Repeat of previous post

Responding to adaptations

When discussing if or how meaning changes when the form of the text changes you need to determine what the meaning of the original text is. What do you think are the central themes? In the film are these themes shown or does the director focus on what you consider to be the minor elements? How are the character represented in the novel? Refer to the character charts you have completed and the summary sheets provided by each of the groups nominated to analyse character. Are the choices of the director for the casting of the characters consistent with the way you imagined the characters? Perhaps a Venn diagram will help you to clearly depict what is represented in the novel and the film.

Structure:

Introduction.
State whether you agree that meaning changes when the form of the text changes.
Mention who wrote the novel and when, even state where the story is set as this can impact on understanding if the adaptation alters or changes the setting.
State who constructed the adaptation of the original text and the form that it has taken.
Identify the central themes as you see them in the original text.
Contrast with the adaptation, are they the same or different?
Consitancy of the characterisation.

(Each of the last three ideas need only be mentioned briefly as these ideas will be the focus of each of your body paragraphs).

Body Paragraph 1:
Themes are the focus of this paragraph. Write a topic sentence that identifies the key themes of the text.
Now start using the information and evidence from the novel that allows you to recognise these themes. Speak about the author and his intentions using the text to show how you arrived at this answer.

Body paragraph 2:
The adapted text. Does this show the same themes? Construct a topic sentence.
Expand on this by discussing the following: Does it only focus on one of the lesser themes as you have identified them? How has the director altered these, if he/she has? Speak about the inclusion of specific details and then the omissions that aid the alteration of the key concerns.
The mis en scene that is all the details that are included in each of the frames. The repetition of symbols or motifs. Explain their use and the aspects of the original text that led the director to do this. If there are no clues say so, and make an informed decision as to why they have been included.

Body Paragraph 3:
§ Identify the key characters in a topic sentence.
§ The way in which the key characters are represented. Who are the characters in the original text? What are their views, values and significantly what do they stand for?
§ Does the adapted text maintain these ideas? If not, what changes and in whom? If so, how has the director ensured that there are consistencies between the texts?

Conclusion:
Restate your point of view.
Summaries the arguments you have presented and the way in which change has taken place.
You could end with a significant quote that you believe encapsulates the themes of the texts (one that they both share perhaps).

MBJ – the miniseries

Well, it is acclaimed as being one of the best miniseries made – what do you think?

I struggle in comparison with the novel. If I hadn’t read the novel, it would have been good, but because I have read the novel, I’m just not sure. It holds the attention of the viewer, whcih is a good thing. It does show the social life of Melbourne after the WW1 and the years leading to WW2. It is the story of a man and his relationship with his brother, but …

For me the novel is much more than a story of how a younger brother learns to accept himself in comparison with his older brother. It is about the coming of age of an entire nation. David Meredith provides the reader with the opportunity to see how australia will move into the world arena after WW2. Australia grows in her independence and the ties to the mother country are lessend, no longer does Australia follow the decisions of England just becasue they are the decisions of England. This relationship can be likened to the relationship between David and Jack. In the beginning jack was the one making all the big decisions and David was trying to follow, not always doing the right thing though. In the end it is Jack who looks to David, David now hold the keys to how to make your way in the world as the world has changed in ways that can never be undone. Jack accepts this, yet David still struggles, he knows that he is looked up to but is uncertain of his own decisions and this is why he movesto Greece. Distance provides him with the objectivity he needs to evaluate his life choices.

Does all this come through in the miniseries? I think not. However, I am happy to discuss these views and have you tell me how wrong I am. So, get typing and let me know what it is that you really think. this is your chance to shoot me down. ensure you provide evidence of your POV and hopefully we will get some great conversation started.

ttfn

Mrs B

End of Week 3

I have just finished reading the comments that you have all contributed to on the wikispace. There are some very thought provoking comments here – well done!

There is no need for anyone to be feeling as though they cannot respond to literature. You all have. The responses have been most appropriate and show that you have been reading the text closely. The only concern I have is that most of the evidence regarding the questions posed has come from the first six or so chapters – so I am hoping that the weekend will see you all curled up with your copy of ‘My Brother Jack’ and getting to the end of it.

I have just finished viewing the miniseries. Ken thinks you will enjoy it – he did. He chose to watch not just because there was nothing else on, but because it is genuinely good. So, I’m looking forward to the comments you will have to make on this subject. I don’t want to give too much away this early in the piece.

You will not need to give up your whole lunch on Thursday and Friday. Episode 1 runs for 90 minutes (so, with set up time etc if you start at 1:40pm you should have it watched by the end of the day). On Friday we will just run for as long as is needed (perhaps 15 minutes into lunch).

I have been giving the SAC task a great deal of thought and I am sure that it is going to focus on characterisation and/or ommissions. This will make much more sense for you when you see the series.

So, those of you who actually come along and read the notes that are provided here will have a bit of an advantage; you will at least know what to take notes on while watching. Well, there needs to be some positives of spending your internet time reading the rambling notes of your teacher.

I will be posting some specific questions on the LMS forum so pop over there to engage in dialogue with other members of your class.

