Module+B+Advanced

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 * Module B: Critical Study of Texts **

**__Developing a personal response to a text __** 


 * From p. 20 //English Stage 6 Prescriptions//

This module requires students to **__engage with and develop an informed personal understanding__** of their prescribed text. Through critical analysis and evaluation of its language, content and construction, students will develop an appreciation of the textual integrity of their prescribed text. They **__ refine their own understanding and interpretations of the prescribed text and critically consider these in the light of the perspectives of others __**. Students explore how context influences their own and others’ responses to the text and how the text has been received and valued.
 * Module B: Critical Study of Texts **

Refer to p. 52 of Syllabus  || ** Developing an informed personal response  ** “The unity of a text; its coherent use of form and language to produce an integrated whole in terms of meaning and value.” (p145 Syllabus) Textual integrity can be implied in comments such as: - The way Shakespeare develops the idea of death brings closure to the plot of //Hamlet//. - Ondaatje privileges the voice of the minority culture in his novel by using multiple narratives thus his structure reinforces his central idea. - Shakespeare uses his subplot to support the events of the main plot. - The puppet metaphor cleverly imagines Ondaatje’s concern that the migrants were silenced by the dominant culture. - Images of death and decay are utilised throughout //Hamlet//, working to reinforce Hamlet’s world as disordered and corrupt. - Ondaatje frequently associates the symbolism of light in the novel with the women in Patrick’s life, signifying the hope that love and connection give him.
 * 1) **  What is ‘an informed personal understanding’ of a text’?  **
 * your own interpretation/reading of a text which is constructed from critical analysis and evaluation of language, content and construction
 * 1) **  What does ‘critical analysis and evaluation’ mean?  **
 * making judgments about a text based on careful and considered appraisal of its qualities
 * 1) **  What is textual integrity?  **
 * the wholeness or soundness of a text
 * look for patterns in the text
 * 1)  How can you refine your ‘own understanding and interpretation of the prescribed text and critically consider these in the light of the perspectives of others’?
 * Test your reading against what other readers say
 * Use what others say to reinforce, broaden or challenge your reading
 * Others’ perspectives can include a director of a film version or play, a critic, or someone else you know who has made a considered reading of the text.

What you are doing when you interpret the text is ascribing value (relevance/ importance/the meaning derived) to it. A text can be valued (found to be relevant/meaningful) in so many different ways, by different readers, in differing contexts. A feminist critic would place value on the representation of women in a text, whereas a post-colonial reading privileges (values) the voice of the minor colonised culture. The value that //you// attribute to the text is affected by different contextual influences.
 * 1)  How does context influence your response to the text and how the text has been received and valued by others?

The way we read a text, the meaning we derive from it and the value we ascribe to it are influenced by established ways of thinking about some aspects of the world and our cultural contexts (D Eldridge). So, what I do in this module is think…
 * Pulling this together: **

** This is how I value the text but my understanding of it can be broadened or challenged by considering the perspectives of others who are reading the text or ascribing value to it from a different position or context. **

1. What is the text really about (for me)? What makes it so tragic or so meaningful, for instance? A good place to start is the key ideas. 2. Why do I respond to it in this way? After all, a feminist responds to //In the Skin of a Lion// in a certain way because she/he is a feminist. What is your reason? What about your world (immediate and global) positions you to respond to the text in this way? 3. How is my response different to the way a Shakespearean audience would have responded? Explain your reasons. 4. What characters and central ideas could I use to support an explanation of my reading? 5. What scenes/episodes should I address to support my reading? Specific explanations of the narrative, quotes. 6. What dramatic or narrative conventions are used in these to influence the way I respond to the text? Play close attention to narrative or dramatic patterns here as they help you to understand the main ideas in the text. 7. How can I broaden my understanding of the text (my reading) by testing it against the way others interpret it? 8. What is the real purpose of my reading? What am I trying to prove about the text and the way it can be valued/appreciated/understood?
 * So…key questions to ask yourself when preparing your reading: **
 * Preparing your reading: **
 * 1. What is the text really about (for me)? What makes it universal, valuable or transcendent?

Because…. ||  ||  …….. thinks that the text is…………..
 * 2. What about your world/context (immediate and global) positions you to respond to the text in this way?
 * 3. How is my response different to the way others around me may respond?

……..context influences him/her in that…….. ||  ||   ||
 * 4. What characters and central ideas could I use to support an explanation of my reading?
 * 5. What scenes/episodes/chapters should I address to support my reading? Specific explanations of the narrative, quotes.
 * 6. What dramatic or narrative conventions are used in these to influence the way I respond to the text? Pay close attention to narrative or dramatic patterns here as they help you to understand the main ideas in the text.

I can evaluate textual integrity by …… || After I read/listened to…..I found that…..reinforces my reading because…..
 * 7. Who can I use to inform my reading? (Could be critical, extensive research, film for Shakespeare)

The director of……privileges…..and that informs my reading because…..

The critic……broadened……

||  ||   1.     I am induced to value Michael Ondaatje’s __In the Skin of a Lion__ in terms of its powerful and increasingly rare message of the transforming effects of love. 2.    .....as a poem to workers and lovers 3.    .....as a reminder of the redemptive power of love 4.    .....as a tribute to the transformative power of women 5.    ....as a celebration of human connection in a fragmented world, including the different relationships that develop from these connections and the transformations that can occur to people’s lives as a result OR.....by endorsing the often overlooked value of meaningful relationships in contemporary society 6.    ...as a criticism of society’s commonly accepted hero 7.    ...as a journey of identification, through which the protagonist learns that identity is constructed through reflecting on personal stories 8.    ...as the struggle of the disempowered to be heard Or   ...an evocation of the silent voice of minority cultures 9.    ...as a poetic and layered tapestry akin to a postmodern artwork 10.    ....as an acknowledgement of the importance of storytelling in our lives 1.   // Hamlet // holds universal value because it highlights the individual’s need to find truth and meaning in what can appear to be a meaningless world 2.    ...it highlights the conflict between ambition and conscience 3.    ...it is a coming of age play as the protagonist contemplates his place in changing world 4.    ...it emphasises our innate struggle between reason and passion...     5.     ...it is a play about isolation and loneliness....     6.     ...is a play about a man incapable of acting because he thinks too much 7.    Hamlet is a play about the inadequacy and impotency of sensitivity in the face of the demands of action. (Adapted from the introduction to New Cambridge version) 8.    Those who understand are loath to act. They realise that no action of theirs can work any change in the eternal conditions of things, and they regard an assertion as ludicrous or debasing that they should set right the time which is now out of joint. Understanding kills action. This, essentially, is Hamlet’s predicament. (Adapted from Nietzsche) Or, a variation on number 8, also adapted from Nietzsche: 9.    Understanding can kill action; in order to act we require the veil of illusion. It is not reflection but understanding which debars actions; ‘the apprehension of truth and its terror’. The truth once seen, man is aware everywhere of the ghastly absurdity of existence. Herein is Hamlet’s essential problem. 10.    Hamlet is the embodiment of a very special human wisdom caught between two opposing forces which were trying to complete themselves. The one force is seen in a murderous takeover of the kingdom; the other in a cry for revenge. Hamlet’s wisdom baffles both alternatives. (John Masefield)
 * 8. What is the real purpose of my reading? What am I trying to prove about the text and the way it can be valued/appreciated/understood?
 * __ Readings of //In the Skin of a Lion// that we have seen students accomplish __**
 * __ Readings of //Hamlet// that we have seen students accomplish __**
 * __ ...and some further suggestions: __**