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Treasure Hunt Heroes. Joint First: Top Team; Team Dolly; Team Gastby , Team Tennessee, Team Egypt, Team India. Second Place: Team Salesman Third Place: Team Wilde Team Wilde were the first team back … . The importance of seeing Thesis Statements. Thesis Statements.
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Treasure Hunt Heroes • Joint First: Top Team; Team Dolly; Team Gastby, Team Tennessee, Team Egypt, Team India. • Second Place: Team Salesman • Third Place: Team Wilde Team Wilde were the first team back …
Thesis Statements Thesis statements should start all analytical essays. Thesis statements are a paragraph which articulates the ‘line’ that a student is taking on an essay question, or what interpretation a student will be arguing. You might call them introductions. But thesis statementsare different, and better. • They’re clearer. • They’re more relevant to the question asked. • They’re more persuasive of your interpretation. • They’re a better platform for your knowledge. • They’re more relevant to the question asked. • They’re more persuasive of your interpretation. • They’re a better platform for your knowledge.
Isn’t it different for the different courses? Or for SL & HL? NODifference Obviously, a Literature response needs to analyse, compare and contrast literary conventions in two dramatic texts, while while a Language & Literature response needs to analysehow context shapes the production and reception of two texts (without the need for comparison). But in all instances, you need to create a thesis statement which is: relevant to the question asked. persuasive of your interpretation.
relevant to the question asked. persuasive of your interpretation. In all instances, you need to create a thesis statement which is Lit. Criterion B: Response to the question (20% of essay grade)How well has the student understood the specific demands of the question? To what extent has the student responded to these demands? How well have the works been compared and contrasted in relation to the demands of the question. LaL. Criterion B: Response to the question (20% of essay grade)To what extent is an understanding of the expectations of the question shown? How relevant is the response to these expectations, and how far does it show critical analysis?
How do examiners spot a good thesis? • They’re more relevant to the question asked. • They’re more persuasive of your interpretation. • They’re a better platform for your knowledge. 1. Most of the information in the thesis should be shaped to the question. 2. The student’s argument in relation to the question should be evident. See how these match? Clever. So, if you can’t work out what the question is, it’s probably not a great thesis. 2. They’re more relevant to the question asked. 3. They’re more persuasive of your interpretation.
Setting, the arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play is enacted, serves as a crucial means to convey the central ideas of the playwright. Settingdramatises the narration of the play by adding depth to our understanding of the conflict presented to the characters in A Streetcar Named Desire and Top Girls. While the didactic settings which make use of the stage, props and lighting in A Streetcar Named Desire provide us with insights into Blanche’s inner conflict between fantasy and reality, the distinctive location of each act in Top Girls deepens our understanding of the conflict between success and other aspects of life for Marlene and women throughout history at large. However, it seems that the ability of settingto emphasize the central conflicts of the play is stronger in A Streetcar Named Desire than in Top Girls, as Top Girls is a language-oriented play in whichthe central conflicts are best portrayed through words of the characters, rather than the setting. Can you tell what the question is? Writers often use settingto emphasize important ideas. Discuss how effectively this has been done in the works of at least two writers you have studied. Setting, the arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play is enacted, serves as a crucial means to convey the central ideas of the playwright. Setting dramatisesthe narration of the play by adding depth to our understanding of the conflict presented to the characters in A Streetcar Named Desire and Top Girls. While the didactic settings which make use of the stage, props and lighting in A Streetcar Named Desire provide us with insights into Blanche’s inner conflict between fantasy and reality, the distinctive location of each act in Top Girls deepens our understanding of the conflict between success and other aspects of life for Marlene and women throughout history at large. However, it seems that the ability of setting to emphasize the central conflicts of the play is stronger in A Streetcar Named Desire than in Top Girls, as Top Girls is a language-oriented play in whichthe central conflicts are best portrayed through words of the characters, rather than the setting.
Hot or Rot? In your pack, there are are several thesis statements, some for Literature, some for Language & Literature. Pick the ones which apply to your course. Can you work out what the question is for each?
Compare and contrast the presentation of any three or four characters in the plays you have studied. Discuss how characters, and how effectively, are used to further the dramatic force of the play. Put simply, dramatic force is effect of the drama upon the audience: it’s ‘force’ upon them. Within both Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire are charactersthat elicit a strong response from the audience. Both plays present protagonists, in Willie Loman and Blanche Dubois respectively, whose characteristics of arrogance and superciliousness initially prick the audience’s antipathy, but in the unfolding of the tragedy we find more reasons to sympathise with their peripeteia and tragic demise. The role of minor characters is also to support the presentation of the key characters and further the dramatic force that they possess though highlighting and enhancing their flaws and vulnerabilities. Through complex characteristion, the audience is left with a resounding feeling of loss and grief at the demise of these flawed but very ‘human’ characters.
