Texts and Human Experiences
Billy Elliot is directed by?
Stephen Daldry
Name all 5 Henry Lawson stories
'The Drover’s Wife’
‘The Union Buries its Dead’
‘Shooting the Moon’
‘Our Pipes’
‘The Loaded Dog’
Which text do we study for Module B?
The collection of poetry by Oodgeroo Noonuccal
Name the 2 texts (and composers) studied in this module
"The Surfer" by Judith Wright
"Funeral Service of The Unknown Australian Soldier" by Paul Keating
Define a paradox
A self contradictory idea, statement, phrase etc
What is the main human experience in Billy Elliot?
Navigating his pursuit of ballet dancing in a hypermasculine society
What kind of representation does Lawson make about bush life
Realistic representation: he aimed to convey the realistic hardships and struggle of bush culture
List all 7 poems studied in this module
The Past
China...Woman
Reed Flute Cave
Entombed Warriors
Visit to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall
Sunrise on Huampu River
A Lake Within a Lake
Reflect on your writing process and how the prescribed texts have influenced your writing style
Define 'universal human experience'. Provide 1 example
Human experiences that are experienced by everyone despite context.
Examples include:
- Death
- Life
- Grief
- Happiness
What contextual period is Billy Elliot set in?
1980s England during a turbulent political period due to the miner's strike - Thatcher
Name this story: Two swagmen share a story about when they stayed at a local pub and tried to leave without paying
Shooting the Moon
Kathleen Walker
Name 2 key idea/ theme from "The Surfer"
The duality of nature and humanity's relationship with nature
List 5 imaginative writing techniques
- Simile
- Metaphor
- Juxtaposition
- Sensory imagery
- Emotive language
- Personification
What qualities/ characteristics does this scene convey about Billy?
Resilience, persistence and determination,
Which story is this quote from: "We put the billy of tea and our tucker-bags between the heads of our beds, and the pipes and tobacco in the crown of an old hat..."
Our Pipes
"...is an important portrait of the conflicted identity of an Indigenous woman who deeply values her cultural heritage. This helps the reader understand the lasting impact of colonisation on Indigenous people and appreciate their deep connectedness to the natural world."
Which poem am I?
The Past
Give a definition of discursive texts
Texts whose primary focus is to explore an idea or variety of topics. These texts involve the discussion of an idea(s) or opinion(s) without the direct intention of persuading the reader.
Provide 3 characteristics of bush culture
- Barren
- Isolated
- Poverty
- Unforgiving landscape
What assumptions does the town have and what causes these assumptions?
The masculine mining community shaped community assumptions that males who wanted to be dancers were ‘sissy’ or homosexual.
Which specific identity is being explored in 'The union Buried it's Dead'
The collective loyalty of 'Unionism'
What is a distinctive quality of Oodgeroo's poetry?
Having an Aboriginal spiritual connection, in China
Name 3 key ideas/ themes from "The Funeral of the Unknown Australian Soldier"
- Sacrifice
- Mateship
- Reverence
- Aussie spirit
- Remembrance
- Suffering
Provide 3 values of Henry lawson which are now associated with ideas of 'Australianness'
- Stoicism
- Resourcefulness
- Egalitarianism
- Resilience
- Mateship
- Independence
List 3 pieces of evidence from the following scene
Non-diegetic music, chiaroscuro lighting, tracking shot, symbolism of the cage, motif, wide shot,
"The story opens with an image of a run-down house surrounded by bushland. It is a long way to the nearest township. Lawson builds on this initial image..."
Which story am I?
The Drover's Wife
- The poem deals with themes of unity and nature.
- The poem suggests that nature has the power to evoke images of the past.
- It meditates on then connection between peoples around the world through the spirit of nature.
- She wonders how the Rainbow Serpent can be in China and decides there must be more than one, each being a guardian ‘of earth’s peoples.’
Which poem am I?
