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 The syllabus document from this time (released in 2014) indicated that the Area of Study module (which has now been replaced by the Common Module) would be reviewed in 2018 for updating in 2019.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!

Aurora College - Advanced English HSC Seminar Day

Hi students (and teachers), you will find links to my two presentations for the Aurora College HSC Seminar here.

Go here for presentation on Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences - The Merchant of Venice

• The Merchant of Venice - 2023 Presentation
  

Go here for presentation on Module A: Textual Conversations - Tempest and Hag-Seed

• Tempest and Hag-Seed - 2023 Presentation

Happy studying!

Modelling Essay Writing

Earlier this year I had the pleasure to write a student resource textbook on The Merchant of Venice for the HSC 'Texts and Human Experiences' Common Module. I wrote this at the invitation of Into English (the book can be found here [digital e-book] and here [print edition]). It was something I did separately to my teaching as I actually taught my 2019 Year 12 class Nineteen Eighty-Four for the Common Module, and this means that I haven't had much of a chance to reflect on the module from a Merchant of Venice standpoint. Anyway, long story short, I've received some questions over the last few months about essay writing for The Merchant of Venice and this prompted me to write a sample paragraph. 

This paragraph can be viewed as supplementary material in support of one of the sample questions in the Into English book. The question itself isn't too important as the piece is predominantly designed to just demonstrate the components of a paragraph addressing human experiences, and can hopefully be used as a model for students to look at.

Here's the paragraph in question:

Sample Paragraph

The Merchant of Venice, through its exploration of the way in which people respond to appearances, reveals particular inconsistencies inherent in the human condition. This is perhaps best exemplified by the Prince of Morocco's observation that "All that glisters is not gold", an aphorism in which the deceptiveness of appearances is rendered concisely on multiple levels. Primarily, this remark is made in response to the false selection of a gold casket in the test for Portia's hand in marriage. It also doubles, however, as a metaphor for one of the play's key themes, wherein society often projects a shiny veneer that covers uglier truths. The antipathy that exists between Antonio and Shylock similarly conveys this context, with Antonio using the simile "like a villain with a smiling cheek" to describe Shylock's offer to loan him money, highlighting the apparent act of kindness as being inherently deceptive and evil. The inability of Christians and Jews within Renaissance-era Europe to see each other's true nature is further reinforced by Shylock's rhetorical identification of Antonio's hypocrisy, exemplified by the line "You called me 'dog' - and for these courtesies I'll lend you thus much money?" From a 21st century context, the audience is positioned to give equal weight to both the Christian and Jewish standpoint, and Shakespeare's depth of understanding becomes clearer from this more enlightened vantage point. In his examination of deceptive appearances, Shakespeare utilises these discussions to bring to the surface a range of inconsistencies in human behaviours and attitudes in order to demonstrate how conflict originates in such duplicity.

Annotated Paragraph

To assist with breaking up the above paragraph into its constituent parts, I have also attached an annotated version below.

Here it is: The Merchant of Venice and Human Experiences

I wanted to put the annotations up here directly but I couldn't figure out how to do it within a blog. I mean, to be honest, it's the end of the year and I'm feeling pretty exhausted so I didn't really invest too much time in trying to figure out how to convey annotations in the blogging format. 

Okay, look, if I'm really honest I didn't invest any time in figuring out how to convey annotations here. It's been a long year.

I would like to add that I wish you all the best over the upcoming holiday break!

Texts and Human Experiences: The Merchant of Venice

Not too long ago I had the opportunity to present some material relating to The Merchant of Venice within the context of the HSC Texts and Human Experiences Common Module. These resources are a small part of the textbook The Merchant of Venice, which I wrote for Into English at the beginning of this year.

With kind permission from the publisher, I have uploaded these presentation materials here for anyone potentially considering The Merchant of Venice as their Common Module text when teaching Year 12 English next term. This was initially presented in 2019 at the ETA NSW Conference. The version below is an updated/adjusted version that was presented to Aurora College for their HSC Seminar Day in 2022.

• Texts and Human Experiences: The Merchant of Venice - PowerPoint Presentation
• The Merchant of Venice - Resources
  

The textbook can be purchased digitally or in material form from the following places:

• Into English 
• Australian Curriculum Supplies 

The play itself is, as expected, an incredibly rich and layered text and is actually perfectly crafted as expression of human experiences.

