An Interview with Vuong Pham

If you're a teacher of Standard English in NSW, you might be familiar with Vuong Pham. As one of the featured poems from the anthology Contemporary Asian-Australian Poets, Pham's 'Mother' is part of a suite that can be studied as part of the Language, Identity and Culture module. I was lucky enough to get to speak to Pham and ask a few questions about his poetry, with a specific focus on 'Mother'. 

Something we often talk about in English is the idea of the 'persona'; that the voice in the poem is a construct or character that the author creates. To what extent do you think this is true for your poem 'Mother'?

Much of the experiences covered within the poem are authentic. For instance, the plucking of grey hairs, gardening as a hobby, conversations over my mother's past life, struggles in settling into a new country - they're all based on real life experiences and the special relationship I have with my mother. In saying this, I also write with an awareness of what other Vietnamese refugees experienced - offering a 'mirror' to the Vietnamese community, to acknowledge that they weren't alone in what happened. Understanding what other Vietnamese people experienced can help me write with empathy and assist in adding additional elements to my poetry. To answer the question more directly, the character in my poetry is mostly based on my authentic self, with some added elements to give voice to the Vietnamese community.

How would you describe your relationship with Vietnam?

I was born and raised in Australia. Vietnam was a once great and prosperous nation before the war. With the takeover of Communism, the spread of poverty, corruption and misinformation lead Vietnam downhill. For example, mum's childhood would include singing songs about a whole range of topics (EG. Freedom of birds, nature, love of country, compassion, etc.), though when the Communist party took over, everyone was forced to sing grim songs about a dictatorial president, Bac Ho. There was a high emphasis on valuing education in the previous democratic government. If for example there was a coffin being carried down the street, common courtesy existed amongst the community to stop and take off their hats as a sign of respect. Such values are not promoted by the Communist government because they don't care about building up the nation. In short, I see Vietnam as a nation that has been restrained - now merely an echo of a once great song.

That's quite a powerful image. Do you think that great song could ever come back?

Not under the grip of a suppressive government. I remember a newspaper story from my childhood that exemplifies that. The front cover image depicted a whistleblower on trial for speaking out against an unjust government measure - and his mouth was literally covered by the government officer to stop him speaking. This is what millions of Vietnamese have to live under, a government that purports to aim for a utopia, but the populace are in fact gagged and chained.

How would you describe your relationship with poetry?

I started getting into poetry since high school. I was hooked on poetry ever since reading the classical poetry of Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Rumi, and Basho. I've always been a quiet person, and in most social contexts I'll be the quiet one in the room. Poetry is a way for me to express myself in an evocative and eloquent manner. 

How do you feel about your poem being studied by potentially thousands of students in NSW over the last 5 years?

I was over the moon when I found out my poem was studied in the NSW schools at the start of this year. I wish I had more of an ego so that I would've found out about it earlier, by way of Googling my name sooner. But on a serious note, it is an amazing privilege to have my poetry studied as part of the NSW curriculum. The essence of the poem is about honouring my mother's sacrifices and hard work. Having the poem studied by thousands of students is good affirmation for both my mother's sacrifices and my poetry writing journey.

You've worked as a teacher. How does this inform your work as a writer?

I'd say my teaching experience plays a significant role in informing my work as a poet. I like to craft my writing in a way that is accessible to a wider audience. In particular, not making it too simplistic to the point of being ordinary, whilst not being too aloof either whereby only certain people within an English university department, for example, can decipher. As a teacher, it's in my experience to aid students at the grassroots level and then scaffold learning. Poetry in general is not a popular form of text in the wider public. I understand why because it generally requires more leg work to understand in comparison to other texts. I try and make my poetry accessible and engaging. 

Why is poetry important?

Poetry is way for writers to express the depths of their emotions, experiences and insights through a condensed and evocative medium. Through the beauty of language and its many poetic devices such as metaphor, simile, rhythm, imagery, symbolism, etc, poetry serves the purpose of expanding the imagination. It is an art form that can have rich layers of meaning. Many poets utilise poetry as a kind of healing tool - an emotional release to help writer and reader navigate the complexities of life and find consolation. Empathy can be encouraged amongst people of diverse backgrounds and cultures through poetry, which can positively influence the fabric of societal and cultural norms. Much of my writing focuses on the Vietnamese diaspora experience, so in that sense, poetry can act as a way of preserving our cultural heritage, passing down values and stories that would otherwise be lost if not documented. Poetry offers much educational value because it encourages us to think deeper, think critically and analytically. I've had an affiliation with poetry since high school, reading and admiring classical poets like Wordsworth, Basho, and Shakespeare. I was fascinated by how much depth of meaning they were able to achieve and express in their carefully crafted words. Poetry is a stellar option for people seeking the joys and literary beauty. 

Vuong Pham is available for poetry presentations and workshop bookings via his Facebook poet page or via the contact page of his website: Vuong Pham Poetry.

Oddments: Five unique texts on the current NSW HSC Prescriptions List

I've been working a bit on researching NSW's Prescribed Texts these past few years and, as we approach the current list's long journey into the night before the next round, I thought this might be a good time to look at some of the more unusual texts on the list.  I say 'unusual texts' but I should clarify that, when I say this, I'm not speaking about a text's subject matter or themes or genre as that's a little too subjective. I want to instead highlight the more textually-distinct outliers - the solitary text types and unusually-originated texts that stand out with a hard and firm point of difference. 

Go Back to Where You Came From

Oddity: The only television series option featured across Standard, Advanced, EAL/D, and Extension English.

Description: Go Back to Where You Came From is a carryover text from the previous 'Discovery' Prescriptions List. The television format presents a challenge to teachers as its runtime is essentially twice that of the average film - this can make it difficult to cover within a busy timeframe that also involves student selection of a related text and coverage of the 'Texts and Human Experiences' module. I taught this when it was part of 'Discovery' and, while I did find that students were able to easily engage with it, it felt like quite a slog to cover it properly alongside a related text and an Area of Study. This meant that I did not opt to explore the text as part of 'Texts and Human Experiences' when the opportunity later presented itself.

Contemporary Asian Australian Poets

Oddity: The only multi-poet anthology - between its presence in the Standard and EAL/D English syllabuses this selection includes works from eight different poets.

Description: Whilst the idea of covering so many different poets seems to pose a significant challenge in covering just as many differing contexts, it can actually force a synthesis of ideas as the teacher finds themselves bringing the texts together in service of the module 'Language, Identity, and Culture'. This conceptual underpinning can be a guiding light for students who might overwise struggle to unite separate poems together to support a thesis. It also helps that the poetry is accessible and provides a wide scope for students to make many different kinds of connections.

One Night the Moon

Oddity: A double oddity. One Night the Moon is the only prescribed text across Standard, Advanced, EAL/D, and Extension English that features characters breaking into song. It's also the only non-feature film (too long to be a short film, too short to be a feature film). 

Description: Rachel Perkins' collaboration with Paul Kelly is an achingly poignant depiction of the colonial violence and contradiction in Australia's past. It's also an unusual text outside of the English-teaching context because it's the only time singer-songwriter Paul Kelly has acted on screen. I haven't taught this text but I think it's relatively short length would allow for some useful drilling down into its finer aspects. 

