YEAR 12 ENGLISH LITERATURE SYLLABUS
OVERVIEW - TEXTS AND CONTEXTS: REPRESENTATIONS AND ISSUES
The
syllabus asks students to examine their interaction with literary form
and content and to become aware of the many sorts of textual features that can be read as significant
in constructing an interpretation of a text.* Advice from the 1994 Examiners'
Report was for teachers and students "to discover, to define and
to analyse the literary devices used in texts, and from there to go
to see how those textual and generic devices shape the (cultural) meanings
readers make..."
All
three meaning systems identified by the syllabus - language, generic
conventions and cultural codes may be utilised in a critical study.
The area of Texts and Contexts - Representation and Issues, foregrounds
the activity of reading itself (our reading practices). It invites consideration
of the ways in which the theoretical and ideological assumptions (value
systems) which inform our reading, are important to the meanings we
make. In particular, study will focus on the context areas chosen by
the teacher.
The
contexts nominated in the syllabus-gender, class, cultural identity,
race and/or ethnicity, can each be thought of as providing a focus for
exploring the text. Ideally, representation and other issues arising
during a study, would be considered across more than one context area.
We are required by the syllabus to consider the historical and cultural
position of both the reader and the writer, and to recognise that each
has a set of values and beliefs which they bring to a text. Students
should be aware of the cultural nature of ideologies. Just as the writing
is shaped by its culture and time, so too is the reading process and
meaning, shaped by the contexts of the reader.
However,
texts for study should not be read as a simple 'mirror' of their historical
and social contexts, but as constructions. The way in which a writer represents people, groups or behaviours provides
a kind of social commentary. In this way texts can be said to be political
sites, because they communicate values. The representation/s offered,
should be understood as only one version of reality; others would be possible if a different ideology
was operating in the text. Readers too, may adopt different ideological
perspectives (and reading practices). To better understand these concepts,
students should be encouraged to explore the discourse, examining how
both privileged and alternative readings of their texts may be constructed
and how these different readings may alter the meanings they come to
see as significant.
As
it is likely that a study will explore more than one context area, texts
should be chosen with this in mind. It will be noted that specific concepts
within a contextual area may be shared with another, and intertextual
connections can often help students recognise patterns which are part
of their construction of meaning. The location of power,
the means by which it is achieved and the way it is exercised in the
society of the text, is an important link across all context areas.
Marginalisation and the cultural ideology of 'valuing' would also be
studied as part of the representation of power offered in a text. Applying
such concepts across several context areas such as class, race or gender,
will help students foreground the values inherent in the reading strategies
they bring to the text and the meanings they make.
The
approaches to reading are necessarily broad in their application. However
the Text and Context section is primarily concerned with the 'how' of
the text. It focuses on those aspects of the writing which the reader
has understood to be most influential on her or his sense of textual
meaning and effect. This section of the subject also aims to make students
more aware of their own reading practices and the contexts that influence
their reading interpretation.
*
Adapted from comments by Andrew Lynch, Chief Examiner (1990/1) in
Year 12 Assessment Support Material,
1992.
REPRESENTATION AND ISSUES OF GENDER
In the study of gender representation, the ways the lives
and experiences of women and men are represented (constructed) will
be the major focus. The understanding of the difference between sex
which is biologically determined and gender which is culturally determined,
is crucial to this area of study. So too, is the examination of gender
roles in a given society and the links between gender and sexual identity.
Reading 'gender' requires that we focus on representation and the issues
it raises. The reader evaluates the representation through a contextualised
value system.
Of central significance to this analytical focus is the
understanding of:
* gender as a locus of power - gender
relations are power relations within particular societies.
Patriarchal power and ideas function to place women in
an inferior position in patriarchal societies and to maintain the dominant
social order. However women are not simply passive and powerless: they
have power through their capacity to control and organise the domestic
space, their capacity to bear children, and sometimes through their
capacity for physical and violent action. Students should be encouraged
to become aware of representations which offer constructions of men
and women which do not support popular views and expectations of gender based
on stereotypes.
