Hamlet
When was Hamlet written?
1601-1604ish
What recurring setting dominates Samuel Wagan Watson’s poetry?
Urban cityscapes
What narrative POV dominates the opening of Atonement?
3rd person limited (Briony)
What is the effect of antithesis?
It creates contrast between opposing ideas to highlight tension or complexity.
What is wrong with this topic sentence?
“Hamlet challenges many ideas about society.”
Problem = vague, no engagement with question or concept.
Fix = specify the idea + align with question (e.g., ideology, representation, power).
Who is Polonius?
Advisor to Claudius
Father to Ophelia & Laertes
How does Watson use imagery to represent Indigenous experience in the city?
Through dark, fragmented, and often haunting imagery that reveals marginalisation and cultural dislocation.
“There was something rather formal about the way he stood…”
What does this reveal about Briony?
She imposes narrative conventions (romance, structure) onto reality, revealing her tendency to fictionalise events.
What is epiplexis?
Repeated rhetorical questions
What is the difference between:
The second recognises representation as constructed, not inherent truth.
"Frailty, thy name is woman!"
Identify the technique and what it reveals
Apostrophe.
misogynistic assumptions embedded in patriarchal Renaissance thought, linking women with moral weakness.
How does Watson construct a macabre or unsettling aesthetic?
Through imagery of decay, violence, and urban corruption, often combined with disjointed structure and tone.
How does the opening reflect a postmodern concern with truth?
Through focalisation and subjective interpretation, it suggests that truth is constructed rather than objective.
What is the effect of minimal punctuation in Watson’s poetry?
Creates flow and ambiguity, reflecting disorientation and lack of control.
rejects westernised systems
What is intertextuality?
The way texts reference, echo, or respond to other texts, shaping meaning.
How does Hamlet reflect tension between medieval and Renaissance worldviews?
Medieval = divine order, revenge duty; Renaissance = individual doubt, introspection, moral ambiguity.
Explain how Watson’s poetry engages with Australian national identity.
It critiques dominant narratives by exposing colonial violence, cultural erasure, and the exclusion of Indigenous perspectives.
Why is Briony’s commitment to structure and neatness ideologically significant?
It reflects a desire to impose control on reality, mirroring broader anxieties about truth, authorship, and moral responsibility.
What is the effect of sibilance in poetry?
Creates a hissing or whispering sound, often suggesting tension, secrecy, or something sinister.
What is meant by “audience positioning” and what two types of audience responses are there?
How a text influences the audience’s attitudes, emotions, or beliefs through its construction.
Emotional or intellectual.
How does Shakespeare use the technique of soliloquy to reflect “changing ways of thinking about the world”?
Soliloquies foreground introspection and individual consciousness, reflecting a shift toward Renaissance humanism and internal conflict rather than fixed moral certainty.
How does Watson challenge the dominant discourse?
By foregrounding Indigenous perspectives and resisting mainstream representations, his poetry destabilises accepted narratives of Australia.
How does the opening construct Briony’s worldview as dangerous rather than merely imaginative?
Her rigid adherence to narrative order leads her to misinterpret reality, demonstrating how storytelling can distort truth and cause harm.
“Like Niobe, all tears
O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourn’d longer!”
Identify two techniques and then explain which technique is the most effective at critiquing Gertrude.
Allusion
Metaphor
How can aesthetic features function ideologically?
They can reinforce or destabilise hegemonic ways of thinking.