'May the Pen Grace Your Page' by Luka Lesson, and 'Picture a Vacuum' by Kae Tempest

Oddity: Okay, so I'm cheating a little here as this is two texts, but I want to highlight these two as the only poetry performances to be found anywhere in the NSW Prescriptions List. 

Description: The inclusion of these slam poems carries an implication that they should be examined as multimodal performances rather than as written pieces. This is supported by the coding of each text as '(PP)' in the syllabus, meaning 'Performance Poetry' rather than 'Poetry'. The Craft of Writing supporting document from NESA also carries some textual information that suggests this too. This raises some uncomfortable questions about Craft of Writing - specifically the question of how students could be expected to model performance aspects of such a text when writing a piece under HSC examination conditions. 

Actually, I've been puzzled by the inclusion of poetry in Craft of Writing in general as the HSC Module C questions don't seem to allow students the option of composing poetry. But that's perhaps a discussion for another time.

Under Milk Wood

Oddity: The syllabus lists Under Milk Wood as a 'Drama' text but this is a reductive simplification. Over the years the text has been adapted for film, television, and as a stage drama, but its origins are as a radio play. The colour and shape of the text make the most sense in the audio-only format that it was written for. One suspects that the dwindling existence of radio drama led NESA to retroactively reclassify it as just 'Drama', but this does a disservice to the proud tradition of the radio play. 

Description: If you couldn't already tell from my championing of its radio play credentials, I am a big fan of this text. I first taught it because I needed it to make a pattern of study work and I wanted a text that wouldn't be too demanding in terms of having Advanced English students carve off more of their study time for reading. I taught it for these reasons and was very nervous because it is such an odd text and it's so far outside of the natural field of reference for most students in terms of the sorts of texts we usually look at it in English. Anyway, this class engaged with it as intended - by listening to the original Richard Burton-narrated radio dramatisation. We listened to it track-by-track, a few minutes per lesson, and broke the language down, enjoying Thomas's quirky turns of phrase and the games he plays with words. It ended up being one of my favourite thing to teach and quite a few students singled it out at the end of the year as their favorite of the texts we covered. 

Patterns of Study in HSC English - Reflections and Ideas

If there's one part of the English syllabus that attracts my attention more than others, it's the Prescriptions List. I'm endlessly fascinated by the way in which this list interacts with the Literary Canon, intensely curious about how these texts are selected by NESA, and highly interested in what combinations of texts teachers select for their classes. It's the what and the why that I want to know. 

When I invariably ask someone what text they've chosen, and why was it chosen, I never get quite the same response. I think this is great and I'd love to see a big enough sample size to identify specific trends. Of course, this is complicated somewhat by the changeover between Prescribed Text lists, which occurs every 5 years or so.

The last Prescribed Text list released by NESA applied to 2015-2020. This essentially meant that a HSC Pattern of Study could be run for 5 consecutive times before a new text list would get released. The syllabus document from this time (released in 2014) indicated that the Area of Study module (which has now been replaced by the Common Module) would be reviewed in 2018 for updating in 2019. I'm not sure what the reasoning for this was if the rest of the syllabus was scheduled to run until 2020... seems a little needlessly complicated, would love to hear an explanation if anyone knows!

Anyway, I'm not sure what happened, but the Prescriptions List was reviewed prematurely in 2017 and the changeover of the entire syllabus was brought forward to 2019. This is our current syllabus, which was initially scheduled to run from 2019-2023. The unforeseen circumstances of the Covid pandemic, however, means that it's likely to be extended to 2024. I say 'likely' as, even though there's been some communication that this is what's happening, our experience of the 2015-2020 syllabus indicates that we can't plan that far ahead.

We can reflect, however, on what we've taught and what's worked. And perhaps also what hasn't worked, and what we'd do if we had another run at it.

The current Advanced English syllabus for Year 12 specifies that we teach:

• FOUR texts from the main prescriptions list.
• ONE of which must be PROSE fiction (in other words, a novel).
• ONE of which must be SHAKESPEARE.
• And ONE of which must be either POETRY or DRAMA (this would be in addition to Shakespearean drama).
• The FOURTH text can be an additional text from any of the above options OR one of the non-fiction or film/media options.
• TWO texts from the Craft of Writing prescriptions list.
• This can be any two texts from the list, and you're free to teach more than two if you like, though be aware that this particular part of the syllabus remains contentious among teachers due to inconsistent assessment at the HSC Examination level.
• This year's exam (2022), for example, did not require students to call upon any knowledge of their prescribed Craft of Writing texts.
• It's also been embedded in the syllabus that students learn about Imaginative, Persuasive, or Discursive writing forms - but the prescribed list does not delineate which texts are which. The Imaginative texts are the fictional ones, obviously, but the non-fictional texts often combine Persuasive and Discursive elements. It's probably fair to say, though, that there aren't really any strictly Persuasive-only texts included in the list. I mean, let's be honest here, these terms are inventions of the syllabus and are being retroactively applied to texts that didn't set out to be 'Discursive' or 'Persuasive', so the whole thing is problematic unless we're told how we should categorise each text according to the module descriptor. It feels like there's some awareness that Craft of Writing has become unstable due to contradictory interpretations by teachers, and this is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that the 2022 HSC exam question ignored the 'Persuasive' option and instead specified that students write only in the Imaginative or Discursive genre. 
• Let's not even mention the inclusion of poetry in Craft of Writing and how this fits in.
  

The current Standard English syllabus for Year 12 specifies:

• THREE texts from the main prescriptions list.
• ONE of which must be PROSE fiction (a novel).
• ONE of which must be POETRY or DRAMA.
• ONE of which must be FILM/MEDIA or NON-FICTION.
• TWO texts from the Craft of Writing prescriptions list.
• The same rules (and issues) apply as seen in Advanced English.
  

The above specifications allow teachers to design their 'Pattern of Study' for Year 12 in accordance with what will be assessed in the HSC Examination. There are some additional mandated elements in both the Advanced and Standard syllabuses too:

• The range of text types must be 'inclusive' of prose fiction, drama, poetry, nonfiction, film, media, and digital texts. This seems to reinforce the specific choice of texts from the Prescribed List though, in the case of Advanced English in particular, you can choose a pattern of study that does NOT include Film/Media or Non-Fiction, so it seems like this additional caveat is asking for some supplementary material to be included at some point that allows for these text types to be included.
• The texts studied must also include Australian authors, specifically Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander authors. Given that there are no Torres Strait Islander authors represented in any of the Prescribed Texts, this could potentially be seen as confirmation that these authors might be represented in the form of supplementary texts rather than Prescribed ones. I'm not sure how many Advanced English teachers would spend any significant time looking at supplementary texts though.
• The texts studied should also be representative of a range of cultural, social, and gender perspectives. I would interpret this as meaning that, among other things, there should be a mix of male and female authors represented in your pattern of study. As indicated by the dot point above, this is wholly interpretative and I doubt that all teachers approach this in the same way. Incidentally, there is only one non-binary author represented in the entirety of the NSW Prescriptions List (Kae Tempest, who has a performance included as one of the Advanced English Craft of Writing options).

Reflecting on Patterns of Study

I've had the opportunity to teach the Advanced English HSC year three times within this current syllabus. My pattern of choice for two of these times was:

1. The Common Module: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (Prose).
2. Module A: The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (Shakespeare).
   