* gender as a social construction
of identity including one's sexuality as masculine or feminine through
the ascription of stereotypical roles, behaviours and social expectations
to each sex.
Traditionally, the political and cultural context of
literary studies has been patriarchal in nature and this has determined
the writing and printing of texts and the ways we read and interpret
literature. Students could explore cultural
notions of femininity and masculinity and the effects of these on personal
and social behaviours. The way female sexuality is sometimes conveyed
indirectly through the use of fantasy or the Gothic, or through the
representation of female friendships could also be examined. Ways of
constructing and naturalising male sexuality should also be explored.
* the attitudes and values associated
with gender and gender divisions in particular societies. The relative
role(s) and place of women and men in various societies and the social
importance accorded them.
The dominant values of any particular society determine
the ascription of characteristics to gender. Students should be encouraged
to recognise that certain representations privilege one gender over
another.
* how gender relations are constructed
and conveyed in literature
Embedded in the structure of language are assumptions
about gender which shape our consciousness and perceptions. Female is
marked by difference from male. Frequently presented as the "other",
she is often silenced or placed in opposition to male through the language
of binary opposition. Readers may offer resistant readings to masculine
ideology in texts. It is through locating opposites, that we often find
what is endorsed or challenged in the text.
* the ways in which the gender of
readers affect the readings made
Traditional reading practices were part of the patriarchal
system which positioned readers to accept readings of texts which were
dominant. To offer a resistant reading, males must frequently position
themselves in opposition to their own interests. Unless women challenge
the dominant reading, they support a version of reality which often
negates them. Alternatively, they must identify with characters of lesser
importance and power in the text.
* the relationship between gender
and genre - that certain genres are associated with women and men readers
and writers
Students could explore romance as women's fiction and
science-fiction as primarily, the preference of men. The use of fantasy
or Gothic elements in realist prose-and ways in which women have used
lyric poetry, are further instances of what might be examined. As might
be the apparent reluctance of women to write for the stage.
Class Discussion Questions:
1. What does it mean to say that gender is
socially constructed?
2. Do people read and write differently?
Is this difference in part related to their gender, and if so how does
an understanding of 'difference' help us to construct meaning?
Text Study Questions:
1. What qualities do people in positions
of power in the text display? Are these qualities gender based? Does
the text position the reader to make judgements on the basis of sexual
stereotypes? What textual features supporting this positioning?
2. How does the text represent women's and/or
men's lives and experiences, in a fashion that either confirms or contests
dominant notions of gender?
3. How does a contemporary awareness of gender
issues affect our reading of a text from another social/historical time
and place? Did writers/readers of earlier times consider or have insight
into gender issues? In what ways could an awareness or lack of it, be
seen in the text?
4. How does gender empower or marginalise
characters in the text? How does this reflect or challenge the values
of the writer's society and that of the reader?
Possible Essay Questions:
a) "Women are always victims because
masculine ideology determines social organisation." Consider the
ways in which the representation of men and women in a text you have
read supports or challenges this statement.
b) Power can be recognised by identifying
those who are marginalised in a society. Discuss how representation
of gender in (this) text, offers a version of reality which supports
the interests of one gender over another.
c)
Discuss the ways your gender
has positioned you to endorse or challenge the representation of gender
roles and relationships presented in (the) text.
REPRESENTATION AND ISSUES OF CLASS
A study of 'class' issues will focus on the concept that
class positioning is one of the elements in the construction of personal
and social identity. Marxism has traditionally allowed us to understand
class positioning. It contends that social reality is made up of an
historical struggle between antagonistic social classes, determined
through the type of production in which they engage. Other theories
have added to our understanding and students are best advised to consider
'class' as a means through which a society differentiates between groups
of people on the basis of wealth and the means by which it is gained.
An identifiable set of political and social beliefs has traditionally
been associated with each social class. Other factors used to identify
class groups may include educational and/or professional status, ancestry,
language and domicile location.
