choice, just something to keep in mind next time teachers are consulted on the English syllabus).

 

Nonfiction / Film / Media Options

There are four options in this section, some of which might arguably be considered some of the more obscure texts to be featured in the overall Prescriptions. One is a non-fiction book, and the other three are films.

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

What is it: The author, a Cambodian-Chinese refugee, relates her upbringing in the Footscray area of Melbourne. With the use of an episode structure, Unpolished Gem charts Alice's beginnings as part of a family navigating their way through a new cultural landscape after escaping the horror of Pol Pot's Year Zero, her teenage depression when faced with crippling questions about her future, and the difficulties she faces in starting a romantic relationship with a 'skip' Australian.

Scope for Study: Unpolished Gem is a fairly accessible text for Standard English teenagers in that it utilises an authentic and honest voice to examine the intersection of two very different cultures with a lot of humour. Students will be able to engage with this humour and examine the way it disarms and cajoles the reader into identifying with Alice in her role as a figure trapped between two worlds. There is also scope for introducing the narrative device of 'stream-of-consciousness', which Pung employs increasingly in the last third of the memoir, signifying her journey towards self-actualisation.

NESA Annotations: No other text (that I've come across so far) has as many entries in the various NESA Annotation documents as Unpolished Gem. It is featured twice in the 2009-2014 annotations, both as a Standard and an ESL text, and again as an ESL text in the 2015-2020 annotations. From a Standard English viewpoint, the annotations support the now defunct Standard Module C Into the World Elective and highlight the importance of this text as providing an access point for students of South-East Asian heritage. The rest of the annotations don't really go too much beyond a few generalised comments about 'different narrative techniques' and 'aspects of Australian history'.

Verdict: Unlike the majority of the other texts in this list, which are largely monocultural or presented from a monocultural viewpoint, Unpolished Gem closely examines the nature of a hyphenated identity. Pung operates in a space between her Cantonese-speaking parents and wider Australian society, which adds a layer of internal conflict to the narrative that pulls together the various chapters set across a 19 year time period. We witness Pung's loss of language through her eyes and the impact that language can have on a family living in a new land. Perhaps most importantly, Unpolished Gem is a very worthy text because it encourages empathy and lets students see inside the experiences of someone who has lived the refugee experience.

One Night the Moon, directed by Rachel Perkins

What is it: Real life family Paul Kelly, Kaarin Fairfax, and Memphis Kelly play the Ryans, a colonial family living in the remote outback of Australia during the 1930s. One night daughter Emily climbs out the window to follow the moon into the wilderness and disappears, prompting a frantic manhunt led by her father Jim. The local police enlist the assistance of an Aboriginal tracker named Albert Yang, however, Jim's racist attitudes prevent the man from helping, and the search begins to look hopeless as a result.

Scope for Study: One Night the Moon is an unusual text within the Prescriptions List as it is both a musical and a non-feature film (too long to be considered a short film, too short to be considered a 'movie'). It is also an extremely valuable text as it is directed by an Aboriginal filmmaker, Rachel Perkins (daughter of famed activist Charles Perkins) and thus provides an Aboriginal voice on issues relating to Aboriginal identity and culture within the colonial context. The film features a lot of material that bears student examination, such as: the use of dutch angles, the purpose of each song, the employment of an elliptical structure for the narrative, and the contrast between Aboriginal and European viewpoints.

NESA Annotations: Covered in the 2015-2020 Annotations document, where it was included as part of the Distinctive Voices elective. Themes mentioned include loss, reconciliation, prejudice, and distinctive cultural values and perspectives. Mention is also made of the film's use of multiple genres (such as the 'opera film', fable genre, and the Australian 'lost child' myth) to create a "visually rich portrait of the unique Australian landscape". On a side note, it's unfortunate and disappointing to see such a relatively recent document using the word 'Aborigines'.

Verdict: This is a beautiful film and, while some Standard English students may roll their eyes at the use of country/folk ballads throughout, its brevity and relative straight-forwardness will make it accessible for study. Perkins' vibrant and organically loose camera movement gives the proceedings an ethereal atmosphere while keeping things moving along, and it's also interesting watching Paul Kelly in the only acting role he's ever undertaken. An examination of context, irony, and the way One Night the Moon utilises musical genres will also allow students to gain an appreciation for the disparity between (and inability of) the colonial and Aboriginal worlds to co-exist in the early 20th century.

