EX11 Term 3 Project Post 3

All three of my texts end with a relationship being firmly established. In P&P and B&P, this relationship is a marriage and this has been the goal, if not of the female leads then at least of their mothers, all along. Bridget ends up with her Darcy but, in the modern western tradition (begun, I think in Four Weddings and a Funeral), they are not married. In fact, they have not yet reached the committed stage of “moving in”. The values portrayed by this are clear: women need men, preferably men of high social status and great intelligence and it is up to the women to somehow catch these men regardless of the obvious initial indifference of both parties.

What if we changed the ending of on of the texts? The cultural pressure in both P&P and B&P towards marriage is perhaps too great to be disregarded but I think we can work with Bridget.

‘Come on,’ said Mark Darcy.

‘What?’ I said.

‘Don’t say “what”, Bridget, say “pardon”,’ hissed Mum.

‘Mrs Jones,’ said Mark firmly, ‘I am taking Bridget away to celebrate what is left of the Baby Jesus’s birthday.’

I took a big breath and grasped Mark Darcy’s proffered hand. Then I shook it firmly. ‘Thank you for all your help Mr Darcy but I’m afraid I have other plans.’ I smiled as both Mark and Mum gaped at me in astonishment.

Outside in the snow Jude, (no-longer-Vile) Richard, Shazza and Tom were waiting by the mini. ‘Come the fuck on,’ called Tom as I squeezed into the back of the tiny car.

Tuesday December 26

9st something, alcohol units lost count at twelve, cigarettes 0 (but one fat cigar), calories outnumbered by warm festive thoughts.

10am Woke in a hotel room in Paris. Little bit hungover but secure in the knowledge that Daniel, Mark, Julio and well-meaning but interfering parents are an ocean (well, a channel) away.

11am At itty bitty bistro on Left Bank with best friends. Have finally realised the secret to happiness, and it is with deep regret, rage and an overwhelming sense of defeat that I have to put it into the most cliche words in the English language: Be yourself and surround yourself with people who love you.

Next post: how does Bridget represent all five Bennet sisters?

EX11 Term 3 Project Post 2

During discussion in class today a student asked, “isn’t that the one where they randomly burst into song?” He was, of course, referring to one of my chosen appropriations, the Bollywood film, Bride and Prejudice (see previous post for an example of a musical number from the film). This got me thinking about the links between the cultural context of a text, the values portrayed (and questioned) in the text and the narrative and stylistic conventions of the genre. Characters randomly burst into song because it is a Bollywood film, not because it is an appropriation of a Jane Austen novel.

Similarly, Bridget Jones chronicles her weight loss and gain and smoking and drinking habits as well as the ups and downs of her love life, not because she is supposed to be a modern Elizabeth Bennett but because she a single woman of a certain age. What she shares with Lizzy (and with Bride’s Lalita) is the pressure to marry and to marry well. In all three texts marriage equals social mobility, something that is valued across the three texts and their cultures.

EX11 Term 3 Project Post 1

Following the example of Dr Shann, I have decided to begin work on the Term 3 project being undertaken by the Preliminary Extension English classes. These journal entries will chronicle my progress and, hopefully, serve as a guide to the students who are tackling the idea of a learning journal for the first time. This is an important skill as it will be one of the major assessment pieces for those undertaking the Extension 2 course. My core text for the major project will be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the most popular of her completed novels but not, I must confess, my favourite. At least part of the ongoing appeal of this text has to be attributed to Austen’s construction of characters through dialogue and the technique of free indirect speech (which she pioneered). The two main characters, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett (or as I like to think of them Mr Pride and Ms Prejudice) still charm audiences with their wit two centuries after being written. This choice of text will also, of course, require me to not only reread the novel but to view the two most influential adaptations, the 1996 BBC mini series starring Colin Firth and the 2005 Keira Knightly and Matthew McFadyen effort

For my two modern appropriations I am considering the Bollywood film Bride and Prejudice and the novel by Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary. Both are very deliberate appropriations of Austen’s novel, in terms of character and plot. Both also transpose the characters and plot of the original into interesting and different settings that come with their own culture, values and narrative traditions.

The End is Nigh

The end of the semester is upon us. Now that assessment and reporting time is just about over we have a week to create and reflect. Both the year 9s and the 7s will be working on creative projects for peer assessment.

When the report arrives, if you’re wondering what to do better next time, here are some tips:

• Read every day and think about what you read.
• Start work on assessment tasks as soon as you get them, doing a little every day is much easier than rushing to produce something worthwhile at the last moment.
• Take some pride in your work. If you don’t care enough to produce something that you’re proud of, you can’t expect anyone else to be impressed with it.
• Revise and summarise regularly rather than cramming for tests, it’s more effective and you’ll even remember stuff after you’ve been assessed on it.

Most importantly, have a good break.

The Wire

EN0905 Common Task is due Thursday.

EN0902 Common Task is due Friday.

Tasks that do not meet the requirements or are submitted late will not be marked.

EX1102 are in the Burton on Tuesday to hear all about The Death of the Author.

EA1105 need to be working on their panel discussions.

The 39th Parallel

Listening to Billy Joel might be good for your understanding of mid-twentieth century history but it is not, according to The Blue Day Book, good for your mood.

What’s happening in class this week?

EN0707 Having completed their wiki posts, the extension class are moving on to Ballads. Today we practised identifying different poetic techniques, tomorrow we shall tackle Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.

EN0902 & EN0905 “Wildcat Falling” by Mudrooroo is leading us into investigating other texts about alienation, including “Waiting for Godot”, “The Catcher in the Rye” and “Crime & Punishment”.

BRING WILDCAT FALLING TO EVERY LESSON THIS WEEK.