Of central significance to this analytical focus is the
understanding of:
* class as a conduit of power (or
lack of it) - and class relations as power relations within any society
Class is determined by the application of a set of historical,
social and cultural values, which enable groups within a society to
be labelled. It is a form of social organisation as well as description
. Stratification ensures that some are more powerful and better rewarded
by their society than others. Marxism contends that people who control
the resources that others value, or control instrumentalities of power
such as the police and press, become those with most influence and power
and are most rewarded in income and status. Class relations are therefore
always oppositional in nature.
* class as a construction of social
identity through the ascription of roles which are assigned value by
the society in which they operate.
Social life and identity are determined by the cultural
codes or meaning system operating within a given society. Readers may
challenge the validity of the representation of a particular class group.
They may explore the reading/interpretation which is being 'normalised'
or naturalised by a particular representation. They could examine whose
interests are most served by such constructions and how class defines
or limits social behaviour.
* assumptions about class which
a textual representation may be seen to support or challenge
A writer may 'take for granted' aspects of character
or setting or events which are culturally associated with class. In
the process of exploring the gaps and silences in a text, students may
see that the reader often accepts the implied 'truth' (what is naturalised) in a representation, because they share the same cultural
meaning system.
* the ownership of literature traditionally
being claimed by an elite class - in this sense its role has been to
maintain a system which has served certain interests over others.
The writing and publishing of literature and further
its elevation into a literary canon, has traditionally been the province
of the most literate and powerful in society. Historically, the most
literate were those of a privileged class and it was in the interest
of this class to control through language and modes of communication,
the cultural meaning system. Marxism challenges the notion that literature
and 'culture' are the social property of the elite. The concept of literature
now embraces wide forms of discourse. Students could explore the ways
in which a traditional literary canon might be seen to perpetuate attitudes
and values toward class groups and the way this supports certain class
interests.
Class Discussion Questions:
1. In
what ways could 'literature' be said to be a social construction, dependent
on a cultural and historical time and place?
2. What
social function does the concept of class and its differentiating features, serve within a society?
Text Study Questions:
1. How
are class relationships represented in this text? Are the views of one
class presented as a 'norm'? How does this affect the representation,
or our reading, of any other class present in the text?
2. How
do expectations of social class in the culture of the text affect the
actions of characters? How might readers' attitudes toward class issues
affect their reading of the characters' actions?
3. How
does class empower or marginalise characters in the text?
4. Are
there any connections between gender, class and power in the text?
Possible Essay Questions:
a) Discuss
how the writer of (this) text positions the reader to endorse or criticise
the way 'class' operates on individuals in society.
b) To
what extent can power, based on class, be seen to deny justice to all
in society? Discuss with reference to your reading of a text studied
this year.
c)
Discuss how various social
classes have been represented in a text you have studied and what this
reveals about the ideology informing the text. You should address the
role of language and other features used to identify class, in your
discussion.
REPRESENTATION AND ISSUES OF RACE/AND OR ETHNICITY
Racial identification is determined by shared hereditary,
biological characteristics, found in groups of people located within
broad geographical areas. (Where identity of a national sub-group is
articulated through any or all features of race, religion, language,
place or history, the term ethnicity
is applied). Race as an aspect of social construction, enables the visible
characteristics of a racial group to become the basis for value judgements.
When worth is ascribed to groups of people on the basis of cultural
value judgements, the interests of some groups are often promoted over
others. The study of race and ethnicity will look at the representations
of racial groups in the discourse of the text and our readings of them.
It should also explore the ideologies informing such representations.
Of central significance to this analytical focus is the
understanding of:
* race as a social construction
- a set of cultural beliefs which may act as a mechanism for a society
to justify differences in treatment of different groups.
A dominant group can regard itself as the norm against
which others who are different in some way, are measured. They are accorded
the status of 'other' and can be marginalised on the basis of 'difference'
where difference means 'lesser'. It may lead to behaviour and policies
ranging from paternalism to the overt exclusion and segregation of apartheid.