The Castle, directed by Rob Sitch

What is it: The Kerrigans are a typical Australian family living in the Melbourne suburb of Coolaroo. When the government informs everyone on their street that their homes are about to be absorbed so that a multinational company can expand the airport, patriarch Darryl Kerrigan is appalled and dismayed. Darryl decides to fight the matter in the High Court of Australia by rallying the support of his neighbours and enlisting the help of a shonky low-level lawyer. The odds have never looked worse!

Scope for Study: The Castle should be well-known to a good portion of Standard English students due to both its perennial showing on free-to-air TV and its cult following among several generations of Australians. Drilling down into its use of humour and shared lexicon will only go as far as the teacher is able to link it to student experience, and attention will therefore need to be paid to highlighting the inherent 'Australian-ness' of the text that has both made it so popular in Australia and so indifferently received in overseas markets.

NESA Annotations: Another one where NESA have not provided annotations in any of the three Annotation documents from the last ten years.

Verdict: I love The Castle but my experience teaching it was with an ESL class where the majority of the migrant students did not get the humour at all. Truth be told, it was a very labouring and strange experience to see so many of its best jokes fall completely flat with an audience that, even after understanding why it was considered funny, would shrug and say 'so what?' Humour is, of course, highly subjective. I think it would be useful to gauge what sort of class you have before attempting to teach this one.

Reindeer in My Saami Heart, directed by Janet Merewether

What is it: In this documentary Australian filmmaker Janet Merewether visits northern Sweden to interview Inghilda Tapio, a poet and one of the Saami, Scandinavia's indigenous people. Tapio recounts a childhood of discrimination in which the Swedish government practised policies of dehumanisation and cultural destruction, and compares this to the contemporary struggles of the Saami people in their attempt to hold onto their reindeer-oriented culture.

Scope for Study: Students will be able to draw parallels between the history and experiences of the Saami people with the Stolen Generations. Reindeer in My Saami Heart also provides scope for Standard English students to engage with sophisticated concepts such as the power of language to represent experience and the ongoing battle of indigenous peoples the world over to resist the Eurocentric colonisation of the mind. The documentary is also open to study in its use of a rich sound design and traditional artwork to recreate the nomadic and ancient lifestyle of the Saami. Teachers will also do well to examine the film's intertextual ties with Tapio's own poetry.

NESA Annotations: Like Contemporary Asian Australian Poets, this text has two sets of annotations in the 2019-2023 NESA Annotations document - one for Standard and one for EAL/D. The Standard section highlights Tapio's role as an advocate for an ethnic minority, and calls attention to the construction of the documentary from a range of materials that utilise pathos to provoke an  emotional response from the viewer. The annotations also identify the maintenance of Saami language as crucial to the survival of indigenous culture.

Verdict: The story of the Saami is a fascinating one and is, in most cases, something completely unknown to Australian teenagers. Reindeer in My Saami Heart will probably therefore challenge the views of students in relation to the indigenous world as not something restricted to just Australia or America. That said, it has to be admitted that this documentary's gentle, poetic style may be alienating to Standard English students and, on a practical level, it's one of the harder texts to track down on the Prescriptions List. I think it would take a special kind of Standard English class to engage well with this film.

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!

Romeo and Juliet: A New Translation

 

About a year ago I put up a new 'translation' of Shakespeare's Macbeth that could be used in a mixed ability Stage 5 classroom. The provision of this as a single PDF allowed for the printing of booklets that could be read by the students without scanning back and forth to compare the modern English with Shakespeare's English (as is the case with the No Fear Shakespeare editions). Below you will find a similarly translated version of Romeo & Juliet that can also be used in a mixed ability Stage 5 classroom.

