A-level English Literature

I want you post your answers on the blog.

Look at the questions from p2+p3 of your World War Literature Booklet and answer, using reference to evidence in the poems.

Post answers on the blog before you come to lessons on 1st July 2011

This is the cover work for Ms Ware’s lesson on Friday 10th June, period 2.

You need to use the link below to research key aspects of World War One.  This will give you vital context for understanding the poetry and prose we will be studying in the next few weeks, and for finding your own areas of interest for the coursework reading you will be doing over the summer.

1. Read this article about the western front and the birth of total war:

2. Use this interactive link to research World War One and its impact.  You need to do the following:

a. Watch chapter 1 (Volunteering and recruitment).  Ensure that you explore the links at the end as well (diary entries / poetry etc.).  Write down 5 things you have learnt from this section.

b. Watch chapter 3 (Life in the Trenches).  As above, make sure you explore the links at the end too.  Write down 10 things you have learnt from this section.

c. Add a comment to this post, listing the 15 things you have learnt.  Comments will not appear on the blog until all tasks have been submitted, to ensure there’s no copying!

All due by the end of the school day on Friday 10th June (3.30pm)

We’re going to be studying narrative poetry as well as novels.  I want you to think about how songs and poems can tell stories, sometimes in ways just as interesting as those used in novels.

Task 1:

I want you to find a song that tells a story, and write a comment on this post in which you:

• post a link to the song (if it has swearing etc, please look for a radio-friendly version!)
• write an analysis of the narrative techniques, using the terminology you’ve already learnt about narrative.

I’ve done an example below, with technical terminology relating to narrative form and structure, so you know what sort of thing I’m looking for.  You need to pick a song that does tell a story, not just describe a feeling. 

Due: Tuesday January 18th

Ms Ware’s sample analysis:

‘Stan’ by Eminem:

Click above for the song on YouTube.  I think the video for this song confuses the narrative slightly, as it presents Dido (singing the chorus) as a character in the story, namely Stan’s girlfriend.  This doesn’t seem to me to square totally with the lyrics to the chorus, which suggest Stan’s thoughts about Slim Shady (Eminem’s alter ego).  However, it does add a third voice to the 2 voices already in the song – Slim Shady and Stan.  Both voices are sung by Eminem, which is a clever twist given that Stan idolises Slim Shady and wants to be like him.

The song is an epistolary narrative, entirely constructed (with the exception of the chorus) via a series of letters from Stan to Slim and finally from Slim back to Stan.  This means that, throughout, a 1st person narrative is used, with the listener getting an insight into the thoughts and feelings of both characters, but particularly Stan. 

The chorus functions as a way to break up the letters and signal the stages in Stan’s escalating obsession with Slim.  Each letter becomes a long verse within the overall structure of the song.  The first letter is positive and enthusiastic about Slim, while still showing clear signs of Stan’s obsession.  The second becomes more bitter about Slim’s lack of reply and shows clearer signs of Stan’s behaviour becoming dangerous, with the reference to self-harming.  This creates tension for the listener.

The final letter from Stan is dictated into a cassette dictaphone and the tone becomes increasingly violent and unhinged, with higher incidence of taboo lexis and repetitive, unstructured sentence structure: ‘I hope… I hope… I hope…’.  This final ’letter’ presents some problems for the listener as Stan’s car plunges into the river as he’s recording it, making it unrealistic that we would ever hear it. However, we are likely to ‘suspend disbelief’ at this point, and the final letter from Slim back to Stan makes it clear that he has never heard it, making us feel like we were present with Stan in the car as he spoke – a typical convention of a first person narrative.  This also creates dramatic irony as we hear Slim’s letter, as we know that Stan and his girlfriend are already dead.  This dramatic irony continues until the very last lines, where Slim finally connects Stan with the story on the news:  ’Come to think about, his name was.. it was you / Damn!’  This revelation ends the song.  The video chooses to extend the narrative further, with the hint that Stan’s son may be becoming like him  equally obsessed with Slim.  This creates less of a sense of closure.

Task 2:

Thanks for posting your songs and analysis – it’s good to see such a wide range of genres and narrative techniques represented.