* the fact that race is never promoted
in a 'neutral way' in texts -a ll readings carry the values of the writer,
the reader and the societies in which the text is produced and received.
Texts which may not noticeably foreground racial relationships
may nevertheless present the reader with an image which both carries
and invites value judgements. The dominant race may have total narrative
voice and the perceptions and positioning of a second group may be ignored,
giving a sense of 'normalcy' to the dominant view. By exploring gaps
and silences in the text, students will become more aware of whose interests
are served by the representation offered.
* race/ethnicity sometimes offered
as justification for dispossession and/or suppression of a particular
culture.
Traditionally, western literature has rarely offered
an avenue for the voices of minority racial and ethnic groups. Students
should explore the features of the text to identify the ways in which
the dominant ideology suppresses or silences minority voices.
* the alienation from, and/or challenge
to, dominant western values in the literary voices of minority-group
writers.
Western literature has traditionally been dominated by
white, male, European, and Christian ideals. Students should explore
how the voices of writers outside this framework offer challenges to
the dominant value system which most of us share. As readers we can
explore the ideology of racial superiority and the issue of its power
operating in the text. We could explore its role in behaviours from
dispossession and marginalisation to exclusion and genocide. Importantly,
students should consider the voices of minorities within the dominant
culture, as well as writers whose perspective is located within another
culture and which may offer an alternative value system.
Class Discussion Questions:
1. To
what extent is our reading of racial groups in the text activated by
the particular version of them offered through the language used (ie.
are there words or phrases which trigger our expectations and allow
us to fill gaps in the text)?
2.
What does it mean to say
that texts are never 'neutral' in the representation of a racial group?
What textual features could be focused on to explore this? Consider
such aspects as setting, selection of detail, imagery, narrative voice,
conflict and its resolution.
Text Study Questions:
1. What
values and attitudes toward major issues in the text, are attributed
to different racial groups? Is one normalised and the other given description,
or are both given equal voice and equal description?
2. To
what race or ethnic group do the people with power in the society of
the text belong? What qualities do they display?
3. Is
there any evidence that the writer is inviting the reader to challenge
the privileging of one race in the text, over another?
4. Explain
how and why the reading you have constructed of significance in
this text, might differ from that made by an audience of an earlier
time or different culture.
Possible Essay Questions:
a) Some
representations of race in literature, may be read as racist. Explore
how the representation of race offered by a writer you have studied,
can be seen to be racist from your
reading.
b) Two
issues prominent in literary works, are "innocence" and "corruption".
Discuss how your reading of the relationships of race and/or ethnicity
in a text, offers comment on one or both of these issues.
c)
When considering who is
marginalised by a society, readers come to see a society's strengths
and weaknesses. Assess the strengths and weaknesses in the version of
society offered by a writer you have studied.
REPRESENTATION AND ISSUES OF CULTURAL IDENTITY
Cultural studies assume that literature can be understood
as a medium through which a culture explores and reproduces itself.
Central to this assumption is that through the study of representations
of cultural identity in literary texts, students will recognise that
a set of practices, beliefs and values operating in a community of people,
helps to provide its social organisation and the ways to produce cultural
meanings which function to sustain it. No culture can be considered
as completely unified, but patterns of thinking and behaving lead to
some features being thought of as characteristic and a way of distinguishing
it from other cultures. These privileged features may be more mythical
than actual and result in a representation that focuses on a narrow
set of practices and beliefs. The image produced becomes legitimised
as 'real', while excluding other positions equally valid within the
culture.
Of central significance to this analytical focus is the
understanding of:
* cultural identity as a form of
social organisation which functions to maintain the balance of power
within a society.