My reasons for doing this are as follows:

• I've gotten a lot of use out of the No Fear editions over the years but I wanted something that Western Sydney kids could engage in an easier way. Some of the language in the No Fear editions can feel 'clunky', or overly slavish to the original text - sometimes to the point of losing the essence of what Shakespeare was actually trying to say. For example, references to ancient Greek or Roman deities just don't make the same impact on teenagers these days. Why not replace such a reference with something else that gets the same point across?
• I've found that junior students can sometimes get confused by the reading pathway of the No Fear editions as they present the two versions of the text side-by-side. This is great for examining specific extracts but I think it can slow down the process of just enjoying Shakespeare's characters and plotting, especially if these are students who are already resistant to reading a 400 year old play.
• By working through the text and translating it myself I found I got a much clearer idea of what was happening in the play. This kind of close reading was incredibly valuable to me as a teacher. 

Undertaking this process also helped me form new opinions on things I hadn't really considered. I mean, it probably doesn't help that I'd never read the entire play from start to finish as an adult, but anyway... here are some of my favourite realisations!

• Romeo isn't in love. He just wants to have sex. By modern standards, the relationship he has with Juliet is actually kind of toxic. It's hard to read it so closely and not get the impression that Shakespeare is knowingly exloring the emotional detriment of a codependent relationship.
• Nurse is an incredibly irritating and self-contradicting character, and possibly one of my favourite Shakespearean comedy creations.
• It's actually a really rude text - plenty of people have written about this, but I never quite realised how rude it was until I got to the bit about medlar fruits and open arses.
• I take back what I said about Nurse, I think Peter might be my favourite comedic character in this play. The bit where he tries to talk to the musicians who have arrived for Juliet's wedding is still funny after all these centuries.
• Friar Lawrence is the most important character in the whole text. He encapsulates the play's theme of duality and reflects the Elizabethan concept of the Great Chain of Being through his discussion of the spectrum that exists between sin and virtue.
• The random introduction of the character 'Petruchio' into the Tybalt-Mercutio-Romeo fight scene led me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about ghost characters. These are essentially characters that writers put in early drafts of texts and then later, while removing said character, accidentally remain in one or two references. Another ghost character, Valentine, is also mentioned earlier in the play - intended as Mercutio's brother but mostly removed when Shakespeare wrote later drafts.

Anyway, enough waffle, here is the play:

• Romeo & Juliet translated

(Disclaimer: apologies for any typos in the PDF above - I didn't get a chance to do a second draft as I was keen to give the text a try with my Year 9 students this upcoming term) 

The Tempest Annotated

Hello!

One of the challenges of tackling Shakespeare in the English classroom is finding the time to have your students read it. Assigning the text as a reading will work for some students but, owing to the nature of drama itself as a narrative genre best experienced live, this isn't going to work for the majority of the class. 

Ideally, you would have your students watch the play but this also isn't always practical. And, when we get to Year 11 and 12, the idea of setting aside entire periods to read through Shakespeare inspires a special kind of anxiety related to covering course content, outcomes, unpacking metalanguage, etc., ad nauseum, whatevs. 

There's also that kid in each class who also tells you that they've read the text, honest guv'nor, and then will write a paragraph about the way Prospero takes revenge by tricking Othello into feeling jealous towards his mother Gertrude. You want to snap, "You aint read nuthin'!" but the calm veneer of professionalism instead has it emerge as a polite "Hmmm, not quite."

The structuring of the new Advanced English syllabus now means, for better or worse, that a lot of us will be teaching Shakespeare through The Tempest as part of Module A: Textual Conversations. This means that there is also a novel to read alongside it, Margaret Atwood's vibrantly metatextual Hag-Seed, which adds an extra dimension to the logistics of fitting the module into the space of approximately 10 weeks. 

Something that seems to have worked with my current class was squeezing the reading of The Tempest into the end of the previous term. The best approach I've found for doing Shakespeare with Year 12 is to have the play read in one big go. In the past I've run this on a Saturday or on a day in the school holidays but, as my students had schedules that didn't fit with this at the end of last year, I organised it as an incursion on the next-to-last day of the term instead. With one of the less-used rooms in the school booked, we met as a class first thing in the morning with some breakfast, assigned roles, and read the text all the way through with a 20 minute intermission break. This approximately took us about 3 or 3.5 hours and now the entire class can say that they've read the entire text. And, most importantly, I believe them!

Even Advanced English students will have a varied response to the idea of reading Shakespeare - not all of them are fans. Some level of support therefore needs to be supplied in helping to translate the language while they read. I don't think we should have them initially read the No Fear version (as helpful as this can be as a supplementary study text) as it's important that Advanced students engage with Shakespeare's language to gain a complete understanding of how the text is constructed. 