Advanced English: Infographics

My Year 12 Advanced English class is currently quite deep into 'revision mode'. Naturally, the students want to prepare as best they can for the upcoming HSC exams and, naturally, I want them to do this by writing as many practice responses to essay questions as possible. We're currently meeting about halfway on this and, in the spirit of preparation, I hoped to provide a useful overview that summarised some of the key concerns of the modules and the prescribed texts. 

Below you will find some graphic organisers for Common Module - Texts and Human Experiences: Nineteen Eighty-Four and Module A - Textual Conversations: The Tempest & Hag-Seed. As they're hand-drawn they aren't as flash as I'd like them to be but I think (as far as first drafts go) that they'll do the job. Apologies for the font on the Module A one - I was experimenting and I guess I won't be using that particular font again!

Download full size Nineteen Eighty-Four
Download full size The Tempest & Hag-Seed

I'm thinking I'll get the students to have a go at looking at their Craft of Writing texts in this fashion as part of their revision too.

Texts and Human Experiences: Related Text Ideas

 

One great thing about the new HSC Common Module is that the nature of the rubric allows for the inclusion of any text that concerns human experiences... which is arguably just about every text ever written! That said, the mileage of a text (students must study at least ONE related text in conjunction with this module) will vary depending on each individual teacher's approach, preference, and the level of sophistication identified with said text.

 

I'm thinking this particular blog entry will change over time as the Texts and Human Experiences Common Module becomes more of a familiarity than the uncharted waters that it currently seems. For the moment, here are some of the Related Texts that I'm suggesting to my students.

Novels
Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Breath by Tim Winton
Blind Faith by Ben Elton

Non-Fiction
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
My Thinning Years by Jon Croteau
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
No Fixed Address by Robyn Davidson
Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French
Marching Powder by Rusty Young

Graphic Novels
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Blankets by Craig Thompson
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins
In Real Life by Cory Doctorow
Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba
Skim by Mariko Tamaki
Blue by Pat Grant

Film/TV
Redfern Now Season 1, Episode 4, 'Stand Up' directed by Rachel Perkins
New Boy directed by Steph Green

Poetry
'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night' by Dylan Thomas
'O Captain! My Captain' by Walt Whitman
'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' by Oscar Wilde
'Monster' by Samuel Wagan Watson
'Where the Sidewalk Ends' by Shel Silverstein
'O What is That Sound That So Thrills the Ear' by W.H. Auden
'Invictus' by William Ernest Hemley

Short Stories
'The Most Dangerous Game' by Richard Connell
'A Straight Bat' by Roger Holt
'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson
'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' by Ambrose Bierce
'The Veldt' by Ray Bradbury
'The Last Night of the World' by Ray Bradbury

Speeches
Keynote address at the Seneca Falls Women's Right Convention, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
'We Choose to Go to the Moon' by John F. Kennedy
'Freedom from Fear' by Aung San Suu Kyi
'It's Not Always Easy to Say Where we Come From' by King Harald of Norway

Here's the list as a PDF with some extra information about each text.

Texts and Human Experiences: Orwell, Stalin, and the History Paradox

I forgot how much fun teaching Nineteen Eighty-Four was. Perhaps that's a paradoxical statement, considering the miserable nature of the text and the misery-inducing state it can inspire in the reader (Orwell's masterpiece is more likely appreciated than 'enjoyed'). That said, paradox works here due to the text's inclusion as part of the Year 12 HSC Common Module Texts and Human Experiences, in which readers gain insight into 'anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies in human behaviour'. I can see that Nineteen Eighty-Four isn't a joyful book and yet... I enjoy teaching it so much!

There's a certain comorbidity between the Advanced English and Extension History courses in that both involve interrogating the text to identify degrees of subjectivity. If you're lucky enough to have students who do both courses you'll notice their growing aptitude in relation to this. In regards to Nineteen Eighty-Four there's also a lot to be gained from students who do the Modern History course with all its political -isms. One key concept from Orwell's text that benefits from this increased historical understanding is the idea of a palimpsest.