It might be suggested that a feature of Australia's cultural
identity is egalitarianism. However, a closer investigation may reveal
that many of our political and social structures promote sharp cultural
stratification. Notions of masculinity in our culture are identified
through images ranging from the independent bushman to the carefree
and sexist 'ocker'. The representation of a different, more sensitive
Australian male is not favoured in the popular perception of our cultural
identity. Only some images of 'self' or country are given legitimacy
in the dominant construction of cultural identity. Notions of nationalism
and patriotism inherent in the ideology of the text could also be explored.
* cultural identity as a means of
locating one's self within a community of shared values and beliefs
- a part of personal identity which is shaped by the political, social
and intellectual conditions of one's experience.
Students could study the ways in which the text constructs
a sense of a culture's consciousness and its impact on those who are
part of that culture. This would include values and attitudes associated
with a sense of place or legitimate ways of 'being' within a culture.
Questions about the 'voice' and 'stance' of the writer might also be
considered.
* the ways in which cultural myths
operate to legitimise behaviours of dominant cultures
British and European imperialism relied on certain dominant
cultural beliefs and attitudes, to explain the founding of their political,
social and economic outposts in other countries. For example Australia's
colonisation requires a particular picture of the Aborigines' way of
being and social organisation as primitive and heathen
to legitimise British actions during settlement. Students should study
the way the text positions readers to collude with or challenge the
actions and values of a dominant cultural identity. They may consider
the features of the text which in representation of one group places
those outside that group as 'other'; different and lesser. Students
should consider whose interests are promoted by the perpetuation of
such myths.
* the role of colonialism in the
development of cultural identity and post colonialism as a means for
reading its consequences.
All cultures carry effects of past colonialism. Students
should be encouraged to investigate the history of a culture; how it
began and the events which helped to shape its development. They should
consider the 'romantic' notions attached to popular views of the culture
and where and why they developed. Students should be able to discuss
whether a text maintains the status quo,
rejects it, or offers an alternative to the prevailing cultural values
and attitudes. Students should also examine the ways in which the text
represents and evaluates the culture, and the contextual attitudes and
values they bring to their reading.
* the role of physical and social
landscape in the construction of an identifiable cultural identity.
Culture develops, and is therefore located in both time
and space. Students could usefully explore physical landscape/s and
the experience it offers its inhabitants. Attention should be given
to varying expressions of its effects and possibilities offered by different
writers. For example Australia may be seen as both a paradise and a
prison, a colony or an independent nation. Social experience is equally
as important: is Australia egalitarian or as class conscious as nineteenth
century Britain? Students should examine how the writer has represented
a cultural identity and its importance to the reader's construction
of meaning in the text.
Class Discussion Questions:
1. To
what extent (and in what ways)
is the ability to make sense of experience and literature dependent
on a shared literary, language and cultural meaning system?
2. How
can we best define and understand a culture's ideology? Why is this
important to our reading of texts?
Text Study Questions:
1. What
attitudes and values to major concerns in the text are identified as
part of the culture's consciousness? Does this fit with popular views
of the culture? Are the representations limited to stereotypical views,
or do they offer a broader range of possibilities?
2. Is
a sense of place or location suggested as a reason for the ways characters
in the text think or behave? What view of the culture/s represented,
does this position the reader to adopt?
3. What
role has the colonial origins of the culture played in the development
of cultural values and identity? Is the society represented as having
unified beliefs, or is there conflict? How is this significant to the
reading we may construct?
4. In
what ways does this text work to confirm or promote cultural meaning?
Alternatively, how does it modify or challenge dominant ideology?
Possible Essay Questions:
a) Examine
the ways in which a writer you have studied has offered a particular
version of reality through her/his particular representation of a cultural
identity.
b) Individuals
who question or don't fit the value system of her/his society, often
express a feeling of 'not belonging'. Explore the concept of cultural
identity through the alienation or isolation, of one or more characters
in a text you have studied.
c) Historically,
literature was thought to offer a 'picture' of what the individual and
life experience was like, in a particular time and place. Discuss how
your reading practice allows you to share or question, the representation
of cultural identity in a text you have read.