Luckily Shakespeare is well beyond the constraints of copyright law, so there was nothing stopping me from creating a new edition of the text that would include annotations in support of our context. The link below includes an unabridged presentation of The Tempest with a series of annotations alongside the original text. 

The Tempest Annotated - full text.

Hopefully this helps get the students through the play, which is imperative as a base level of engagement before they read Atwood's novel. Students can come back to this version throughout the module to analyse examples and tie them to Hag-Seed.

Target Audiences, Context, and Mad Men

There's a wealth of texts that we can use in the classroom with students when looking at advertising and the role it plays in relation to communication. As part of a Year 10 unit that examines this topic I settled on using two main texts - carefully-selected excerpts from the reality TV satire Nathan For You (see this blog and this blog) and the historical drama series Mad Men. As it's unlikely that many students will be aware of them it's worth bringing your class up to speed on the context of these TV series before launching into either of them in conjunction with activities. 

Below is a brief bit of context that sets up one particular scene I like to use from Mad Men.

Context

Mad Men is a 2007 TV drama set in 1960. It focuses on an advertising agency called Stirling-Cooper where a Creative Director, Don Draper, must come up with creative ideas to help companies sell their products. Companies decide whether they will hire Stirling-Cooper based on how good Don's ideas are. The show can be confronting for modern audiences because it honestly depicts the attitudes of the time (sexism, cigarette smoking, racism); allowing the audience to see how different the 1960s were to 2007. In this clip, Stirling-Cooper is dealing with a Jewish client for the first time.

Show students the questions below first and then let the clip play through a couple of times so they can watch for the answers. I find that students are much more willing to focus if they know what they're looking for so there's little use in just showing the clip without any of the context above or letting them know the purpose behind it.

The questions focus on comprehension and explanation, and scaffold students towards a point where they will be asked to discuss the concept of a target audience. They are (and I'm sure you could probably add a few of your own):

1. What is the agency's plan to boost awareness for Menken's Store?
2. Why is Miss Menken against the idea of coupons?
3. What has prompted Miss Menken to seek a new image for her store?
4. What kind of target audience is Miss Menken after?
5. Why does she say "the customer is always right?"
6. Give an example of sexism or anti-Semitism (discrimination against Jewish people) from this clip.
7. Find one example of sarcasm in the clip and explain its purpose. 

After the students have thought it through (and formulated some responses) you can then discuss some possible answers:

Potential Answers

1. The agency plans to boost awareness of Menken's through the use of coupons and a TV spot designed to increase their exposure.
2. Miss Menken is against coupons because of the connotations associated with them, IE. That they appeal to people trying to save money, whereas Miss Menken wants to appeal to a more affluent / well-off demographic.
3. Miss Menken's father previously ran the business, however, last year they reported their lowest sales so now she is seeking to revitalise the brand and find new customers.
4. Miss Menken wants a rich, upper class audience for her product, and gives an example of the sort of brand she wants her store to be compared to.
5. The phrase 'the customer is always right' is delivered by Miss Menken to remind Don Draper and his colleagues that she is currently his customer and that he should be listening to her ideas.
6. The reference to 'the village' is an allusion to Jewish people stereotypically living in a more 'backward' or primitive fashion. The phrase 'Your people' is also a reference to Miss Menken's Jewishness. Draper and co. also mention Miss Menken's father, alluding to their preference to work with him rather than her, which demonstrates sexism.
7. Miss Menken is being sarcastic when she says "this place runs on charm", as she obviously believes the opposite. 

Another example of sexism

The rest of the lesson can then be spent on some paragraph writing practice, with a formula of your choice. If I'm working with a mixed ability class who have limited confidence about this sort of thing  then I'll use a fairly open-ended question such as:

Write one paragraph outlining how you would aim to change the target audience for Menken's Store to suit Miss Menken's vision.

Students should aim to start their paragraph with a statement of some sort that re-frames the question so that an unsuspecting reader could follow the paragraph without having read the question. After this point the student is free to explain what their idea is, how they would go about implementing it and making it work, and then finishing up with a confident assessment of why their idea is the best option for Miss Menken.

