LITB3 - THE GOTHIC - MILTON'S 'PARADISE LOST'

For students of 'Paradise Lost' this article in today's 'Guardian' would be well worth reading, but make sure that you scroll down to read the comments and then beyond those to further Milton related articles, particularly one from 10 September 2010 concerning the question of whether there has ever been  a more enthralling depiction of the prince of darkness than that of the accidental hero of 'Paradise Lost'.  
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/nov/28/milton-paradise-lost-epic 

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

This is an essential resource for those who are studying Rossetti's poetry, and you've now been given plenty of time to ensure that you listen to the programme when it is broadcast next week: Thursday 1st of December at 9.00 am and again at 21.30.  Also check out the EXPLORE ARCHIVE tab; this programme may well be challenging, but can provide very useful information for a range of  topics in the Lit B specification and beyond:         http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017mvwy

LITB2 DRAMATIC GENRES: ASPECTS OF TRAGEDY - 'OTHELLO'

For those of you who are about to start your coursework on Shakespeare's 'Othello', then this summary video could be a veritable lifesaver:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp6LqSgukOU

CAROL ANN DUFFY - 'THE WORLD'S WIFE'

This should be an interesting interview for those of you studying Duffy:
http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/advanced/interviews/carol-ann-duffy-the-world-s-wife 

CAROL ANN DUFFY - OUR POET LAUREATE

Some of you may be studying Carol Ann Duffy for your A2 Anthology Coursework ( 'The World's Wife' is certainly a very popular choice!), so although this was recorded in 2009 it is still useful, fascinating even,  to hear Duffy discuss her writing, her own sources of inspiration, her opinions and intentions: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8030146.stm   

                           

Y12 AS Unit 3 - PASTORAL POETRY AFTER 1945

It is pretty clear from the views that the previous resources concerned with Larkin have been devoured, so for those of you who are hungry for more here is an important 1964 BBC documentary on the great man: 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTdDS05x6d0



Also a link to hear David Walliams discuss with the former Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion (it's Carol Ann Duffy now - see next post), his love for Larkin's poetry:

http://soundcloud.com/fishymedia/larkin-doc-radio-four-dec-10

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

An interesting article for you to peruse on that great novel of, and I quote: 'thwarted ambition' - 'The Great Gatsby': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14238693

LITB2 DRAMATIC GENRES: ASPECTS OF TRAGEDY - 'A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE'

For those of you studying 'Streetcar' then do watch the first part of this documeanary about its author, Tennessee Williams, who was such a complex literary figure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur3XB80FE3k&feature=related
 

Y13 TEXTS AND GENRES LITB3 - THE GOTHIC 'WUTHERING HEIGHTS'

Interesting short clip from Radio 4's Today programme in which Andrea Arnold, the director of the latest 'Wuthering Heights' film says she could not resist the temptation to adapt the book for yet another film: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9634000/9634906.stm

Y12 AS Unit 3 - PASTORAL POETRY AFTER 1945

For those of you studying Larkin then you will find some useful articles, critical material and links:
http://www.philiplarkin.com/   

From the unit 2 and 3 anthology the poem 'Going, Going' is read here by Larkin himself:

A further poem in the Anthology: 'Church Going' is read by John Betjemen with some contextual input from Larkin:









For those students who are thinking of using Larkin for the A2 Anthology coursework, then this contemporary award nominated film of the poem 'Here' is read beautifully by Sir Tom Courtenay:

A second film by Dave Lee wonderfully evokes the poem  'Bridge for the Living' which is well worth a viewing:

Y13 TEXTS AND GENRES LITB3 - THE GOTHIC

Particularly relevant for those studying Marlowe's Dr Faustus or Milton's Paradise Lost is this programme which can be viewed on the two repeats tomorrow, the 1st of November 2011, or on the BBC iplayer. There is an interesting focus on the changes in people's perceptions of Satan at the time of the Reformation and of the man who kick started the whole thing - Martin Luther, someone whose works Marlowe was evidently aware of: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016ptr6 

Y13 TEXTS AND GENRES LITB3 - THE GOTHIC - 'WUTHERING HEIGHTS'

An absolutely essential resource is the Norton Anthology of English Literature, it can be used across the whole of the A' Level Lit curriculum, so I will be referring to it on other text notes, but for the moment let us focus on the Gothic generally and Wuthering Heights in particular.