Reed Flute Cave
- Anaphora
- Rhetorical Question
- Inclusive language
- Exclusive language
- High modality
- Ethos
-Pathos
-Logos
Provide 2 quotes and techniques from: the common module, module A and module B
Common Module:
- "You're a disgrace to them gloves, your father and the traditions of this boxing hall" = negative connotations
- "like there is a fire in my body...flying...like a bird. Like electricity" = simile
Module A:
- "Bush all around - bush with no horizon, for the country is flat" = imagery
- "He was almost a stranger in town, and the fact of his having been a Union man accounted for the funeral" = symbolism
Module B:
- "Let no one say the past is dead" = metaphor
- "My Rainbow Serpent, My Earth Mother" = personal pronoun
Provide an example of the following techniques from Billy Elliot:
- Paradox
- Anomaly
- Inconsistency
- Billy’s actions and desires to be a Ballet dancer are paradoxical to his context given he is raised in a patriarchal and conservative mining community
- The positioning of a ballet class in the same place as a boxing class is an inconsistency to the gender values of the context.
- Billy is an anomaly as he does not conform to societal expectations of boxing.
Which Lawson story does this belong to?
"Being swagmen, they know the difficulties of living in the outback and are natural companions to one another. Mitchell endured many difficulties when he first started to smoke however, he was not only persistent..."
Shooting the Moon
- This poem explores a symbol of how one person’s voice can change the world, expel injustice, and tear down societal structures.
- The poem reminds us of ‘The Past’ due to its strong links to the past, our heritage and how our present is the legacy of that which came before.
- The poem allows us to reflect on how poets can create cross- cultural connections through exploration of culture, so that these may be shared and understood more universally.
- This poem explores a celebration in the present, but a resonation from the past. A tangible ripple that was caused by one man.
Which poem am I?
A Visit to Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hall
List 3 key aspects/ elements that you should have in a reflection.
- Quotes and techniques from your own creative
- Quotes and techniques from a Mod C prescribed text
- The purpose of your creative writing (what idea you are conveying)
List 5 'tips'/ things to keep in mind when sitting the short answer section of the exam.
- 2 minutes per mark
- Stick to your time limit
- Read the question before the text
- Annotate extracts as you read
- Don't waste your reading time = read the longest extract
Provide a thesis (point of argument) for this question and Billy Elliot:
"To what extent are texts culturally significant due to their explorations of the complex emotions and qualities that define humanity?"
To a large extent, "Billy Elliot" explores the complexity of individuals who do not conform to societal standards of masculinity, accentuating the paradoxical nature of adversity in revealing the strength of the human spirit..."
Explain how Lawson uses Humour in his stories and for what purpose.
Lawson uses language to communicate a distinctively Australian sense of humour. Being able to find humour in difficult or absurd circumstances became a way of building resilience and coping with the unforgiving circumstances of bush culture
Which poem uses the 'something' to symbolise:
- Justice for those that were subjugated to imperial rule
- Cultures survival within the bones of earth in spite of the destruction of man
- Hope for her people in the future, as her culture will survive on
- The coming reckoning and exposure of truth to the empire which condemned her people
- Her forgiveness and trust in her culture
'Something' = Terracotta Warriors
Entombed Warriors
Name 4 techniques in this extract:
"Because the Great War was a mad, brutal, awful struggle, distinguished more often than not by military and political incompetence; because the waste of human life was so terrible that some said victory was scarcely discernible from defeat; and because the war which was supposed to end all wars in fact sowed the seeds of a second, even more terrible, war - we might think this Unknown Soldier died in vain"
- Tricolon
- Inclusive language
- Emotive language
- Sibilance
State at 3 techniques that belong to each of the following text types (you cannot list the same technique for more then 1 text type):
- Speeches
- Poems
- Feature article
- Prose fiction
- Visual
- Speeches: rhetorical question, inclusive language, repetition
- Poems: caesura, enjambment, imagery
- Feature article: conversational tone, anecdotes, positive/ negative connotations
- Prose fiction: emotive language, personification, flashbacks
- Visual: salient, vector lines, juxtaposition