Writing a paragraph in this way provides scope for students to just get some independent writing done (which can be a struggle at times), plus they can practise their command of rhetoric - which is pertinent in light of the overall topic's focus on persuasion and advocating for ideas. 

Extension English: Elective 1 - Literary Homelands

The Literary Homelands elective asks students to explore how individuals and communities express their connections to place, ethnicity, and 'the other'. This is essentially an elective about diversity and voice, values and assumptions, and the impact of one culture on another. All the texts share this last thing in particular as a common thread - they portray worlds in which cultures overlap, intersect, and come into conflict.

There are three novels - two of which are set in India, albeit a century apart. One is written by an Indian writer, the other by a British one. The third novel is an Irish author's exploration of the Irish migrant experience in 1950s America.

The poetry option represents a Singapore-born Chinese-Australian's perspective on migration and cultural identity, and the drama option is an Australian-written exploration of the clash between European and Aboriginal worlds in the early 1800s.

The final text is a feminist one; a British film about London's Bangladeshi community.

Prose Fiction Options

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

What is it: Meet Balram Halwai, an impoverished Hindu who watches his father die unattended in hospital and thereafter vows to transcend the shackles of his caste. In his ambition to achieve financial security and independence, Balram becomes a driver for a wealthy Bangalore family engaged in dodgy political dealings in Delhi. His story, relayed in epistolary form to the Chinese Premier, charts his rise from extreme poverty to powerful business mogul. 

Scope for Study: In Balram, the author Aravind Adiga has created a complex and authentic voice that is representative of a class of Indian people often stereotyped or rendered voiceless. What's perhaps most engaging about Balram's narrative is that he is neither portrayed as a victim of circumstances or villified for his extreme actions throughout the novel. The line between satire and cultural expose become somewhat blurred as Balram's highly engaging second-person narration veers from the sharply comic to the brutally sobering and then back again. Students will be able to examine the significance of narrative voice, authorial intent, and literary value (The White Tiger won the prestigious Booker prize just a few years ago).

NESA Annotations: Notes can be found on The White Tiger in the annotations for the 2015-2020 syllabus, when the text was connected to the Extension 1 Elective: Navigating the Global. Most of these annotations focus on the novel's exploration of globalisation which, if you squint enough, can be co-opted to assist with reading the text in connection to the Literary Homelands elective (in that both electives allow for the examination of Adiga's depiction of India as a country shifting under a wide range of social and cultural pressures). The annotations also highlight Balram's role as an anti-heroic narrator.

Verdict: I think this would be a fantastic text to introduce to students. Adiga's novel is both very funny and quite confronting so there will be little chance for students to become bored, and the way the novel is constructed will also provide plenty of scope for lively discussion. In particular, there's a lot of mileage in examining the author's role in shaping his narrative as a complex but recognisable representation of a nation, a depiction that's familiar enough to the average student without losing a sophisticated depth of complexity that justifies the novel's critical acclaim. 

A Passage to India by EM Forster

What is it: Written and set in 1920s British India, Forster's novel concerns the tensions and misunderstandings that arise from the relationship between the British colonialists and their Indian subjects. Much of this is relayed through the friendship of Aziz, a young Muslim doctor, and Fielding, an independently-minded British headmaster - a relationship that is tumultuously tested when Aziz is falsely accused of sexual assault by a visiting Englishwoman who wants to see the 'real' India. 

Scope for Study: Forster's text remains highly relevant (despite its age) due to the complex commentary it offers on colonialism, imperialism, racial differences, and gender. At the time of its release it was considered inappropriate by Western audiences as it challenged and critiqued the concept of British superiority and flew in the face of contemporary Western views on Indian identity. From a 21st century standpoint, the text can be deconstructed from the opposite standpoint as ultimately reflective of Forster's inherent racism and other attitudes that have long since changed - something that students should have no difficulty picking up on.

NESA Annotations: Notes are provided in the new 2019-2023 Annotations, with emphasis placed on the novel's literary value as a key text written by a Nobel Prize-winning author. Opportunities for challenging teaching and learning include analysing the myriad forms that conflict takes within the text, looking at the way the author represents perspectives of different characters seeking a greater understanding of Indian society and culture, and examining the narrative's tripartite structure.