http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/welcome.htm

 http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic_2/welcome.htm

  

 There is also a very readable article which provides a useful perspective here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/14359/gothic_literature_an_indepth_look_at_pg6.html?cat=38 


 Another very useful site for Wuthering Heights, with some interesting notes on suicides in the novel:
http://www.litgothic.com/index_html.html

I may have written about the narrative aspect of Wuthering Heights in previous notes, but it is important, so once again:   Wuthering Heights has a narrative 'frame'.  Nelly Dean, a servant, tells the by now almost 40 year old story to the gentleman, Mr Lockwood, a tenant of Thrushcross Grange, with Heathcliff as his landlord.  Lockwood as first person narrator is actually at one remove from the experiences of the other characters that make up the story.  Lockwood only meets three of the main protagonists (Hareton, young Catherine and Heathcliff), during which (Chapters I and II ) he reveals himself to be singularly unperceptive:

       'I know, by instinct, his reserve [Heathcliff's] springs from an aversion to showy displays
        of feeling - to manifestations of mutual kindness.   He'll love and hate, equally under

       cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again.' 

       '... many could not imagine the existence of happiness in a life of such complete

       exile from the world as you spend, Mr Heathcliff; yet, I'll venture to say, that, 

       surrounded by your family, and with your amiable lady as the presiding genius 

       over your home and heart -' 

        'My amiable lady!' he interrupted, with an almost diabiolical neer on his face. 'Where is

        she - my amiable lady?'

Lockwood's confusion over the relationships in this rather brutal world of the house on the moors, reflects that of the readers, whilst as a man of manners and refinements, he contrasts tellingly with Heathcliff.


This form, the narrative frame, created by Emily Bronte, should raise a number of questions regarding the whole concept of what a 'story' really is, what it involves, and how we then need to analyse the relationship between different narrative accounts, from very different story-tellers - in gender, background and class, opinions, prejudices and language.


The complex narrative strucutre of WH, with its double frame: the outer frame narrative being Lockwood's and the inner frame being Nelly Dean's story (which in its turn involves the the narrative components of many of the other characters, many of whom Lockwood never meets) makes us look more closely at the whole issue of storytelling.  We need to understand the influence that these primary narrators have and how Bronte plays them off against each other and to what effect. 



For any of you who are near enough to Bradford, then these could be very useful:
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/

 http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Events/GothicWomenWutheringHeights.aspx

 

    Thanks again for all the comments and requests,  I will respond to the latest  in the next few days - just keep them coming!  It would also be helpful if you would all become followers, see box top right.
:

Y13 TEXTS AND GENRES LITB3 - THE GOTHIC

Thank you for all your comments, especially Juliet from Hampshire, and as so many of you want me to carry on with this blog then I am prepared to do so.  I would be more than happy to respond to any personal requests for information on specific texts, so if you cannot find what you need in the archive then just contact me and I will do my utmost to help.

 In the meantime, here are some useful links for those of you working on Shelley's Frankenstein, keeping in mind:  AO4: Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received.  This discovery channel documentary should be useful:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QsDyItTSBY

 There is also a useful  site for you to download details of how to respond to the question: How does Shelley attempt to engage the reader in the first five chapters of the novel.  You could try this first and check out other documents which have been placed on the site concerning  topics within the AQA LITB curriculum, but it can prove user unfriendly:http://www.docstoc.com/docs/98468055/frank-essay-one-a2

Use this one instead to get the essay structure suggestions:                              http://minus.com/m1OJou9hz

                                                                                                             

A further link that gives food for thought on the 10 meanings of Frankenstein:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12711091
  

 

Once on this site then click on the link for  "Readers' new meanings for Frankenstein."