What I want you to do this week is:

1. Pick someone’s analysis – click the link in their comment and listen to the song, then read their narrative analysis.  (Rufus and Avini, you’re not allowed to do each other’s!).  If someone has already written a comment on a post, you have to pick a different one – I want everyone to have at least one comment (feel free to comment on more than one song).
2. Post a new comment, in which you:
   • add anything extra that you can identify about the narrative techniques and structure in the song (and the video if relevant, though I’d like us to focus more on the songs).  You might want to look up the lyrics, though be aware that lyric sites tend to have a lot of pop ups, so make sure you have a good pop-up blocker if you do this!
   • say something positive – something you agree with in their analysis, for example.
   • Offer alternative perspectives where relevant
   • If you disagree with something in the analysis, do say so, but please do this sensitively (see my example below) and don’t do this more than once.
   • Ask the person who did the original post a question, to get them to develop their ideas further, or to get them to offer an interpretation of the song.

I’ve given a sample comment below, in which I do all of the above.

Due before the lesson on Monday 24th January

This is part of the Christmas homework for Ms Ware’s group.  While you’re here, don’t forget to go to the emagazine link, enter the password you were given and follow the instructions on the page to access the subscription resources on the emagazine site. 

Act 5 Scene 2 homework:

Please do the task listed next to your name by posting a comment below.  Copy the question at the start of your comment, so everyone reading can see what you’re discussing.  Your response must be detailed and include quotations from the text.  Where 2 of you are listed, the second person posting must give an alternative reading (even if you personally agree with the first post!)

Emilia:

Kamala: How does Emilia react to Othello (with reference to Desdemona’s death) and what impact does this have on the audience? 

Silvana: How does Emilia react to Iago and what impact does this have on the audience?  To what extent do you find her a tragic figure at the end of the play?

Laurence: What is Emilia’s role in causing or resolving the tragedy?  Refer to this scene primarily but also to previous scenes.  Use relevant terminology if possible.

Desdemona:

Ayse: How does Desdemona react to Othello and what impression of her character is created? 

Tom: How is dramatic tension created for the audience during Desdemona’s death?  How is a sense of tragedy created for the audience?

Iago:

Harry: Iago says very little in this scene.  Most of what he does say is to Emilia – what do you notice about this?  How is it similar or different to what we have seen from Iago previously? 

Chloe: Why do you think Shakespeare gives Iago so little to say in this scene, compared to the amount we have seen before?  What is the effect of his final words to Othello?

Rufus: How do the other characters speak about and to Iago in this scene?  How is this similar or different to previous scenes?  What patterns of language and imagery do you notice? 

Othello:

Sophie: Look at how Othello speaks on pages 247 to 251, after he has learned of his error.  How do the audience respond to him at this point?  How do the other characters seem to respond to him?

Matthew and Jack (whoever posts second, I’d like you to disagree with an aspect of the first post and show an alternative opinion / reading): Look at Othello’s final words and actions on page 253. To what extent do these redeem him in the eyes of (a) the other characters and (b) the audience?  Does Othello achieve anagnorisis or not?

The ending overall:

Peter and Avini (whoever posts second, I’d like you to disagree with an aspect of the first post and show an alternative opinion / reading): Consider all the things that happen in the scene.  Is this an exciting climax to the tragedy, or does it slip into melodrama?  Which aspects are problematic?  What aspects of a performance might affect the way an audience responds?

Avril and Louis (whoever posts second, I’d like you to disagree with an aspect of the first post and show an alternative opinion / reading): Do you think there is a sense of catharsis at the end of the play or not?  Why / why not?  Consider also why Shakespeare ends the play with Lodovico and not another character.

Welcome to English Literature at APS, and to the English Literature blog.  During your English course, we will be using this blog in a number of ways: to set homework tasks; to spark online discussion about texts; to show you good websites and online resources that we’ve found; to communicate information with you and to enable you to communicate productively with each other and with us beyond the classroom.

During this lesson / homework, please start by following the links either at the top or in the sidebar, to read about the course and our expectations of you.  It is particularly important that you understand our expectations of you at the start, and that is why we are also asking you to sign the contract and return it to us.

