Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Context
This module requires students to compare texts in order to explore them in relation to their contexts. It develops students’ understanding of the effects of context and questions of value.
Each elective in this module requires the study of groups of texts which are to be selected from a prescribed text list. These texts may be in different forms or media.
Students examine ways in which social, cultural and historical context influences aspects of texts, or the ways in which changes in context lead to changed values being reflected in texts. This includes study and use of the language of texts, consideration of purposes and audiences, and analysis of the content, values and attitudes conveyed through a range of readings.
Students develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions that relate to the comparative study of texts and context. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.
Elective 1: Exploring Connections
In this elective students will explore how meanings of a pair of texts can be shaped and reshaped by considering the nature of the connections between them. Exploration of the connections between the texts will enhance understanding of the values and contexts of each text. Relationships between these texts may be implicit or explicit. Connections may be established through direct or indirect references, contexts, values, ideas, and the use of language forms and features.
Students can select the following pairs of texts for comparisons:
Shakespearean Drama and Film
- Shakespeare, William: King Richard III
- Pacino, Al: Looking for Richard
Prose Fiction and Poetry
- White, Patrick: The Aunt’s Story
- Dobson, Rosemary: Selected Poems
- Young Girl at the Window
- Chance Met
- Landscape in Italy
- Azay-Le-Rideau
- The Rape of Europa
- Romantic
- Primitive Painters
Prose Fiction and Non-Fiction
- Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
- Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen
Poetry and Drama
- Donne, John: Selected Poetry
- Death be not proud
- This is my playes last scene
- At the round eaths imagin’d corners blow
- If poisonous minerals
- Hymn to God my God, in my sicknesse
- A Valediction: Forbidding mourning
- The Apparition
- The Relique
- The Sunne Rising
- Edson, Margaret: Wit
Elective 2: Texts in Time
In this elective students compare how the treatment of similar content in a pair of texts composed in different times and contexts may reflect changing values and perspectives. By considering the texts in their contexts and comparing values, ideas and language forms and features, students come to a heightened understanding of the meaning and significance of each text.
Students can select the following pairs of texts for comparisons:
Prose Fiction and Film
- Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein
- Scott, Ridley: Blade Runner
Prose Fiction and Poetry
- Fitzgerald, F Scott: The Great Gatsby
- Browning, Elizabeth Barrett: Aurora Leigh and Other Poems
- Sonnet I
- Sonnet XIII
- Sonnet XIV
- Sonnet XXI
- Sonnet XXII
- Sonnet XXVIII
- Sonnet XXXII
- Sonnet XLIII
Drama and Non-Fiction
- Albee, Edward: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
- Woolf, Virginia: A Room of One’s Own
Module B: Critical Study of Texts
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.
Shakespearean Drama
- Shakespeare, William: Hamlet
Prose Fiction
- Ondaatje, Michael: In the Skin of a Lion
- Winton, Time: Cloudstreet
- Jones, Gail: Sixty Lights
- Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Drama or Film
- Ibsen, Henrik: A Doll’s House
- Welles, Orson: Citizen Kane
Poetry
- Yeats, William Butler: W B Yeats: Poems selected by Seamus Heaney
- An Irish Airman
- When You Are Old
- Among School Children
- The Wild Swans at Coole
- Leda and the Swan
- The Second Coming
- Easter 1916
- Harwood, Gwen: Selected Poems
- Father and Child (Parts I & II)
- The Violets
- At Mornington
- A Valediction
- Triste Triste
- The Sharpness of Death
- Mother Who Gave me Life
- Slessor, Kenneth: Selected Poems
- Out of Time
- Five Bells
- Sleep
- Five Visions of Captain Cook
- Sensuality
- Elegy In A Botanical Garden
- Beach Burial
Non-Fiction
- Orwell, George: George Orwell: Essays
- Why I Write
- Notes on Nationalism
- Good Bad Books
- The Sporting Spirit
- Politics and the English Language
- Writers and Leviathan
- Speeches (can be found here)
- Atwood, Margaret: Spotty-Handed Villainesses
- Keating, Paul: Funeral Service of the Unknown Australian Soldier
- Pearson, Noel: An Australian History for Us All
- Aung San Suu Kyi: Keynote Address at the Beijing World Conference on Women
- Bandler, Faith: Faith, Hope and Reconciliation
- William, Deane: It is Still Winter at Home
- Sadat, Anwar: Speech to the Israeli Knesset
Module C: Representation and Text
This module requires students to explore various representations of events, personalities or situations. They evaluate how medium of production, textual form, perspective and choice of language influence meaning. The study develops students’ understanding of the relationships between representation and meaning.
Elective 1: Conflicting Perspectives
In their responding and composing, students consider the ways in which conflicting perspectives on events, personalities or situations are represented in their prescribed text and other related texts of their own choosing. Students analyse and evaluate how acts of representation, such as the choice of textual forms, features and language, shape meaning and influence responses.
Shakespearean Drama
- Shakespeare, William: Julius Caesar
Prose Fiction
- Guterson, David: Snow Falling on Cedars
Drama or Film
- Whelan, Peter: The Herbal Bed
- Levinson, Barry: Wag the Dog
Poetry
- Hughes, Ted: Birthday Letters
- Fulbright Scholars
- The Shot
- The Minotaur
- Sam
- Your Paris
- Red
Non-Fiction
- Robertson, Geoffrey: The Justice Game
- The Trials of Oz
- Michael X on Death Row
- The Romans in Britain
- The Prisoner of Venda
- Show Trials
- Diana in the Dock: Does Privacy Matter
- Afterward: The Justice Game
Elective 2: History and Memory
In their responding and composing, students consider their prescribed text and other texts which explore the relationships between individual memory and documented events. Students analyse and evaluate the interplay of personal experience, memory and documented evidence to broaden their understanding of how history and personal history are shaped and represented.
Prose Fiction
- Kingston, Maxine Hong: The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
- Carey, Peter: The True History of the Kelly Gang
Film
- Frears, Stephen: The Queen
Poetry
- Levertov, Denise: Selected Poems
- Ways of Conquest
- Don’t You Hear That Whistle Blowin’ …
- In Thai Binh (Peace) Province
- A Time Past
- Libation
- A Letter to Marek About a Photograph
- The Pilots
Non-Fiction or Multimedia
- Baker, Mark Raphael: The Fiftieth Gate
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History September 11 website