The images above are all from the National Theatre production of Frankenstein last year, involving Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller; follow the links for Nick Dear's thoughts on both the novel and on his theatre adaptation: 

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/64323/frankenstein/adapting-chapter-5.html

The novel:

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/64860/frankenstein/nick-dear-on-frankenstein.html 

And on adapting Chapter 5:
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/64323/frankenstein/adapting-chapter-5.html
 

An absolutely essential resource for both AS and A2 AQA LITB is Peter Ackroyd's brilliant series on the Romantics; you can find in the archive to this blog a more specific episode on Coleridge and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but here it is for those of you haven't mastered the search through my archive yet:

For more information on Mary Shelley and on the Romantic movement, then watch the whole series starting with the first one here: 

Y13 TEXTS AND GENRES LITB3 - THE GOTHIC - 'DR FAUSTUS'

To help with the AO3 here are some useful quotations for 'other interpretations':

 'This excellent Faustus is damned by accident or by predestination; he is brow-beaten by the devil and forbidden to repent when he has really repented.  The terror of the conclusion is thereby heightened; we see an essentially good man, because in a moment of infatuation he had signed away his soul, driven against his will to despair and damnation.'                                                                                                                         (George Santayana, 1910)

 'The limitless desire, the unbridled passion for the infinite, a certain reckless, high confidence in the will and spirit of man are all there [in Faustus's mind].  This rare power of abstracting the nature of man, of revealing only the universal and the general, yet so revealing that it comes home to the heart of every individual man, reaches its height at the end of the play . . .[Dcotor Faustus] perhaps the most notable Satanic play in literature'.             

                                                                                       (Una Ellis-Fermor, 1927)

Marlowe, the moment the exhaustion of the imagination fit deprives him of the power of raving, becomes childish in thought, vulgar and wooden in humour, and stupid in his attempts at invention . . .itching to frighten other people with the superstitious terrors and cruelties in which he does not himself believe.                        (George Bernard Shaw, 1896)

 'I cannot find, in Marlowe's play, any proofs of the atheism or impiety attributed to him, unless the belief in witchcraft and the Devil can be regarded as such; and at the time he wrote, not to have believed in both, would have been construed into the rankest atheism and irreligion.'                                                                                       (William Hazlitt, 1820)

  'In Faustus Marlowe went farther: he broke up the line, to gain in intensity, in the last soliloquy; and he developed a new and important conversational tone in the dialogues of Faustus with the devil.'                                                       (T. S. Eliot, 1919) 

  '[Marlowe is] the father and founder of English dramatic poetry. [Marlowe's characters are] day-dreams of their maker's deep desires projected from the men around him, and rendered credible by sheer imaginative insight into the dark mysteries of nature.  

                                                                                           (J. A. Symonds, 1884)

Faustus moves repeatedly through a circular pattern from thinking of the joys of heaven, through despairing of ever possessing them, to embracing magical dominion as a blasphemous substitute.'                                                                      

                                                                                          (C. L. Barber,   1964)

'There is a case for seeing this devalued section of the play [the middle scenes] as an extraordinary phantasmagoria, grotesquely satirical, sometimes sinister, sometimes absurd, an illusionistic impression of tweny-four wasted years as bold in what it attempts theatrically as the scenes on the heath in King Lear.'                                                              

                                                                                     ( Malcolm Kelsall,  1981)

 'Doctor Faustus is neither a morality play not an unambivalent celebration of radical humanism; it is a tragedy which dramatises a conflict between two irreconcilable systems of values, each of which, we may feel, has at least partial validity and a genuine claim to our allegiance.  While Marlowe may have sympathised with Faustus's rejection of traditional authorities and the strict limits which they impose upon human aspirations, he was nontheless aware that Promethean self assertion could degenerate into debasing forms  of self-aggrandisement.'                                                                                                                                                                                                          (John S.  Mebane,  1989)

 'The play is about the struggle between the two sides of Doctor Faustus, the controlled intellectual side giving way in what may be seen as a mid-life crisis to th indulgent sensual.   When the latter is in the ascendant, he betrays his ideals of pursuing knowledge.  His manner is jocose and exuberant, his antics ludicrous. . . and he is driven by ambition.  He pursues riches and pleasure, as if acting out day-dreams, but the demands he makes are seen by Mephistopheles as 'frivolour', what he achieves is trivial.   He over-reaches himself, his ambition for rich rewards and power driving him into wild, dangerous and ultimately tragic actions.'                                                                                           
                                                                             (Derek Russell Davis,  1997)

LITB3 - THE GOTHIC

Thank you for all the messages and comments in response to which find some useful links for the imminent exam:

For Angela Carter there is an interesting recording of a conversation with Helen Jolley:

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=024M-C0095X0397XX-0100V0.xml

There is also an interesting selection of articles on Angela Carter at the following link of a Guardian page:  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/angelacarter

On the following there is a series of rather apt quotations, including this one which could be used for a selection of the short stories, but particularly for 'The Bloody Chamber': 

http://quotebunny.com/quotes/13729/angela-carter/mythic-schema-relations-men

“In the mythic schema of all relations between men and women, man proposes, and woman is disposed of.” 