Then leave a comment on this post letting us know a bit about you as an English student.  Answer the following questions:

• What was your favourite part of GCSE English / Literature and why? 
• What are your favourite books and why?
• What film or theatre production have you enjoyed recently and why?
• Lastly, what do you think of the blog so far – what ideas do you have for how it could be used / what we could add to it?  Please be constructively critical, not rude!

If you finish all that, look at the links page to explore some excellent websites about English, or browse some of the earlier posts, which will give you a taster of some of the texts and tasks you will be looking at over the next two years…

Attached are copies of the revision guide and sample questions that you should have received from your teachers.  You can also visit the resource links on this blog, and this link to the old Gothic blog, set up for students studying the old OCR spec. There is some useful stuff on Frankenstein here.

Work hard over half term and remember this is a closed text exam, so you need to know all 3 texts very well!

Revision tips and guidance

Sample questions section A

Sample questions section B

This work is all on my door as well.  I don’t have an electronic copy of task 1, so you’ll have to get that off my door.  In the unlikely event that you’re not in school tomorrow, you’ll need to speak to someone about who the characters are and make your own sheet for task 1.  The first 2 tasks need to be completed ready for the next lesson.

1. Complete the ‘Lambs and Tigers’ worksheet by deciding whether each character is a lamb or a tiger and putting appropriate quotations in box on the appropriate side of the sheet.  If you think they are both lamb and tiger, write evidence in both boxes. (due by Wednesday 19^th in the lesson)
2. Complete the ‘comparing the cat stories’ table attached below (due by Wednesday 19^th in the lesson)
3. Read ‘The Lady of the House of Love’ (due by Tuesday May 25^th)

Comparing the cat-beast stories

Ms Peleties’ Year 12 were asked to read Christina Rossetti and create visual representations of individual poems. Here are some of their Powerpoint and youtube interpretations of Rossetti’s poems. Enjoy!

A Royal Princess  Karine Powell

Winter: My Secret Alexandra Goldenberg

Goblin Market  Eliot Scott Faulkner

Goblin Market Nicole McCracken

Goblin Market Emma Robbins

Lara Lindo Winter: My Secret

Maude Clare  Laura Bretman

Goblin Market  Ellie King

The Convent Threshold Amy Frohock

This post contains preparatory work for reading ‘The Werewolf’ and the other 2 wolf stories at the end of the collection

1. Read Perrault’s version of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ here, and then also read the version by the Brothers Grimm and at least one other version from the same link. What differences are there between versions? What ideas or morals might this story in its different versions be trying to present? You should also read the Wikipedia entry here which gives you more useful background on the tale and will help you answer my questions above.

2. Now read the tale ‘The Werewolf’ from The Bloody Chamber. Answer the following questions:

• What do you notice about the setting and the people and how these are described? What is the significance of this?
• What do you notice about the style of narrative? Who might the narrative voice be, for example? What register is used in telling the tale? Who is it being told to?
• What similarities and differences do you notice between this and the source texts you have read (above)? What might Carter be suggesting in her retelling? What do you think of the ending?

Huge apologies for my absence from all your lessons this week.  You should have done the work reading and annotating the end of ‘Paradise Lost’ – please have that ready for Monday 22nd March.  You should also have done the following essay by this date (this was on the door with the cover work)

To what extent would you agree that Sin and Death are too exaggerated as characters to be truly engaging?

As we will now need to use at least one lesson next week on finishing off ‘Paradise Lost’, please do some preparation work on ‘The Bloody Chamber’ for your homework.  The work below is due by Tuesday March 23rd.

1. Read Perrault’s version of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ here, and then also read the version by the Brothers Grimm and at least one other version from the same link.  What differences are there between versions? What ideas or morals might this story in its different versions be trying to present?  You should also read the Wikipedia entry here which gives you more useful background on the tale and will help you answer my questions above.

2. Now read the tale ’The Werewolf’ from The Bloody Chamber. Answer the following questions:

• What do you notice about the setting and the people and how these are described?  What is the significance of this?
• What do you notice about the style of narrative? Who might the narrative voice be, for example? What register is used in telling the tale? Who is it being told to?
• What similarities and differences do you notice between this and the source texts you have read (above)? What might Carter be suggesting in her retelling?  What do you think of the ending?