The palimpsest is an ancient or medieval manuscript page that has been 'cleaned' of its original text and re-used. There's nothing sinister about this; in pre-Gutenberg times parchment was invaluable and hard to come by so repurposing was par for the course. In Winston Smith's world, however, Orwell uses the term to refer to the Party's habit of literally re-writing historical and journalistic documents. Smith's occupation is to locate any documents that contain information the Party has decided no longer fits with their official history and then rewrite them to fit with the new 'facts'.

Orwell was inspired by real practices in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Every time Stalin 'purged' an offending member from his Party and made them 'disappear' an order would go out to schools to have the students paste new text into their textbooks over the old information, essentially rendering the figure a non-person; someone who never existed. Stalin's comfort with rewriting history can also be observed in the doctored photographs from this era, whereby purged members were painted out of the pictures as if they were never there. 

Activity

My friend Kira told me that she likes to start her students off in studying Nineteen Eighty-Four by imposing an Orwellian atmosphere on the classroom with a series of strict rules designed to get them thinking about totalitarianism. It can be hard for us, having grown up with relatively high levels of privilege, to understand what it might have been like to live in the kind of nightmarish government-controlled state that Orwell describes. I wanted to do something like this and help students get their heads around the palimpsests that Winston is tasked to make throughout the course of the novel.

I don't know how else to relay this other than just describe what I did. So here it is:

• I wordlessly stopped the students at the door. This was automatically different for them because I've never been one for making kids line up outside the classroom. I usually say hello to them too but this time I just held my hand up and went back into the room for a bit as I wanted to heighten their anxiety a little.
• I drew up a table on the board, like this:

• Then I beckoned the students in and told them to place all their bags at the front of the room, and that there was to be no talking or communication. I also had a cardboard box with 'Phone Haven' written on the front and told them to place their phones into it for their 'safekeeping'. The students were very confused by this point and my straight face and lack of eye contact seemed to prevent any discussion around what was going on.
• I then dictated the following:

Year 12 HSC Advanced English is a very intense subject and requires concentration and consistent engagement. In order to foster a better working arrangement it has been decreed that you can now call your teacher by his first name within the confines of this class room. There will also be a rotating roster in which one of you must walk the room every four minutes and check that everyone is OnTask. Infractions or OffTask behaviour will be reported to the teacher immediately.

• Students then copied the table into their books, with four student names placed into the roster.
• I then gave them this context sheet to work on and had Student A start their rounds, checking that each person was doing their work. I asked Student A quietly (the room was so silent that everyone could hear me still) to report back on who was working well and who wasn't. 
• Student B had to report to me on who they thought was enjoying the activity the most and who wasn't. 
• At this point I was admittedly getting a little bored, so I gave Student C a ruler and asked them to make sure that everyone's things were at least 5cm from the edge of the table.
• Student D was told to make each individual student raise their index finger on their non-dominant hand and count slowly to five. There wasn't any relevance to this, I just wanted to emphasise how arbitrary the rules were.  
• This is where the palimpsest comes in. I looked at the roster on the board and decided which student had complied least willingly. To be truthful, all of the students had gone along with the activity with surprisingly little complaining, so I just randomly picked Student A. I told him that he hadn't done a very good job and that he was to stand outside the classroom. I then removed his name from the roster on the board, replaced it with another student's name, told this new student in front of everyone that they had done a good job as the first monitor, and then provided the whole class with paper, glue and scissors.
• I told them that they needed to change the roster in their books to reflect what was on the board. That this had always been the roster. Furthermore, I was to only be referred to as 'Sir' and not my first name and that the text in their book should reflect this. Students wrote out this new information and pasted it over the 'offending' parts of the dictated text. 

All in all, this took about 30-40 minutes. I couldn't help but laugh by the end of it, having kept a straight face for so long, and the students were relieved for the spell to be broken. This Advanced English class had only had me for a teacher for 1 lesson before this (I didn't have them for their Preliminary HSC) so a few were seriously worried that this would be how the class was like from now on!

We discussed the purpose of the activity, what a palimpsest was, and some of the students who'd already read to the end of the book told me that they'd cottoned on partway through. I have some of Stalin's doctored photographs on the back wall so we looked at those and spoke about Stalin's sinister censorship practices in the Soviet Union and how this would have influenced Orwell.

This links back really well to the rubric's mention of 'paradoxes in human behaviour', after all, what greater paradox could there be than history itself being rewritten? If history is meant to be true then how can it be changed? And yet, it happens all the time.