Verdict: If you count Bangladesh as a part of India (and it was at the time of A Passage to India's writing) then there are three texts in this Elective that focus on this multi-religious, multi-cultural country. I don't think I would teach all three of them but I think you'd have to be working very hard to avoid them altogether if you were doing this elective. A Passage to India is probably the most divisive and deconstructable of the three texts if you were choosing to utilise just one Indocentric work. Forster's novel challenged me at several points due to the backwards attitudes of its era, however, it also remains highly pertinent in that it offers a outlying critique of its time that was entirely apart from the common attitude of the 1920s British readership.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

What is it: Eilis is a young woman living in sleepy 1950s Ireland who finds herself presented with an opportunity to relocate to New York. Using her connection to a Catholic priest, Eilis moves into a boarding house filled with other Irish girls, gets a job in a department store, and goes to night school to become an accountant. She begins a cautious relationship with a young Italian-American man, however, when tragedy strikes back home in the village of Enniscorthy, Eilis is confronted with a difficult and life-changing decision.

Scope for Study: Brookyln's placement as part of the Literary Homelands elective makes a lot of sense as it provides students with ample scope for examining the notion of a cultural and physical homeland and the effect this can have on a person's sense of loyalty and growth. Eilis is a strange character in that she manages to come across as paradoxical in that she is both strong-willed and unassuming, and students can examine this as a symbolic representation of the way an increasingly divided cultural identity can manifest itself. The dichotomy between 1950s America and Ireland also provides scope for examining the increasing complexity of the modern world; with Brooklyn's social modernity acting as a counterpoint for the cultural decline of the 'village' represented by the rural landscape of Enniscorthy and the backwards attitudes therein.

NESA Annotations: Brooklyn was introduced in 2015 as an Advanced English novel for the now defunct Module C Elective 'Representing People and Landscapes'. As such, notes on Toibin's text can be found in the 2015-2020 Annotations, and concern themselves with the Advanced module rather than the new Extension Elective. That said, there are some useful pointers on the differences between Enniscorthy and Brooklyn, and what Toibin's authorial choices for his character might represent in relation to the novel's themes.

Verdict: Brooklyn is one of a couple of 'new' texts from the 2015 text prescriptions that have been shifted from Advanced into Extension (another that comes to mind is Melissa Harrison's Clay), which may leave a few English faculties across NSW expressing frustration after recently purchasing large class sets. That aside, Brooklyn seems a much better fit with the Extension Elective in comparison to the previous Advanced one. I would be careful about selecting this text; the themes and characters are the sort that would traditionally appeal to a middle-aged literature-conscious crowd, and some teenagers (yes, even the ones who choose Extension) may be significantly alienated and resistant to Brooklyn as a matter of taste.

Poetry Options

Burning Rice by Eileen Chong

• Burning Rice
• Mid-autumn Mooncakes
• My Hakka Grandmother
• Shophouse, Victoria Street
• Chinese Ginseng
• Winter Meeting
• Singapore

What is it: Eileen Chong is a Singapore-born Australian poet who has attracted a diverse array of accolades for her work. The selected poetry from the volume Burning Rice focuses on Chong's migrant and cultural background, straddling her Chinese ancestry and Singaporean upbringing with particular attention paid to the importance of food as a ritualised expression of identity.

Scope for Study: The seven poems selected here offer portraits of captured moments fraught with the emotional charge associated with memory and self-awareness. Chong's use of structure is fluid and free-form, allowing for word placement to slip into unexpected places via the joys of enjambment and split clauses, thus providing scope for students to examine the effect of representing moments in this stylised fashion. In relation to the elective, Chong's hyphenated identity (China / Singapore / Australia) allows for a relatively straightforward examination of the rubric provided in the syllabus. 

NESA Annotations: Featured in the newest annotations, NESA's advice on the selected suite of poetry highlight "the poet's exploration of the tensions of the diaspora" - calling to mind years past when a lot of NSW English teachers taught Peter Skrzynecki's Immigrant Chronicle as part of the 'Belonging' Area of Study. Attention is paid to the poet's use of narrative, imagery, and intertextuality to explore the impact of the past on the shaping of the present.