 I have been asked to give notes about the A2 paper in a similar way to those that I published on the AS; well I am happy to do so, but the A2 is a lot less complicated than the AS in regard to the AOs.  All the Assessment Objectives are equally weighted on every essay that you need to do, so all 4 need to be included in all that you write. Also,  you only need three texts as whatever you choose to write about for the A question can also be used in the B question.

There is an excellent site which goes into even more detail about the exam and gives several incredibly useful resources that I would urge you to look at; (Guinea Pig Lover in particular) the link takes you to page 9, but do check out the rest to hopefully answer any more queries that you may have:  

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1640238&page=9

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

For some eleventh hour revision that is guaranteed to help then follow the link to this excellent podcast: http://soundcloud.com/fishymedia/literature-podcast-an-as-level

LITB3 - THE GOTHIC

For your revision, whatever Gothic texts you are studying, it would be a good idea to listen to the following broadcast:    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0054792  It certainly covers most of the AOs.

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

To continue with what is needed for AO3 - Explore connections . . .informed by interpretations of other readers. Then here are a few more quotations that you might find useful

'Great is irony.  Gatsby is a rich nobody'  -  Dexter

'Gatsby's dream is the American Dream'  -  Pelzer

'It is a dream corrupted by money and betrayed by carelessness'  -  Pelzer.

'Buchanans representing and embodying . . .self-pleasure and hypocritical materialism'  -  Tanner.

'Hypothesising, Speculating, Imagining' (Nick's narration)  -  Tanner 

'The reality is that such dreams are inevitably elusive'  -  Tredell. 

'Daisy play(s) certain roles ...as a way of coping with the pressure of the outside world'  - Resneck

'Sense doom in Gatsby because Fitzgerald sensed doom in himself'  -  Styron. 

Fitzgerald deemed the 1920s the 'greatest, gaudiest spree in history'.

 If you are thinking of writing on 'The Great Gatsby' for the Section A question, then for the part 1 of that question you will be marked on AO2 - Structure, Form and Language (check out an earlier blog for more details).

Structure: Fitzgerald uses Nick as a framing device to bring the novel together.  The first pages introduce him and the last chapter is concerned with what happened to him after Gatsby was killed.  It is Nick who chooses what to include in his book and tells us what he remembers of what the other people involved told him as events unfolded.

Jordan Baker tells what information she has about Gatsby and Daisy's former relationship, apparently in her own words.   Fitzgerald, in parenthesis, says that she was 'sitting up very straight on a straight chair' which conveys the impression that her words will be factual and truthful, not gilded by her imagination.  This technique makes Jordan Baker seem a believable witness but not Daisy, we are unclear what she thinks and feels.  Fitzgerald wrote in a letter that:  'The worst fault in [TGG] I think is a BIG FAULT: I gave no account (and had no feeling about or knowledge of) the emotional relations between Gatsby and Daisy from the time of their reunion to the catastrophe.'

However, when Gatsby gives his version of events, Nick takes over and puts all that is said in his own words.  Gatsby's language is child-like, revealing his lack of education and immaturity.  Anne Crow argues that if Fitzgerald had allowed Gatsby to be the narrator, his style would have made for a very dull and commonplace novel, rendering the title wildly inappropriate.

Also look at how Fitzgerald condenses information, the story covers only 4 months, but seems over a much longer period because of Fitzgerald's narratorial technique of having Nick informed of past events by the other characters who were involved.  It is a non-linear narrative structure and by looking at the 60 Second re-cap video clips: http://www.60secondrecap.com/library/great-gatsby/   

 then you will see how Fitzgerald uses the seasons and the weather to structure the novel.

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

Following on from the examination requirements, I would like to look in more detail at how the AOs need to be used in reference to The Great Gatsby.  

AO4 - Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the conetxts in which literary texts are written and received.