3. Module B: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (this covers the Poetry/Drama requirement rather neatly as it's sort of both. It's also technically a Media text as it originated as a radio play [the only text of its sort in the Prescriptions List] and can be played to students in this form). 
4. Module C: I tend to focus on 'Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice' by Nam Le (an imaginative text) and 'Eight Days in a Corset' by Siri Hustvedt (one of the purest examples of discursive writing in the list). I also introduce some others if there's time so students have an opportunity to look at a variety of texts and independently study one that works better for them - these are 'How to Marry Your Daughters' by Helen Garner, 'That Crafty Feeling' by Zadie Smith, and 'Eulogy for Gough Whitlam' by Noel Pearson.
   

For Standard English, which I've taught less, my pattern of choice at the moment is:

1. The Common Module: Billy Elliot directed by Stephen Daldry (Film/Media/Non-Fiction requirement).
2. Module A: Inside My Mother by Ali Cobby Eckermann (Poetry / Drama requirement).
3. Module B: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Prose requirement).
   
4. Module C: 'The Pedestrian' by Ray Bradbury and the 'Funeral Service of the Unknown Soldier' by Paul Keating.
   

Other Patterns

I'm not completely attached to any particular pattern of study as I actually like most of the Prescribed Texts. So, from a personal perspective, I can see the merit in most combinations of texts. That said, I would tend to design a pattern of study based on whatever my school and/or classroom context requires. If I was someone else who did NOT enjoy the vast majority of texts in the Prescriptions list, I would also factor in my enjoyment and/or appreciation of certain texts.

(DISCLAIMER: I'll also mention here that there are a lot of really cool patterns of study that just aren't possible due to the frustration of both a mandated Shakespeare and poetry/drama requirement. If Shakespeare could at least count as Drama then this would solve a lot of problems. More on this in a bit.)

Here are some examples of patterns of study and potential contextual reasons (I'll leave out the Craft of Writing as it doesn't impact on the rest of the pattern).

Advanced English

Example A.

1. The Common Module: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (Prose)
   
2. Module A: Richard III by William Shakespeare and Looking for Richard directed by Al Pacino (Shakespeare).
3. Module B: Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot (Poetry/Drama).
   

Reasoning: This is a 'traditional' approach that sheers pretty close to the Literary Canon. For students and teachers who aren't afraid of the Classics (capitalisation intended), this combination would also be potentially useful if you're strapped for resources and ideas - they've all been taught so much and so widely that it should be relatively easy to find collegial support and resources both online and printed.

Example B.

1. The Common Module: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Prose).
2. Module A: The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (Shakespeare).
   
3. Module B: A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen (Poetry/Drama)
   

Reasoning: This is a 'heavy readers' combination that allows for contemporary connections to be made to big concepts with lots of discussion points. For students who have the time or inclination to read (All the Light... is a very large text to ask busy students to read, so I would keep this in mind and watch how students approach texts in the lead-up to Year 12).  

Example C.

1. The Common Module: The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Poetry / Drama).
2. Module A: The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (Shakespeare AND Prose).
3. Module B: Good Night and Good Luck directed by George Clooney (Film option) 

Reasoning: It's really difficult to make some combinations work and, invariably, this will mean one of the two Module A Shakespeare options need to be used just to meet requirements. This pattern of study could yield some fantastically deep thinking if you have a cohort of students who are interested in or already studying Modern History - the combination of The Crucible and Good Night and Good Luck makes use of a shared contextual understanding of McCarthyism and the Cold War. 

Some problems... I don't want to get too bogged down in patterns of study that don't work but I'll outline one example just so it's clear why some things can't happen, and this is purely down to the mandatory Shakespeare/Drama issue:

EG. If you wanted to do an Art/Classical/European approach that makes use of The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (Module B) then you'd have to sacrifice a lot of other texts that would potentially support its study - if there was a Module A combination that uses a Poetry/Drama text with a Prose text then you could at least do The Merchant of Venice for the Common Module. 

Standard English

Example A.

1. The Common Module: Go Back to Where You Came From directed by Ivan O'Mahoney OR Waste Land directed by Lucy Walker (Media).
2. Module A: Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah by Alana Valentine (Poetry/Drama).
   
3. Module B: Feed by M.T. Anderson (Prose). 

Reasoning: If you're looking to challenge the thinking of your class without relying too much on the cohort having developed literacy skills, then this pattern could work well. There's lots to talk about in connection to our modern global context across all of these texts.

Example B.

1. The Common Module: Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett (Prose).
2. Module A: The Castle directed by Rob Sitch (Film) OR One Night the Moon (Media).
3. Module B: Coast Road by Robert Gray OR Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Drama/Poetry).

Reasoning: This pattern allows for a broad look at Australian culture and could work well for regional or suburban classroom contexts where student cohorts have a strong preference for this sort of thing. You could potential present this pattern to students alongside some others so they feel like they have some agency and input into their HSC. 

Example C.

1. The Common Module: Rainbow's End by Jane Harrison (Poetry/Drama).
2. Module A: Reindeer in My Saami Heart directed by Janet Merewether OR Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung (Media/Non-Fiction).
3. Module B: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Prose).
   

Reasoning: This approach has a strong focus on identity and advocacy, with students able to examine the challenges surrounding issues such as the Indigenous experience, multiculturalism, and disability. There are strong links in particular that could be made between Rainbow's End and Reindeer... as both deal with indigenous peoples and explore a common global context. 

Some problems... as above for Advanced, I don't want to dwell on the negative, but the biggest problem across the Prescriptions list for Standard English is the lack of Prose fiction options in Modules A and B.

EG. In order to make use of non-Prose options in the Common Module, teachers only have four options across the other two modules to choose from. This will most likely end up being The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which (oddly) is the most accessible text of the four options. The other straightforward option is Feed by M.T. Anderson, but it will depend on the level of interest and patience your class has for quirky science fiction as to whether this would work. The other two options are Henry Lawson's short stories (again, there may be engagement issues with some classrooms) and Small Island by Andrea Levy (a staggeringly long novel of more than 500 pages). 

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If you're a teacher reading this, or a student who's just finished looking at each of the modules, let me know below what pattern of study worked or didn't work for you. Have you come across an unusual pattern that works? I'm very interested in knowing!

A Path of Light and Joy

Even back in the mid-90s, when I was a bristling tadpole in a high school pond, I remember a class discussion that started quiet and then rose to a challenging crescendo. We were reading Came Back to Show You I Could Fly by Robin Klein, a YA novel about an unlikely friendship between an 11 year-old boy and a young drug-addicted pregnant woman. A girl in class took umbrage with the depressing nature of the story and asked the teacher, "Why do we have to do all these books about sad and depressing things?"

Several other students in the class, especially those who typically avoided reading at every opportunity, also piped up at this point, "Yeah, all these books have people die in them!"

As a class, we began to list each of the books we had read (this was the '90s, when English classes read anywhere between 4 to 8 books a year, rather than the more customary 1 that classes now cover just once each year). It transpired that, yes, every single book we had read involved a character dying or something else similarly tragic happening, like child abuse (So Much to Tell You, Goodnight Mr. Tom) or drug addiction (the aforementioned Came Back to Show You I Could Fly). 