Verdict: I really love Burning Rice, and not just the poetry selected for the elective. My three favourite pieces from the volume are Chinese Ginseng, Bathhouse Ritual, and Mid-autumn Mooncakes - two of which are featured in the prescribed suite. It's worth noting that this text doesn't just focus on cultural heritage; it's a lot deeper in that it also deals with very personal issues such as infertility and family relationships. A lot could be done with this text in the Extension classroom.

Drama Options

The Secret River by Andrew Bovell

What is it: William and Sal Thornhill are pardoned convicts who, upon hearing that anyone can claim land for themselves by the Hawkesbury River, decide to head into the un-colonised bushland west of Sydney. William finds a few fellow settlers along the river, all battling hardship to make a new life for themselves, but doesn't bargain on the fact that the area is already inhabited by the Dharug people, whose close connection with the land challenges William's concept of what constitutes ownership and civilisation. 

Scope for Study: The foreword before the play goes into Bovell's process of adapting Kate Grenville's iconic novel into play-form and therefore provides great scope for discussing the necessities and strictures associated with crafting a story bound by the dramatic conventions of the stage. Students will also be able to draw connections between the text's content and their own personal context as Australian citizens, perhaps in relation to family histories with a basis for contrast and comparison. Bovell's extensive use of indigenous language is also a unique gift for teachers and students to explore within the totality of prescriptions available across all the English syllabuses.

NESA Annotations: Notes can be found in the 2019-23 Annotations. These outline the clash between European settlers and the Dharug people as representations of conflicting worldviews. Mention is also made of the Thornhill family as a symbol of the fledgling Australian identity, the author's use of parallels to demonstrate ideological similarity and difference between the two races, and the significance of this dramatic adaptation of a novel in that it gives the Dharug characters more defined identities and voices.

Verdict: It's worth carefully reading all the text that preludes the main bulk of the play in The Secret River as it describes Bovell's writing process as a partially collaborative one. His use of the Dharug language is probably one of the most engaging aspects of the text and reflects the input of Dharug performers, making this play at least partially representative of an Indigenous perspective (and in a way that Grenville's novel is not). I really like Grenville's novel and I can understand completely why she would not include the first person perspective of the Aboriginal characters, however, Bovell's pared-down version of the narrative is highly evocative of a lost era and I think there's a lot to be gained through its bi-cultural examination of interracial conflict on Australia's 19th century frontier.

Film Options

Brick Lane, directed by Sarah Gavron

What is it: Set in East London's Bangladeshi migrant community of the same name, Brick Lane tells the story of Nazneen, who leaves behind her home in the rural heart of the sub-continent to raise a family in England with her husband, Chanu. Their marriage is an arranged one and therefore not particularly loving, and Nazneen's isolated life and the increasing racial tension following the 9/11 attacks sees her begin to explore her individuality with a much younger Muslim man.

Scope for Study: In a reversal of A Passage to India, Gavron's film shows the West through an Eastern lens, and can be examined quite easily with multiple readings - a gender-based reading could examine Nazneen's sexual awakening and burgeoning independence as a reflection of the Western values that her daughters have adopted, and a historical reading could examine the significance of using the 9/11 attacks as a backdrop for a story about assimilation and integration. Gavron's direction is also of note in that she represents a female viewpoint in a profession (film directing) where women are few and far between.

NESA Annotations: Annotations can be found in the 2019-2023 Annotations document, where particular attention is paid to the film's context as an exploration of challenges faced by Muslims in the post-9/11 world. Note is also made of the concept of 'home' in relation to the migrant experience, and the director's use of visual metaphor and flashback to portray complex cultural perspectives and the impact of the past/memory on the present.

Verdict: A moving and beautifully-shot film, Brick Lane manages to tell a relatively straight-forward story about cultural dislocation without sacrificing the complexity that comes with living in the interstitial places afforded by close-knit migrant groups such as the Bangladeshi-British community based in East London. Pairing this film with a study of A Passage to India would be a valuable use of the elective in that both texts deal with Indian culture from near-antithetical standpoints. Brick Lane also contains a powerful and heartbreaking portrayal of the impact that 9/11 had on long-integrated Muslim communities in Western countries such as the UK, which links to the unassessable 'values' part of the syllabus in that it allows for exploration and expression of varied dimensions of the human experience.