You need to be aware of what effect the Great War (in which both Gatsby and Nick served) had on the American economy and the American psyche, not least through a sense of libertion, particularly for veterans.  People turned against politics preferring hedonism; and of course women, who had been required to work during the war, had no wish to lose the social and economic freedom that they had achieved and were enjoying during the boom. Remember TGG was set only four years after the war had ended.  Be clear about the symbolism intrinsically involved in the East and West of America.  It might also be worth remembering the two dominant literary influences on Fitzgerald, which were John Keats and the writer of  Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad.
Attitudes of men towards women were quite different at this time and of course the issue of race in the 1920s is seen in the anti-semitism prevalent in the portrayal of Wolfsheim, in Nick's attitude to his Finnish housekeeper (it was felt that immigrants were taking jobs away from American citizens and Fitzgerald reflects the fear of those who were not white Anglo Saxon Protestants) and of course to Black Americans. So look at the contextual references, actions and speech of the era.
    
AO3 -  'Explore connections . . .informed by interpretations of other readers'  This means looking at other commentators and their views as well as writing what you think.  And if you think that Nick is an unreliable narrator then you have ample opportunity to look at different interpretations of the events: for example was it certain that it was Wilson who killed Gatsby, could Wolfsheim have been involved, he certainly had all his people working at the house, and the chauffeur 'one of Wolfsheim's proteges' heard the shots but did nothing.  Did Nick romanticise Gatsby instead of understanding that he was deeeply involved in a criminal underworld at war?

Critics that you could refer to include H. L. Mencken, who called the novel a  'glorified anecdote' , 'a simple story'  and that 'only Gatsby himself genuinely lives and breathes'.  Whilst Gertrude Stein praised Fitzgerald for 'creating the contemporary world' suggesting that he was doing far more then merely reflecting the era but rather responsible for actually constructing it; he certainly created the term 'Jazz Age'. William Troy considered that Nick Carraway was 'the ordinary but quite sensible narrator' and that Gatsby 'becomes ... a symbol of America itself, dedicated to "the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty".' He believed that Fitzgerald had created a sympathetic narrator in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, establishing 'some of the most priceless values in fiction,- economy, suspense, intensity. 

 Arthur Mizener in: F Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays, Twentieth Century Views, Spectrum, (1963), focuses on the novel as a 'tragic pastoral'  seeing the East as sophisticated but corrupt, whilst the West represented idealised homely, honest virtues.   R. W. Stallman a commentator in the 1950s,  argued that Fitzgerald showed that  the division between the corrupt urban East and the morally virtuous  rural West was the product of Nick Carraway's imagination.








 





 Judith Fetterley in her book - The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction.  Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1978 -  read more by following this link:   http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=84332635
claims that the novel is the classic male drama of poor boy achieving wealth and challenging the rich boy, with the narrative being concerned with this struggle for power and supremacy, with the ultimate prize being ownership of the girl.  It is interesting that when the poor boy loses everything: his fortune, the girl and even his life, it is not the rich boy Tom who is punished but Daisy, because she failed Gatsby.  At the end we see Nick shake hands with Tom, but he seeks no reconciliation with Daisy - according to Fetterley, she is perceived as the one who must shoulder all  the blame.  What do you think?

AS & A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE B REVISION RESOURCES

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE AMAZING COMMENTS, I AM ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED THAT MY RESOURCES ARE HELPING YOUR STUDIES AND REVISION.   FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE WONDERING WHERE  I AM, WELL IF YOU STILL REQUIRE MORE RESOURCES ON A PARTICULAR TEXT THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW,  I AM MORE THAN HAPPY TO PUT UP RESOURCES BEYOND THOSE THAT MY CURRENT STUDENTS ARE STUDYING. 

As the AS examination is imminent, I'd like to clarify the requirements:

• The examination is 2 hours long
• You answer one question (in 2 parts) from Section A (1 hour)
• You answer one question from Section B (1 hour)