EA1105 Oliver Parker’s film of Othello gave us some insight but how will it stack up against Coleridge, Leavis and Auden?

EA1207 Cap A prep. DON’T PANIC. Just prepare and communicate with your group.

EX1102 Rotations start this week. Think Text, Think Culture, Think Values.

What’s the point of literature?

This is a summary of the entertaining discussion which was presented to Preliminary Extension classes earlier this week. My personal favourite part was when a teacher (who shall remain nameless), postulated that every text is overtly political and a student (also nameless) replied: “that’s why I’m happier than you”. Many thanks to Rob and Will for sharing their thoughts and manifestos with us. Please feel free to respond.

Rob
1.‘The ‘Text, Culture, Values’ course is ‘simply a way for the Board of Studies, or indeed our beloved English Department, to instruct us about what meaning there is in the text, without either studying the text closely or accurately, or allowing us our own interpretations… In high school the meaning of a text is dictated by the institutions that determine the curriculum… [T]he downside is that, because you spend your essays arguing a position that the marker is already quite familiar with -because he was the one who dictated it to you – there is very little room for originality or need for precision in your argument.’

2.‘I believe that all works of art have an inherent value and meaning in and of themselves. This meaning is an absolute, invariable quality that does not alter according to context and audience. It is an eternal quality. Thus, a text has an integral value and significance in and of itself, fully realized and separated from any concerns of reader, as the author intended it.’

3.Every individual has the right to read or study the text and to form their own conclusions as to what the meaning of the text is – and, of course, everyone has the right to express their opinion on this issue. However, some of these opinions will be wrong. This is an area which is often subject to confusion; people think that everyone having the right to express their opinion is the same thing as all opinions being equal. All opinions are not equal; some opinions are wrong, some interpretations are wrong.

4.I believe that the purpose of art is to entertain. Not to deliver a message, not to express a point of view, not to provoke discussion, not to give voice to our society’s concerns. … The only valid purpose of a work literature, or indeed any art form, is to entertain its reader.

Will Haines

1.Literature is a way of thinking in and with language, mainly, though not always, about the human experience. It is not merely a code of communication, helping an artist to communicate his own feelings, but actually to create experience and give it to an audience, because in the very conception of experience within words its inherent quality is improved/given form/given meaning.

2.It is stupid, I am afraid, to claim that literature’s overwhelming purpose is to entertain, or to give a message, or to explain, or to make a comment. … Establishing the value/meaning/purpose of literature as being something outside itself is redundant and undermines the thing itself – it functions as a form of knowledge in its own right and on its own terms. Speaking about it in terms of its ‘use’… askes us to operate in a way that degrades it. Literature doesn’t (or shouldn’t) serve a utilitarian purpose – it is not itself motivated. Rather, it motivates those who create and respond to it by enabling them to think in a certain way.

3.The kind of meaning literature supplies transcends all immediate or ‘relevant’ ideologies, systems, methods, trends or issues. Such concerns eg racism, sexism, etc can be the subject without being the object. It is essentially epistemological in nature, meaning it deals with how we know things. It is interested in observing something we feel we know, and then explaining exactly what that thing is, and why we know it. Before you can know anything, you need first to identify and understand the faculties and cognitive abilities of the knower; these literature shows in operation. It is thus less about what there is in the world than it is about how we, as humans, understand what there is in the world.

Judith Wright

Last week year 9 submitted their essays on the poetry of Judith Wright and its perspectives on the relationship between the Australian people and the Australian landscape. Here are some of the points we came up with in class:

Bora Ring

• a bora ring is an Aboriginal dancing circle, the one in the poem has been abandoned, which symbolises the loss of Aboriginal culture in modern Australia;
• the tone of the poem changes from regret to anger at this loss;
• Wright uses personification, “the grass stands up”, “the apple gums mime a past corroboree”, to reinforce the emotions in the poem;
• she also uses biblical allusion, which shows her intended audience to be reasonably educated and Western.

Bullocky

• this poem remembers the bullock teams and their drivers who were the lifeblood of inland Australian in the 18th and 19th centuries;
• biblical allusion is again used to highlight the loneliness of the driver in a harsh landscape (he is pictured as Moses);
• the poem ends on a high note, again using the image of Moses to portray the notion that the bullock drivers were founders of this “promised land”.

The Surfer

• in this poem we shift our gaze from Australia’s past to its present;
• intensely physical (sexual) imagery is used to express the connection between a surfer and his landscape, the ocean;
• later in the poem the tone moves from joyful to sinister, with the sea being pictured as a wolf which snarls and gnaws on the beach.

Essays from people who have been on camp are due in on Tuesday 13 May at the latest.

Plunge on into week two

Week one was survived by all and even enjoyed by some (myself included). In week two year 7 will working on their wiki before watching the film ‘The Iron Giant’. Year 7s, please make sure you can log into the school network by Monday afternoon’s class.

Assessment due this week:

EN0902 draft essay (two paragraphs) due Monday

EN0905 draft essay (two paragraphs) due Tuesday

EX1102 final essay due Wednesday

Wikimania

Wikis are a collaborative creative tool, as anyone who has added their five cents worth to Wikipedia will know. This term we’ll be using wikis to demonstrate our mad research skills and deep understanding of texts. Extension Year 7 are already hard at work brainstorming topics and subtopics for their wiki while Extension Year 11 are quaking in their boots at the size of The Odyssey project before them. Be of good cheer EX1102, you will be working in pairs. Each class will need to check their email regularly so as not to miss the invitation which will give them access to the relevant wiki. We’ll be using Wetpaint (see link on sidebar) as our wiki engine and you can get a head start by checking out how it works. Once the projects are completed, we’ll set the wikis free and check up on them later in the year to see how they have fared in the wilds of cyberspace.