Stay tuned for further updates as they come to hand.

ttfn. Mrs B

P.S. Thanks to Linzi and Hayley for responding to the Week 1 Forum; thanks to Tyler & John for testing the function of the forum on Welcome; and finally thanksyou to Tom for becoming a member of the wikispace. I am beginning to feel heard, instead of suffering from ‘empty room syndrome’. Please leave a comment so that I know you have visited. You never know there could be material gain for you if you do.

Literature 2009 begins

Now that we are back to school I know how eager we all are to get right into the study of our Literature texts. We will begin with ‘My Brother Jack’, then move to the poetry of the Romantics with a special focus on the work of John Keats and then move to the play ‘Antigone’. To finish our study this year we will conclude with ‘Frankenstein’. It will be an action packed year, so make sure you have the preliminary reading done!

Never in the history of Literature at TSC has the class been edging toward 20 students, this will provide us with the opportunity for much stimulating conversation (a Freudian slip?) and there will be the opportunity to hear many interpretations of each of the texts studied. Of course on the down side, it means that you will not always have such individual attention and at times you may be frustrated by other members of the class who have opposing views. But, when this does occur, try to think of the breadth of human experience you have available to you and use this to your advantage – the study of Literature is about understanding the experiences of being human and looking outside that which you know; that which you are familiar with.

As you read through this blog you will notice that some of the texts you have studied have been studied before, make use of the notes and comments made by previous students, build your repertoire of analysis and consider the ideas that they have had, perhaps even try to answer the questions they have posed.

Please remember that his blog is to support you in your study of Literature and that it is not created to add to the burden of your work load but rather to be a place to come and express your own understandings, concerns, questions and insights.

I am so excited to be part of the journey you are about to embark upon and am looking forward to sharing in the joy of Literature.

Podcasting and exam prep

I have just completed listening to the podcasts that have been created in class this week. You are to be congratulated on the way that you are modelling how to develop an interpretation of a poem. The readings that you have or are in the process of developing are plausible and the connections that are beginning to be made between poems is the stuff that makes my heart race.

I will have the podcasts ready to be published by the end of the week. Please make use of these resources by referring to these in your preparation for the final exam.

When writing about the poetry, write about what it is that Keats values and how he sees the world rather than an explanation of wrods or images (this is fine when trying to work out what it all means, but the analytical essay needs to focus on the views and values of Keats). Create charts of the various views and values and group the various poems under these headings, then write about the contrast or link bewteen the images that have been created in thses groups. In this way you will avoid that line by line explication of the poetry. this is the biggest trap when writing on poems so be very aware of its existence.

I will post some more study tips throughout the holidays, so keep in touch.

It’s back to Keats

Over the next term we will be studying various lyrical poems of John Keats. We will look at some of his Odes and two of his extended poems.
The first of these is ‘The Eve of St Agnes’. Visit: www.vceliterature.wikispaces.com for some links to help you with your introduction to this poem.

Year 11 Exam feedback

Overall, I was impressed.
There was the initial fear of seeing that there was in fact no specific question as there is in English, even though I has given you this statement in the weeks leading up to the exam. Do you remember looking at the three ‘Washington Square’ passages in class – you know the ones that we looked at through Freudian lenses? Well, anyway, the fear has now been addressed and you now know exactly what the Unit 3/4 exam will look like and what you need to do in order to write a ‘plausible’ interpretation.
Once you warmed to the demands of the task, most of you did really well. You used the information contained in the passages to develop a sense of the way the author developed character and relationships. What we need to do now is focus on the way in which the author uses language to convey specific views and values. This aspect of the task was addressed by only one of you. She spoke of the place of women in America in the 1850s and how James had set this in his novel. This is the stuff that warms my heart.
Mostly, you identified the use of specific language techniques (those infernal ‘Literary Jewels’). I know you were struggling to find them; as we discussed in the post-exam debrief in the corridor.
We will have a more detailed discussion regarding this task in class on Wednesday. (I had mentioned that we would be looking at Keats however, this has been delayed until Friday). Please bring your exam responses with you so that you can use these as a basis for the discussion we will have (sounding familiar). Unit 3 students will be given the passages and will provide us with their take on these in preparation for the response they will write through the week. Unit 1 students will complete the passage they didn’t do in the exam.
See ya
ttfn,
Mrs B

Film Task – Unit 3

Using the 3 passages that you have previously responded to, write an analysis that studies how meaning changes when the form of the text changes.

Use the outline provided in the previous blog entry. remeber to use the passages as your point of reference. For example in passage one what do we learn of the relationship between Catherine and her father? Does this relationship change throughout the text? Is there evidence of this in the remaining two passages? Does the film support this interpretation? If so, how? If not, how does the meaning change and how is this conveyed to the viewer?

Many people have touched on the ‘red satin dress’ and that it does not appear in the film even though it does appear on the cover of the dvd. These respones though have only hinted at what the red dress is representative of. Explore this in some detail. Examine too that the film may not include the same object yet does it convey the key aspect of Catherine’s character using different means?