Section A - Question A

• This question focuses on narrative
• It must be a detailed comment on narrative method, e.g: write about the ways Coleridge tells the story in Part 2 of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  So you must go through the building blocks of narrative: setting - scenes and places;  time, sequence and structure;   characters and characterisation;    voices in the story (one way in which we get information in a story is through what we are 'told' by the characters involved); and point of view - the narrator/s, 1st or 3rd.
• You are marked on Assessment Objective 2 ONLY in this section - STRUCTURE, FORM & LANGUAGE.
• STRUCTURE includes for example: the syntax, whether it is a linear chronology, use of flashbacks/analepsis or in 'TROTAM' the use of rhyme and repetition to structure the narrative, use of patterns, circularity of the whole poem, the end of each part referring to the crime and thus linking to other parts.
• FORM asks you to think about the genre of the chapter or poem, and the style that it is written in, for example: 'TROTAM' is in the form of a ballad, an extended narrative poem, how many parts, use of quatrains and also the gothic/supernatural/moralistic genre
• LANGUAGE - vocabulary use and what it means; for example in 'TROTAM', simple language, language of prayer, gothic imagery, religious references,descriptive detail, figurative language, repetition etc. MORE ON THESE CAN BE FOUND IN THE MARK SCHEMES FOR AQA
• Produce a brief introduction (no more than a sentence or so) followed by a few (perhaps 3) focused paragraphs on examples you have found, and finish with a brief conclusion where you make an evaluative comment.
• Remember to USE QUOTATIONS
• Remember, you only have 30 minutes.

 

Section A - Question B

• This question focuses on your personal  response.
• You are expected to give your opinion.
• Your are marked on Assessment Objectives 1, 3 and 4
• AO1 is your written expression so use formal language with a range of terminology and concepts.
• AO3 is your interpretation of the text and you are expected to give your judgements, but you MUST DISCUSS ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATIONS.
• AO4 is your focus on contextual factors; the significance and influence of the contexts in which the texts are written and received; you MUST consider the various genres within the narrative and consider any other related contexts to the novel/poems.
• THEMES need to be prevalent in this section.
• Write a brief introduction giving your specific response to the question.
• Give around 3 paragraphs that present evidence to support your reasoning, and USE QUOTATIONS
• Conclude your response and remember you have only 30 minutes.

STICK TO THE ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES - you will get no marks if you start writing your opinion in part A and talk about the structure in part B.


Section B

• This question requires your response on the importance of something, for example: place, characters, openings etc.
• You are given two choices, so write about the one you feel you can make focused comments upon, that really answers the question.
• You are marked on AO1, AO2 and AO3 (see descriptions above). Again for AO3 you must consider different interpretations and some evaluation/judgement of their strengths and weaknesses; and ALWAYS include a selection of supportive textual references - QUOTATIONS.
• A short introduction saying why what you are writing about is important will suffice.
• Then 4,5 or perhaps 6 paragraphs on your response.
• You've got 1 hour, so a longer response is expected.

General tips

• You must write about all 3 texts, but do not worry if they are not in equal amounts, However, don't write most of your essay on one text and a sentence on each of the others.
• Comparison is NOT STRICTLY NECESSARY, but you could use a conjoining sentence that links back to the question.
• If you are studying a set of poetry (for example Browning, Keats, Hardy etc.) you've probably studied 6-8 poems.  You only need to write about 2 or 3, that way you can be detailed enough  Do not write about just 1 - you will get substantially fewer marks.

LITB1 - ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

 Follow the link to find an exemplar essay on 'The Great Gatsby is a sordid tale of deception, adultery and murder.'  How far do you agree with this statement? 

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/78107503/%E2%80%98The-Great-Gatsby-is-a-sordid-tale-of-deception

A further link to look at how to begin an answer about how Fitzgerald  attempts to engage the reader in the first chapter of the novel:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/78107880/ADVICE-FOR-YEAR-12-LIT-ESSAY-OCT-10

The poignant final line of the novel also serves as the epitaph on the Fitzgeralds' gravestone.  They are buried in St Mary's cemetery, Rockville, Maryland, Washington DC.

LITB3 - THE GOTHIC - ANGELA CARTER

FIRST I'D JUST LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE WHO HAS POSTED COMMENTS TELLING ME HOW USEFUL YOU'RE FINDING MY BLOG - KEEP THEN COMING!  AND KEEP GOING WITH THE REVISION AND DO CHECK OUT THE ARCHIVE POSTS!

 Now to continue with our revision of The Bloody Chamber and to ensure that you are able to 
fulfil the requirements of AO3, ( Explore connections and comparisons between different literary texts, informed by interpretations of other readers) re-read The Lady of the House of Love,  look at the critical interpretations below and answer the following questions:

Think about the extract and discuss whether it -

1. Gives you any new knowledge/ideas that might be useful in reading the story.

2.  Does it confirm or does it challenge your own interpretation.

Highlight one or two short phrases which you might use in an essay to develop your argument or viewpoint.  Write a paragraph in which you incorporate a part of the quotation into an essay either for Section A or Section B.  