A recent online discussion led by the always-insightful Clairie Ormiston on the NSW English Teachers Resourcing Sharing Facebook group posed a question that opened up a similar discussion - why are so many of the Prescribed Texts for Year 12 English in NSW focused on issues that could be quite triggering for people? Another valued colleague, Paula Madigan, asked what would work as more uplifting or joyous options for HSC study.

There are obviously lots of great unexplored options out there that would fit this brief, however, the process that leads to selection of Prescribed HSC texts for future syllabuses is well beyond this discussion. 

Instead, I've looked closely at the current NSW Prescriptions to ascertain the options that would work best for students and teachers seeking to avoid dark or emotionally distressing subject matter. Whatever one's opinion might be on resilience, development, or the challenges of literary study, it must be acknowledged that there are often specific teaching contexts that preclude the teaching of certain subjects or titles for a whole range of reasons that don't need going into. 

So here are the options available if one wants to find a pattern of study for Year 12 that focuses on texts that are more uplifting, joyful, or fun. Before I list them I would like to add one disclaimer - it is admittedly quite slim pickings as a great deal of texts at this level do indeed deal with subject matter that could be seen by some as distressing. The list below is one interpretation that seeks to find a path around this but I am sure there will be contrary opinions of which texts best fit this brief and I am always happy to hear these.

Common Module - Texts and Human Experiences

• Collected Poems by Rosemary Dobson - observational poetry that focuses more on the artistic and aesthetic. 
• Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry - the class-based themes are a little depressing but the message of this film (and its ending) make it ultimately quite uplifting. 

Standard Module A - Language, Identity and Culture

• Contemporary Asian Australian Poets, edited by Adam Aitken, Kim Cheng Boey, and Michelle Chahill - some of the poetry touches on the impact of past trauma and present prejudices but, overall, these poems aren't excessively negative or emotionally challenging. 
• Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw - there are a few comic elements in this famous play but be warned about some of the now-outdated language that may prompt awkward conversations (such as its use of the word 'slut'). 
• The Castle, directed by Rob Sitch - easily the most pleasant text within this module. Funny and with a feel-good ending that resonates with a lot of Australians. 

Standard Module B - Close Study of a Text

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - some aspects of this novel, such as the strained familial relationships and the fate of the dog in the title, might be challenging for some students. That said, this is a fun text in the way that it plays with language, structure, etc., and this may be enough to keep things light if you approach it in a structuralist fashion.
• Coast Road by Robert Gray - focuses on landscape related to coastal Australia.
• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare - I left The Merchant of Venice out of the Common Module above due to its themes of racism and retribution. I do think that Midsummer definitely fits the bill for 'joyous' though in its exploration of love, the fairy realm, and the presence of the ass-like tradesman Bottom. 
• The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir - fun and quirky and ultimately uplifting in the way its protagonist triumphs over his environment.

Standard Module C - The Craft of Writing

• 'Popcorn' by Carol Chan - a fun piece of poetry that doesn't ask anything too emotionally-demanding of the reader.
• 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' by Robert Frost - the poet's exploration of nature is fairly uncontroversial and shows a certain admiration that's hard to fault.
• 'May Your Pen Grace the Page' by Luka Lesson - a beautiful and engaging piece that explores a writer's love of writing. 

Advanced Module A - Textual Conversations

All of the options in this module have some varying degrees of darkness in them. If I was pressed to pick the least distressing pairing of texts, I would have to go with either: 

• Richard III / Looking for Richard - which admittedly features its fair share of murder but, hopefully, the passage of time dims the negative impact of this. 
• The Tempest / Hag-Seed - which features more comedy than any of the other options. 

Advanced Module B - Critical Study of Literature

• Emma by Jane Austen - romance and Georgian comedy.
• Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas - a quirky and left-field text that, if the teacher is brave in exploring its many eccentricities, can be quite rewarding for students in a range of ways not dependent on emotional challenges.
• Earth Hour by David Malouf - poetry focused on the aesthetics of life. Not particularly controversial.
• Henry IV Part 1 by William Shakespeare - there is the battle near the end that leaves some of the characters dead or sentenced to death but, other than this, Henry IV provides lots of opportunity for laughter with Falstaff. There's also a lot of room for the sort of intellectual discussion that doesn't necessarily plumb the darker corners of Shakespeare's tragedies.

Advanced Module C - Craft of Writing

• 'How to Marry Your Daughters' by Helen Garner - a sassy review / discursive piece that would go well alongside a study of Emma.
• 'Eight Days in a Corset' by Siri Hustvedt - an interesting and playful essay that focuses on fashion and gender.

Extension Elective 1 - Literary Homelands

• Burning Rice by Eileen Chong - there's enough within this suite of poetry to allow for some brighter discussion of culture and identity.

Extension Elective 2 - Worlds of Upheaval

• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett - this famously absurdist piece of drama is as close to 'fun' as this elective option gets.

Extension Elective 3 - Reimagined Worlds

• If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino - a playful, irreverent, complicated and challenging text that manages to spellbind and engage without delving too much into distressing subject matter.
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin - this feminist sci-fi novel is the quintessential example of creating an engaging drama that isn't reliant on traditional modes of conflict or brutality. Le Guin's text operates on several layers.
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift - satirical without being particularly savage. The passage of time has perhaps dimmed any controversy that once surrounded this novel. 
• Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith - award-winning sci-fi poetry. 

Extension Elective 4 - Literary Mindscapes

I'm struggling to find any texts within this option that fit our bill of 'light and joy'. The closest is probably the film Lost in Translation but even that is quite downbeat and in a minor key, plus it raises awkward questions related to the age and power gap within its 'romance' plot. 

Extension Elective 5 - Intersecting Worlds

• Clay by Melissa Harrison - a gently descriptive novel that contrasts the wonders of nature with a very British cityscape.
• The Major Works by William Wordsworth - romantic poetry focused on the beauty and wonders of God's earth.
• Island Home by Tim Winton - focused on environmental issues rather than individualistic human ones. 

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!

Extension English: Elective 2 - Worlds of Upheaval

Before looking at each of the texts in detail, here is a quick breakdown of representations:

• 3 novels, 1 suite of poetry, 1 drama text, and 1 film.
• 3 female composers, 3 male.
• 2 English composers, 2 Irish, 1 German, 1 Chinese-Canadian.
• Overview of eras: 1 text from the 1820s, 1 text from the 1850s, 1 from the 1920s, 1 from the 1950s, 1 from the 1960s-1970s, and 1 text from the 2010s.
  

Prose Fiction Options

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
What is it: Margaret Hale is the only daughter of a village pastor who has separated from the Church of England for ideological reasons. In order to make a fresh start, the Hale family moves north to Milton in the newly industrialised textiles region known as Darkshire. Margaret gets to know John Thornton, a wealthy nouveau riche mill owner who is struggling against worker strikes and unionisation, and the two begin an antagonistic relationship that soon grows into something built on mutual respect and admiration. Over the course of the next 18 months, the Hale family experiences great hardships and Margaret comes to intimately know the character of the north.