The task is to be completed in 80 minutes so please don’t labour on it. It is to be draft, not a polished piece. I need to see your thinking. I will not be formally assessing this piece of work. You recieve a S or N (that is done / not done) so don’t become overly stressed.

What comes next – Back to Keats’s poetry: ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ will be explored on Wednesday 18th June. so bring your books along.
Contact me if you need to.
ttfn.

Responding to adaptations

When discussing if or how meaning changes when the form of the text changes you need to determine what the meaning of the original text is. What do you think are the central themes? In the film are these themes shown or does the director focus on what you consider to be the minor elements? How are the character represented in the novel? Refer to the character charts you have completed and the summary sheets provided by each of the groups nominated to analyse character. Are the choices of the director for the casting of the characters consistent with the way you imagined the characters? Perhaps a Venn diagram will help you to clearly depict what is represented in the novel and the film.

Structure:

Introduction.
State whether you agree that meaning changes when the form of the text changes.
Mention who wrote the novel and when, even state where the story is set as this can impact on understanding if the adaptation alters or changes the setting.
State who constructed the adaptation of the original text and the form that it has taken.
Identify the central themes as you see them in the original text.
Contrast with the adaptation, are they the same or different?
Consitancy of the characterisation.

(Each of the last three ideas need only be mentioned briefly as these ideas will be the focus of each of your body paragraphs).

Body Paragraph 1:
Themes are the focus of this paragraph. Write a topic sentence that identifies the key themes of the text.
Now start using the information and evidence from the novel that allows you to recognise these themes. Speak about the author and his intentions using the text to show how you arrived at this answer.

Body paragraph 2:
The adapted text. Does this show the same themes? Construct a topic sentence.
Expand on this by discussing the following: Does it only focus on one of the lesser themes as you have identified them? How has the director altered these, if he/she has? Speak about the inclusion of specific details and then the omissions that aid the alteration of the key concerns.
The mis en scene that is all the details that are included in each of the frames. The repetition of symbols or motifs. Explain their use and the aspects of the original text that led the director to do this. If there are no clues say so, and make an informed decision as to why they have been included.

Body Paragraph 3:
§ Identify the key characters in a topic sentence.
§ The way in which the key characters are represented. Who are the characters in the original text? What are their views, values and significantly what do they stand for?
§ Does the adapted text maintain these ideas? If not, what changes and in whom? If so, how has the director ensured that there are consistencies between the texts?

Conclusion:
Restate your point of view.
Summaries the arguments you have presented and the way in which change has taken place.
You could end with a significant quote that you believe encapsulates the themes of the texts (one that they both share perhaps).

Character #2

So, now that we have had a look at Catherine, it’s time for us to have a closer look at the people closest to her, namely: Austin, Morris and Aunt Lavinia.
Firstly, her father – Doctor Austin Sloper.
Already we have had numerous conversations about Dr Sloper. We have discussed his attitudes toward Catherine and to some extent to women ‘the imperfect sex’. We have discussed his perceptions of Morris and of himself.

By the end of chapter 3 the reader has the sense that Dr Sloper is insensitive. James has commented upon the relationships of the characters and described the family portrait in terms of what we do not always see when viewing a portrait, by providing insight to the inner self of each of the characters. He is able to do this through the use of repetition and comparison.

• See if you can’t find some examples of this technique and comment these back to me.

As a father Sloper is dominant and proud. He is brilliant in terms of his intellect and success in his chosen career and his social success, in fact he is a kind of ‘celebrity’. As a man he is practical and scientific and this is emphasised through his philosophical attitude and approach to people and his relationships – he presents facts and reason; he does not become involved in emotion and as such clearly lacks sympathy. He is clinical and when we study the language he is reported to use when describing or evaluating others he often includes medical / clinical terminology, for example when he speaks of Morris Townsend as being ‘anatomically correct’. It is this sense of detachment and 20 years experience of summing up character that provides him with such accuracy in his estimation of people, he seems to be almost physic.

He measures Catherine against his wife in terms of beauty and intelligence and she comes up short. It is the harshness and brutality with which he states these short comings that helps to create such a strong sense of sympathy in the reader towards ‘our heroine’ – Catherine Sloper. Doctor Sloper almost takes delight in the fear Catherine has of him. The knowledge that his daughter fears him gave him the power within himself to be feared.

The reader desires Morris to be a suitable match for Catherine in the hope of proving Dr Sloper wrong. As the story develops and Sloper is more assured in his evaluation of the type of man Townsend is, the reader grows in their need for him to be in love with Catherine. It is this that creates the sense of melodrama. As Sloper continues to toy with the emotions of Catherine in the vain effort to prove himself to be ‘right’, reader sympathy rapidly declines to a sense of loathing. This loathing grows in such intensity that there is a sense of relief for Catherine when we learn of his passing. It is Catherine who is seen to have power at the close of the novel, as she has accepted herself and is comfortable in her own skin, she has her own life pattern in spite of her father and her happiness is no longer dependant upon recieving love – she is content. She has won the battle of the wills.

Share with me your perception of Austin Sloper. Have I been to harsh / not harsh enough? Have I accounted for his grief? Let me know.

ttfn,

Mrs B

Uncategorized | Comment (0)