     In her late twentieth century fiction, Carter powerfully, and often critically, demonstrates the reversal of values and identifications that occurs via the Gothic genre.  Otherness takes centre stage: sexual transgression, dark desire, and fantastic deviance wonderfully subvert the restrictive orders or reason, utility and paternal morality . . . In Gothic times margins may become the norm and occupy a more central cultural place.

                    Fred Botting, 'Aftergothic: consumption machines and black holes,' in The   Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction (Cambridge UP, 2002).

     Carter has. . . been seen critically as part of the new wave of contemporary women writers of the Gothic for her use of paradox, irony, myth, fairy tale and horror tropes to critique the contemporary world.  One of her favourite sublects for Gothic and horror writing is the gendered construction and representations of power which render women as automata, puppets and femmes fatale.  Carter's rewriting of cerain fairy tales and horror scenarios, including the female vampire and the werewolf, celebrate sexuality . . . or critique family tyrannies and patriarchal power.

                  Gina Wisker  Angela Carter, A Beginner's Guide.' ( Hodder & Stoughton, 2003.)

      . . . her characters are forever escaping, socially, mentally or physically, the traps laid by men.  If she deals with established stereotypes in 'The Bloody Chamber' rather than fully fleshed out characters, then this is becasue fairy tales clothe themselves in stereotypes and archetypes.

                                                                       Jeff Vendermeer, The Scriptorium.     

                                                        
                                         http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/carter.html

       In gothic fiction, Angela Carter wrote in 1974, 'characters and events are exaggerated beyond reality, to become symbols, ideas, passions. . . style will tend to become ornate and unnatural - and thus operate against the perennial human desire to believe the word as fact...(the Gothic) retains a singular moral function - that of provoking unease.'
              Christopher Frayling, 'Introduction' in The Gothic Reader  - A Critical Anthology. (Tate, 2006.) 



     Perhaps we either need to accept that these stories are not fairy tales at all, or radically re-think what a fairy tale is.  After all, while Carter's two 'Virago Book(s) of Fairy Tales' (1991 + 1993) are self-evidently collections of revisionary fairy stories, can the same so easily be said of a collection called 'The Bloody Chamber'?  Quite clearly, rather than being fairy-tales which contain a few Gothic elements, these are actually Gothic tales that prey upon the restrictibe enclosures of fairty-tale formulae in a manner that threatens to become 'masochistically' self-destructive.
                 Lucie Armitt 'The Fragile Frames of The Bloody Chamber' quoted in Sarah Gamble, The Fiction of Angela Carter - AReader's Guide to Essential Criticism.  (Palgrave, Macmillan, 2001.)


     The heroines of these stories are struggling out of the straitjackets of history and ideology and biological essentialism.  "There is a story in The Bloody Chamber called 'The Lady of the House of Love' " said Carter "part of which derives from a movie version that I saw of a story by Dostoevsky.  And in the movie. . . the woman, who is a very passive person and is very much in distress, asks herself the question, 'can a bird sing only the song it knows, or can it learn a new song?' " Have we got the capacity at all of singing new songs?  It's very important that if we haven't , we might as well stop now.
             Helen Simpson, review of The Bloody Chamber.  (The Guardian June 24 2006.)

For more critical interpretations, including one by Margaret Atwood then look at Lorna Sage's brilliant Flesh and the Mirror:  Essays on the Art of Angela Carter.  Virago, 1994. 

  

LITB1 ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE - 'THE GREAT GATSBY'

Have a look at the following series of videos from BBC Bitesize HIGHER, or follow the link to read the notes and find details of other websites.  The first is concerned with the BACKGROUND to the novel: 


The second is concerned with the THEMES in the novel:






The third is concerned with CHARACTER:




There are two others on SETTING and STYLE and notes on PLOT, but you will need to follow the link for those, whereupon you will find some useful revision notes, a means of testing your knowledge and of checking on how well your revision is going, so do take a look: http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/bitesize/higher/english/great_gatsby/

Don't forget to look again at the '60second recap' video clips; there are three in the archive but by going to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa8BqsGswA0