Scope for Study: North and South presents the prototypical Worlds of Upheaval that is later mirrored in Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Students will be able to deepen their understanding of Gaskell's serialised narrative through a close examination of its historical context, the Industrial Revolution that would quickly transform England into the most powerful empire of the 19th century. This approach will help to illuminate the various themes at play - the growing sense of class consciousness, debates around the unsustainability of capitalism alongside fair payment of the working class, the rise of new concepts such as wages and market forces and worker strikes, and the birth of a 'working class' identity.

NESA Annotations: There are no annotations for this text in any of the last three available NESA Annotations documents.

Verdict: It's a massive novel, and not necessarily all that fun a reading experience. At times I found North and South to be too self-consciously melodramatic for my tastes; evidently very much a product of its time (EG. The serialised format, the Victorian values that underpin it). I love the history/context of the Industrial Revolution and the concepts explored by Gaskell within the novel, however, North and South is such a chore to read that I can't imagine it going down well with the majority of Year 12 students. 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
What is it: Frankenstein (yes, he's the scientist for which this novel is named - as most of us English teachers keep pedantically pointing out to our friends and families) is a mysterious frostbitten figure rescued by an Arctic explorer at the North Pole. After this framing device the reader begins to learn, through dual narratives, how Victor Frankenstein became grief-stricken in the wake of his mother's death. Burying himself at university in the rising disciplines of chemistry, biology, etc., Frankenstein develops a revolutionary way to give life to the flesh of the dead. He stitches together an eight-foot-tall abomination made from corpses and uses electricity to create 'The Creature', an intelligent child-like being who soon learns the cruelties of humanity through naive eyes. 

Scope for Study: Students will need some grounding in regard to understanding the Gothic and Romantic genres, as well as Shelley's use of an epistolary structure, framing device, and the dual narratives of Frankenstein and the Creature in relating their parts of the tale. In terms of understanding context and thinking about Worlds of Upheaval, there's a lot to talk about, such as the development of an ideological antipathy between science and religion, the novel's claim to potentially being 'the first science fiction novel', and the text as an analogue for the Prometheus myth and all the historical connotation that carries. Attention can also be paid to Shelley's own personal context as the child of an anarchist father and a proto-feminist mother.   

NESA Annotations: Annotations can be found in the 2015-2020 NESA document from when the text featured as part of Extension 1, Module B: Texts and Ways of Thinking. Areas of suggested focus include Shelley's use of characterisation and dialogue to elicit sympathy for the Creature, themes that arise from the novel's exploration of the tension between science and nature, and the role of the Romantic and Gothic genres in shaping the text and representing its concerns.

Verdict: I've read Frankenstein a few times but haven't taught it. I think - hope even! - that teaching it would be a rewarding experience as it's such a rich flashpoint in the history of literature. It's also, if one can offer such an opinion, of much better quality than the other 'big name' Gothic horror novels (I'm thinking specifically of the uneven Dracula and the undercooked Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). If I were teaching Worlds of Upheaval I would probably start with Shelley's novel as the baseline text.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
What is it: A young Chinese-Canadian girl, Marie, gets to know Ai-Ming - a teenage girl and political refugee who has fled China after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 and now lives with Marie's family in Vancouver. The two bond over the 'Book of Records', a home-made text that contains the interwoven stories of their families from the days of China's tumultuous Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. Several decades later, in the modern day, Marie becomes obsessed with tracking down Ai-Ming once again.

Scope for Study: The narrative of Do Not Say We Have Nothing is complex and multi-tiered, essentially covering 70 years of Chinese history and the stories of ten different characters who interact within it. In a way the novel can be boiled down to two separate but not dissimilar threads - one centering on the Cultural Revolution and the other on the Tiananmen Square incident, with both stories involving a search for dissidents hiding within the vast population of China. Any students studying this text will need assistance in the form of character maps to untangle the complex dynamics that take place across separate time zones, and historical timelines to help them understand China's recent past. This difficulty aside, the language is often nothing short of beautiful and Thien cleverly uses motifs of art and music to represent the subversion of a regime that could be both stifling and chaotic.

NESA Annotations: The most recent annotation document acknowledges the novel's focus on Chinese history and is quick to pull attention onto the "social, cultural and political upheaval" represented in Do Not Say We Have Nothing. Allusion and intertextuality are identified as key techniques used by the author, and the dense yet fractured structure is also highlighted as a reflection of the novel's themes.

Verdict: I'm not going to lie, I think this novel would be incredibly difficult to teach. I don't dispute its reputation as a work of significant artistic merit, however, I think it would be very easy for students to get lost in the unfamiliar history and the multitude of characters who weave in and out of the story across such a great expanse of time. And I say this as someone who has a fairly developed interest in China's history from 1950 to 1989 - it's an extremely difficult time period that has challenged and continues to challenge historians and casual readers alike. Approaching this book as a piece of serious literature (from an English standpoint) would need more time than what might normally be allocated for Extension English 1.

Poetry Options

Opened Ground by Seamus Heaney

• Digging
• The Strand at Lough Beg
• Casualty
• Funeral Rites
• Whatever You Say Say Nothing
• Triptych

What is it: Sampling a range of poetry from Heaney's output between 1966 and 1979, the suite selected from Opened Ground is unified by concerns relating to 'the Troubles', Northern Ireland's long period of unrest in the 20th century, and the relationship of the poet with his own context. The first poem, 'Digging', sees the poet and his pen contrasted with the traditions of the fathers beforehand; men who turned over the peat in search of potatoes, much as Heaney reflexively turns over the 'peat' of his mind by examining the role of the men in his family. The following poetry moves into looking at the Troubles, with 'Casualty' throwing stark light onto the violent juxtaposition between Irish domesticity and the impact of the unrest. 'Funeral Rites' delves further into this world torn apart, and 'Whatever You Say You Say Nothing' presents the silence and complication of the culture that grew from Northern Ireland's extended period of unrest.

Scope for Study: Students will need to have a strong understanding of Heaney's context, both in terms of the situation in Northern Ireland and the critical conversations around this poetry and its willingness to deal with the Troubles. Not all of the poetry included here was critically acclaimed upon its initial release, which opens up room for conversations around the controversy Heaney courted by daring to tackle a political dimension within his art. Students will also benefit from examining Heaney's use of naturalistic speech patterns, an array of sound and poetic devices, the use of sensory language and imagery, and the local colour of Irish culture, geography, and history.

NESA Annotations: The 2015-2020 Annotations feature some notes on Heaney's poetry in reference to its inclusion as part of a paired Advanced English study, where it was included alongside James Joyce's Dubliners. The focus here, in keeping with the paired study, is on the poetry's purpose in representing the lives and experiences of the Irish, and Heaney's use of traditional poetry forms alongside more modern approaches. It should be noted, however, that only two of the poems remain the same from this previous suite ('Digging' and 'The Strand at Lough Beg').

Verdict: Highly engaging and arresting, I think Heaney's poetry would work well as a stylistic and contextual counterpoint for any of the other Prescribed Texts in Worlds of Upheaval. Once the context is illuminated in enough detail by the teacher, students will have a lot to parse in their study of these poems as the language sits at just the right level - not too obscure, but also complex enough to reward repeated reading and careful analysis.

Drama Options

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
What is it: Vladimir and Estragon spend their time waiting by a tree for the arrival of an enigmatic individual named 'Godot'. While waiting they meet Pozzo and Lucky, two passers-by, and a boy who delivers a message that Godot won't be arriving on this day. The two protagonists return again the next day, in which the same events transpire.

Scope for Study: Famously referred to as a play where "nothing happens", playwright Samuel Beckett was famously reticent to provide anything in the way of an explanation for the strange narrative and characters, and rejected notions that posited metaphorical or allegorical levels of meaning. As far as students go, there will be, undoubtedly, discussions that arise from this. The power dynamics of people, demonstrated here without contextualisation or even the possibility of context, reveal certain absurdities that humans have created under the pretense that life has universal meaning. There are allusions to death, the Bible, and motifs of shoes and hats. What does it all mean? Is it about the absence or breakdown of meaning itself? Through Beckett's deliberate attempt to avoid a specific context, students are presented with a potentially fictional world of upheaval... or a metonym for every world of upheaval. There's a wealth of critical writing available on the play that will be helpful too.

NESA Annotations: There are no notes for Waiting for Godot in any of the available annotation documents from the last three syllabuses.

Verdict: Waiting for Godot is such a fascinating text and I think it provides a great canvas upon which students can test out their critical thinking skills. Vladimir and Estragon are almost like two shadows, humans consigned to immortality in a sort of purgatory world - going through the motions of trying to be human. In Act 2, the play itself seems to be resisting its own efforts to provide an internal context for what is happening; the characters are unable to even build their own 'world' in the absence of everything else. If it wasn't for Beckett's staunch rejection of the idea that the never-arriving Godot is really God, then I'd venture that this play presented a vision of Hell. Maybe it still does. Maybe it doesn't matter what Beckett says. Maybe this would be a great text to teach.

Film Options

Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang
What is it: Freder, the son of a powerful industrialist in the futuristic city of Metropolis, discovers class consciousness after his path crosses with the Madonna-like leader of the city's underground-dwelling proletariat. Meanwhile, the mad scientist Rotwang is enlisted by Freder's father to help infiltrate and sow dissent among the burgeoning revolutionary workers' movement. He does this by creating a robot impersonator, which unexpectedly becomes a symbol of wanton sexuality and hedonistic chaos after replacing the workers' leader Maria. Gradually, as Rotwang's own vengeful agenda subsumes his original mission, the opposing ideological forces that underpin the city begin to threaten this society's sense of order.

Scope for Study: Metropolis, in the tradition of most great science fiction, presents both a general view of a world in upheaval and reflects a specific context in which Germany and the rest of Europe were rapidly facing multiple crises. Fritz Lang (the left-leaning director) embraces the socialist ideals of class warfare in his depiction of workers who toil in drudgery and organise for revolution, whereas Thea von Harbou (the writer, who would later become a Nazi) could perhaps be seen as the influence behind the Art Deco grandeur of the city's architects. Coming at the more creative end of the silent film era, Metropolis does not fit the trope of the earliest static silent films, and is a visually dynamic experience that should hold up surprisingly well for modern students if context is suitably explained beforehand. 

NESA Annotations: Notes for Metropolis can be found in the 2015-2020 document from when the film formed part of an intertextual study with Nineteen Eighty-Four for Module A of Advanced English. The annotations focus on Metropolis's function as a dystopian text that explores the impact of technology and totalitarianism. Note is also made of other contextual elements: the Weimer republic, German expressionism, the Art Deco and Modernist movements of art and architecture, the groundbreaking special effects utilised by Lang. Aside from a few cursory connections to Nineteen Eighty-Four the annotations are still fairly useful within the framework of the Worlds of Upheaval Elective. 

Verdict: A fantastically-made film that's so ahead of its time that it's managed to stay relevant for nearly 100 years. As with most English Prescribed Texts, the mileage of this (in terms of appealing to students) will be dependent on the enthusiasm of the teacher. I would no doubt teach this text if I found myself teaching this particular elective as I find it to be so worthy of study; the shot composition, the way it reflects its context, the fascinating Biblical allusions that verge on the baroque, and - of course - the appallingly decadent robot Maria. 

Advanced Module A: Textual Conversations

Unlike other electives and modules in the Year 12 syllabus, the Prescribed Texts in Textual Conversations aren't organised in order of text type. This is due to the intertextual theme of the module, which can take a variety of forms and combines text types in different ways. A breakdown of these is as follows:

• 4 novels, 3 plays (2 of which are Shakespeare), 3 films, and 4 suites of poetry.
• 9 male composers, 5 female.
  
• 6 English composers, 3 American, 1 French, 1 Moroccan, 1 New Zealander, and 1 Canadian.
• 1 written in the 16th century, 2 in the 17th century, 1 in the 1920s, 1 in the 1940s, 1 in the 1960s, 2 in the 1990s, 2 in the 2000s, 2 in the 2010s.
• Pairs are as follows: 1 play and film, 1 book and film, 1 book and book, 1 poetry and play, 1 poetry and film, 1 poetry and poetry, 1 play and book.
  

Richard III by William Shakespeare and Looking for Richard, directed by Al Pacino
What are they: Richard III chronicles the rise of King Richard III as he schemes and manipulates his way to the crown by having just about everyone in his family murdered. As a character piece, it's a fascinating look into the supposed mind of one of the England's most reviled monarchs, and a meditation on the means employed by despotic rulers to shape events around them. The 1990s documentary Looking for Richard works on two levels (three, if you also look it as an ego-project for Al Pacino in his personal quest for greatness); as a performance of the play by American actors and also as a 'behind-the-scenes' look at what makes the play and Shakespeare so enduringly significant.

Scope for Study: Arguably the most commonly studied of Shakespeare's 'History' plays, Richard III works best as a look into what makes a psychopathic would-be tyrant like Richard tick. If students can look past the cast of more than sixty characters, they'll find enough to talk about in regard to Richard's Machiavellian pursuit of power and the concept of a man entertained by the game of evil perhaps moreso than the ends it achieves. Al Pacino's documentary works as a living, breathing study guide to go alongside the play - with Pacino himself unpacking key scenes, character motivations, and the changing context of the play when performed in the 20th century and for overseas audiences such as those in America. 

NESA Annotations: Annotations for these paired texts can be found in the 2009-14 Annotations document from when they were included as part of the Exploring Connections elective. Note is made of Pacino 'celebrating hybridity of form' and the 'complex processes involved in the negotiation between Shakespearean text and performance', as well as the three 'narrative strands' of Looking for Richard - the story of Richard III, the story of the play's historical context, and story of Pacino adapting Richard III.

Verdict: The villainous Richard is a fascinating Shakespearean creation but, as I alluded to earlier, there are a lot of characters in this play so I'm personally a little unsure of how the complicated medieval politics would translate with a class (keen to hear how teachers approach this one as I haven't taught it before). By contrast, Looking for Richard is a relatively straightforward text, even if it does come across as a glorified DVD extra rather than as a film in its own right. Pacino is kind of pretentious throughout and I don't think he achieves what he sets out to do (IE. Make Shakespeare accessible for modern audiences in a new way) - the film poster featured here is a prime example of this, just look at that goofy picture of Pacino standing like Bart Simpson in front of a larger picture of himself. Makes me cringe. 

Mrs Dalloway by Virgina Woolf and The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry
What are they: The titular protagonist of Mrs Dalloway plans for a party in which the who's who of post-WWI London will be in attendance. She goes about her day, contemplating her past and the possibilities and regrets of a missed romance with her close friend Peter Walsh, and crosses paths briefly with Septimus Warren Smith, a man experiencing 'shell shock' as a result of his experiences in the war. The film The Hours revisits the subtexts of Woolf's novel in multiple, interconnected ways - exploring Woolf's own mental illness during the germination of her groundbreaking novel, the experience of a dissatisfied housewife in the 1950s as she contemplates suicide while reading the novel, and the contemporary relationship between a bisexual woman and her friend - a poet dying from AIDS.

Scope for Study: There's a lot to unpack in Mrs Dalloway. If you'll excuse the anachronism, it's essentially the literary equivalent of a single-shot film. Readers are dropped into the protagonist's life without context and left to figure things out as the narrative slowly moves forward. Students will need to examine the way that the novel is filtered to us through a series of exploratory stream-of-consciousness devices that blur the line between limited and omniscient third person perspectives, and the way that Woolf fugues between direct and indirect speech in order to 'blow up' the miniscule details of each moment. In comparing the novel to The Hours, students will be able to examine the wider context of Woolf's life in creating Mrs Dalloway and the way that its legacy is depicted on the screen across three different time periods (1923, 1951, 2001). The multiple time periods also allow for students to examine changing attitudes to suicide, mental health, and sexuality - all of which feature at different levels in Mrs Dalloway and The Hours.

NESA Annotations: Notes can be found in the 2015-20 Annotations, where these texts are both discussed within the framework of Advanced Module A: Comparative Study of Texts (from the last syllabus). The Hours is highlighted as an exploration of a single day in the lives of each of its characters, thus drawing parallels with Woolf's novel. Further similarities are identified through the way in which both texts examine the lives of women in varying social and cultural contexts, the way in which the past informs the present lives of these characters, and Daldry's postmodernist use of structure to add to Woolf's themes and ideas.

Verdict: I can see the merit of studying Mrs Dalloway but I struggle to imagine it 'landing' with some students - indeed, it would take a keen Advanced class to rise to the particular challenge offered by this pair of texts. Woolf's writing style is... well, it's something. There are so many semicolons, and the added dimension of the text as an exploration of post-fin de siecle Europe only serves to illustrate just how truly dense a work it is. The Hours, by contrast, is a fine film with a lot to say, and the way it handles its multiple plots - while non-linear - is relatively accessible for most viewers. There is definitely a textual conversation between the film and Woolf's book that would provide a lot of material for discussion, but I think it would need passion and hard work in order to do it justice. I could provide the latter, but I'm not confident in delivering the former.

The Stranger by Albert Camus and The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud
What are they: In The Stranger, Meursault, an average French-Algerian colonial of little note, recounts the immediate events leading up to his decision to shoot an Arab dead on a beach. He tells his story dispassionately, seeming not to care that his mother has just died or that his girlfriend Marie is in love with him, and then also recounts the resultant court case in which he is judged more for his oddly nondescript nature than for the fact that he has murdered someone. Many years later, in The Meursault Investigation, the reader is given a view of the same events through the eyes of Harun, the brother of the murdered Arab. Harun recounts the events of his life after the untimely death of Musa (unnamed in Camus' novel) to an unseen listener, recounting the impact of this senseless act of violence upon his mother and how this in turn shaped his own life during Algeria's tumultuous decolonisation period. Harun's life echoes that of Meursault's in a multitude of ironic and deliberate ways.

Scope for Study: Daoud's text works on multiple levels by coming at Camus' famous postmodernist narrative in seemingly contradictory ways - as both an 'in-universe' sequel about the brother of Meursault's victim, and as a metatextual deconstruction of The Stranger's inherent colonialism. There is a wealth of material in The Meursault Investigation that can be spun into a whole range of discussions in relation to Module A's descriptor. Angles include: a comparison of the protagonists within both texts and their relationships with their respective mothers, Daoud's use of a second person point of view and how this disrupts notions of the novel as an easily defined commentary on The Stranger, and Harun as a metonym for the decolonised Algeria. My favourite approach, however, would perhaps be the idea of viewing Harun's narrative as a postmodern erasure of Camus' profundity - a deserved intellectual bathos delivered by the subaltern. 

NESA Annotations: As one of the newer pairings in the Prescribed Texts, notes for The Stranger and The Meursault Investigation can be found in in the 2019-2023 Annotations document. Surprisingly, these annotations focus predominantly on the intellectual weight of The Stranger, with only one of the last five dot points of analysis even mentioning The Meursault Investigation (and, even then, the 'suggested opportunities' are fairly general and non-specific).  

Verdict: I got a lot out of reading this pair of novels over the course of just four days. The way Daoud's sequel envelopes and enfolds The Stranger is a breathtaking tour-de-force - and that's no mean feat when we consider the influence and significance of Camus' novel. I think teaching this as a Textual Conversations study would certainly be challenging but, if the class was up to the challenge and open to the contextual grounding that would be necessary, it would no doubt be a rewarding experience for both the students and the teacher.

A Selection of His Poetry by John Donne and W;t by Margaret Edson
John Donne poetry

• The Sunne Rising
• The Apparition
• A Valediction: forbidding mourning
• This is my playes last scene
• At the round earths imagin'd corners
• If poysonous mineralls
• Death be not proud
• Hymne to God my God, in my sicknesse

What are they: John Donne, a contemporary of Shakespeare, wrote sonnets and other forms of poetry in the metaphysical mode and has been widely recognised as one of the key Baroque poets, who were known for an increased examination of the abstract. The poetry prescribed here explores love, death, and man's relationship with his maker when faced with these concepts. Margaret Edson's W;t is a one act play in which a dying literature professor named Vivian reflects on her life's devotion to Donne's poetry and the legacy of this single-mindedness as she approaches a painful death without human consolation. 

Scope for Study: Donne's poetry is highly metaphorical but also relatively accessible if students are walked through it carefully. The religious context of the poet will need some unpacking in order to reveal the depths of his various 'conversations' with God and the reader, and students will also be able to draw parallels to modern ideas of love and death in their own culture. Edson's play goes some way towards unpacking some of the selected pieces, specifically 'Death be Not Proud' and 'If Poysonous Mineralls', and adds further depth to the themes therein. In engaging with W;t, however, students will be able to look at larger questions relating to the meaning of life and the value we ascribe to the arts and their purpose. 

NESA Annotations: Annotations can be found in the 2009-2014 document, when W;t and Donne's poetry were part of the Advanced English Comparative Study elective Exploring Connections. Emphasis is placed on the way that both texts explore "challenging issues without providing definitive answers", specifically in relation to the nature of death. Mention is also made of the binary opposition between the emotional and the intellectual and how each text explores this opposition.

Verdict: I love Donne's poetry and think there's a lot of material within each poem that can be connected to the personal context of the student. I think an engaging lesson could be spent in particular on letting students lead discussion on 'The Apparition' in connection to notions of gender. Margaret Edson's play is a highly valuable flipside to Donne's conversation as critical analysis can reveal certain dichotomies at play - Edson and her protagonist both provide a feminine point of view and, unlike Donne, Vivien has rejected the pursuit of love altogether. There are also several other rich parallels that bear examination, such as Vivien's relationship with Donne vs. Donne's relationship with God. 

The Complete Poems by John Keats and Bright Star, directed by Jane Campion
John Keats poetry

• La Belle Dame sans Merci
• To Autumn
• Bright star! would that I were steadfast as thou art
• Ode to a Nightingale
• Ode on a Grecian Urn
• When I have fears that I may cease to be
• The Eve of St Agnes, XXIII

What are they: Keats, one of the key English poets of the early 19th century, embodied the intense emotional pathos of the Romantic movement and its obsessions. 'The Eve of St Agnes' is the epic of the selected suite of poems - longer than all the other poems put together, it tells a long-form narrative of secret lovers via a prism of Scottish/English folklore. Other poems reflect Keats' intensity in regard to love ('La Belle Dame sans Merci', 'Bright Star'), nature ('To Autumn') and death ('When I have fears that I may cease to be', 'Ode to a Nightingale'). The film Bright Star depicts the life of Keats during the writing of these poems, his creative struggles and love for Fanny Brawne, and his tragically untimely death.

Scope for Study: Students would perhaps benefit from starting with the film first rather than the poetry. Watching Bright Star would provide a strong contextual framework for Keats' poetry, as well as a 'way in' for many of the prescribed poems. Jane Campion's script and direction do a fine job of drawing out a 'thesis' from the work of Keats, synthesising key themes and presenting them in a more easily accessible and visual manner. Students might consider that poetry in the early 19th century existed as part of an aural culture, that there wasn't an assumption that people would automatically understand Keats' poetry, and the precarious balance between love and distraction that Keats drew upon as inspiration for his work. Each of these ideas exist as key components of Campion's film and will support the ability of students to engage with the suite of poetry in a variety of ways.

NESA Annotations: There are notes on Bright Star in the 2015-2020 Annotations document from when it was included as part of the Module B Texts and Ways of Thinking Elective for Extension English 1. Keats' poetry is also technically featured as the annotations outline the role of specific poems in forming the core of the film, the way in which a contemporary text such as Bright Star can 'embrace' the Romantic period, and the congruence between the film's visual metaphors and Keats' use of poetic techniques.

Verdict: Teaching Keats or any of the Romantic poets successfully would be highly dependent on the teacher's level of interest, however, that said, I think Bright Star provides an effective foundation for the 'textual conversation' angle of Module A. Students could look at the ways in which the prescribed poetry has been reflected in the film. I'm not privy to the design process behind this part of the curriculum but, on watching Bright Star, I wouldn't be surprised if the curation of the prescribed suite was backward-engineered from the film. One caveat I will mention here though is that Bright Star is a quiet and gentle piece of cinema, and I'd bear this in mind when choosing your pattern of study for your Advanced English class as some students may struggle with its pace.

Ariel by Sylvia Plath and Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
Sylvia Plath poetry

• Daddy
• Nick and the Candlestick
• A Birthday Present
• Lady Lazarus
• Fever 103
• The Arrival of the Bee Box

Ted Hughes poetry

• Fulbright Scholars
• The Shot
• A Picture of Otto
• Fever
• Red
• The Bee God

What are they: Plath's suite of poetry, published posthumously in 1965, is replete with biting anger and obsessive motifs - a series of folding perspectives encapsulating Holocaust and WWII allusions, events in the years preceding Plath's suicide, and the frustration felt by the poet in regard to her husband's unfaithfulness and a feeling of gender-based restriction. More than 30 years later, in 1998, Plath's one-time husband Ted Hughes released his own collection of poetry shortly before his death from cancer. The Hughes suite included here echoes and refracts the events and ideas alluded to in Plath's, offering a more direct view of the marriage, albeit from a subjective perspective.  

Scope for Study: Where do I start? The relationship between Plath and Hughes has been the subject of much controversy over the years and, within the context of the #MeToo movement, it continues to provoke a range of responses - the volatile and vitriolic, the cold and cautious, the invested and engaged. Both sets of poems are worthy of study in the most objective sense - shaped by robust, sharp, highly crafted, and/or superbly incisive language. Students will need to be careful when approaching the context and paratext that surrounds these interlinked bodies of work; careful that this element doesn't unduly weigh against their understanding of the texts from a technical standpoint. That said, a balance needs to be struck in regard to the contextual elements of the poetry - the writing doesn't exist in a vacuum. 

NESA Annotations: Surprisingly, unfortunately, there are no annotations on either Plath or Hughes in any of the last three annotation documents.

Verdict: Is the poetry meant to be read in the order given by the syllabus, or in the order presented by the books? Does it even matter? I would venture that they should be read in the order prescribed... Hughes' poetry in particular has been arranged above to follow a logical order that helps to construct a useful narrative that will assist students with framing their understanding of the relationship between the two poets. Teachers looking to teach this pair of texts might need to have an extra awareness of the wellbeing of their individual students first... I would be concerned that some students might be triggered or pulled off-course by the dark subject matter and the ongoing criticism of the Plath/Hughes relationship. The teacher would need to have sufficient experience. I'd tread lightly... to be honest, as much as I'm personally drawn to the poetry, I would probably just avoid teaching it altogether.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
What are they: The Tempest is one of Shakespeare's last plays and remains an enigmatic work that confounds the usual classification of his work into 'tragedy' or 'comedy' genres, being as it combines elements of both in its tale of exile, magic, revenge, love, and politics. Margaret Atwood''s 21st century novel Hag Seed tells the story of a disgraced director who re-stages the play as part of an education program in a prison, with Atwood portraying the text in its process of adaptation whilst simultaneously retelling Prospero's story through Felix, the director who uses the prisoners to execute his own elaborate plan of vengeance.

Scope for Study: Hag-Seed exemplifies the brief of Textual Conversations as it metatextually comes at The Tempest from two completely separate directions. On one hand, the novel explicitly depicts the staging of the play and features the discussion of its characters and themes throughout in the form of the education program that Felix runs. On the other hand, the novel is also structured along the same lines as The Tempest, with characters, themes, events, and plot points all forming an analogous mirror for Shakespeare's play. Students will be able to examine the layers of Atwood's lightly-staged but heavily intertextual retelling whilst using the original play as a reference point.

NESA Annotations: The new 2019-2023 Annotations outline The Tempest as a text that deals with themes of ambition, authority, power, captivity, and loyalty, and Hag-Seed as "a complex conversation with The Tempest that takes the reader into the worlds of the play". The annotations highlight Atwood's clever use of Shakespearean language, the way that knowledge of The Tempest can enhance an understanding of the character of Felix in Hag-Seed, and the way students can use Atwood's epilogue as a jumping-off point for their own interpretations of Shakespeare's text.

Verdict: One thing that is implicit in this pairing is the concept that Hag-Seed demonstrates the way in which Shakespeare's texts are continuously adapted and re-adapted for new audiences, and how this can both highlight the relevance of his plays in the contemporary setting whilst also creating new meaning that reflects new contexts. I would venture that, with consideration of the way that the Advanced English course is structured and the requirements of the pattern of study, that the Tempest / Hag-Seed combo will end up being the go-to choice within Module A. Considering the accessibility of Atwood's text and its insightful, unambiguous relationship with The Tempest, that's not necessarily a bad thing.