Context - historical, cultural, or social – can have an influence on the way literary works are written or received. Discuss with reference to at least two of the works you have studied. In the 1950s, in the aftermath of WWII, the emerging Cold War fostered paranoia for ‘Anti-American’ non-conformism. Society promoted a ‘traditional’ family structure, involving adherence to so-called traditional gender roles, and a suppression of individualism. In this regard, mental illness was a form of non-conformism, stigmatized by society, and treated by new medical and technological developments. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Ken Kesey’sOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are both situated in this time and place. The former is a semi-autobiographical novel, narrated from the perspective of the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, who struggles with depression as she seeks to express her ‘authentic’ identity. The latter is a novel, narrated by Chief Bromden, about a ward in a mental institution in Oregon, controlled by the tyrannical Nurse Ratchet whose control is challenged by the arrival of Randle P. McMurphy. Both literary texts are influenced by the socio-cultural context in which they are set – 1950s America – and may be regarded as the authors’ personal response to the circumstances of their context, revealing an understanding of gender roles and mental illness in particular.
In what ways and for what purpose do playwrights indicate time? Discuss with reference to works by at least two playwrights you have studied. In terms of time, both playwrights comment on the world around them: Williams’ situates Streetcar contemporarily in the 1940s, a backdrop for larger themes such as the transformation of the old to new America, while Churchill plays with time, setting history and fiction against a modern British 1980s setting of Top Girls to hold a mirror up to the failure of feminism in the present day. However, in terms of the timeframe of the play, Williams and Churchill almost use timefor specific and opposite effects on the audience. Events in Streetcar follow the trajectory of a tragic play, and the purpose of this chronology may be to incite emotional involvement, as Blanche’s downfall evokes our pity. In Top Girls, timeis used for the opposite effect – to exclude emotional involvement, as Scene 1 happens in an unrealistic time period, and the three acts in the play are non-linear. Churchill may purposely use fragmented timeperiods for the alienation effect, which is to avoid connection between the audience and characters, and to question the success of these characters as a whole.
Show how conflict is represented in the two literary works you have studied, and discuss how this aspect might be interpreted or understood in different historical, cultural or social contexts. Conflictis a broad term and can refer to international war, or a simmering fight between siblings, and this theme in its many forms is, to a large extent, the meat of literature. In Ibsen’s late 19th Century drama, A Doll’s House, the private conflict which unfolds between Nora and Torvald was interpreted with alarm by some contemporary audiences: despite Ibsen’s message, the perception of a woman’s ‘sacred duty’ being to her children as opposed to herself as a human necessitated Ibsen changing the last act of the play entirely. However, modern day audiences in the West, particularly, tend to applaud Nora’s shrugging off of the childish and submissive persona she adopts. Similarly, the family conflict in Arundhati Roy’s brilliant 1990’s novel, The God of Small Things, is also symbolic of wider issues in Indian culture: the racism of the caste system is key, and while the novel gained critical applause abroad, the difficult reception in India shows the impact that literature about truth, and about conflict, can still have.
What makes a good thesis statement? • Address the terms of the question • Name the texts that you will be writing about! • Set up a persuasive argument • Provide a point from which the rest of the essay can be developed • Use convincing, assured language which demonstrates a confidence in your argument
Your Turn • Address the terms of the question • Name the texts that you will be writing about! • Take a standpoint. Have an opinion. Set up a persuasive argument • Provide a point from which the rest of the essay can be developed • Use convincing, assured language which demonstrates a confidence in your argument In what ways and for what purposes do playwrights make use of dialogue and monologue? Use one of the questions from today. Work in threes. Miss Bugden will be judging the best LaL response; I will be judging the best Literature response.
In what ways and for what purposes do playwrights use monologue and dialogue for specific effect? Both Top Girls and A Streetcar Named Desire use dialogue and monologue to make the mental state of characters more explicit on stage. In Top Girls, a Brechtian play, neither monologue nor dialogue are used to express emotion but instead highlight constant repressions of suffering and human emotion by the women on their journey to ‘success’. The ‘top girls’ cut each other off during dialogue, withholding feelings of emotion from the audience and so show how un-collaborative women have been throughout history. In A Streetcar Named Desire, which is a far more character driven modern tragedy based on the thoughts of characters, monologues and dialogue are used in the opposite way: to express the inner thoughts and emotions of characters. Mike, Phoebe, Louis
Explain how the authors of at least two literary works have portrayed a social group in a particular way. How might the contexts of the authors have influenced their portrayal of these social groups? The writers of The Great Gatsby and A Doll’s House were greatly influenced by social changes during the time period in which they were writing. This influenced their portrayal of different social groups. The Great Gatsby, set in post-war 1920’s New York, portrays the moral degradation of the high-end American social group. The Great Gatsby was Fitzgerald’s social commentary on the downfall of the American Dream: the characters are portrayed as selfish, masked and isolated. Similarly, Ibsen comments on the middle class social groups living in a Norwegian town set in the late 19th Century. The playwright explores the themes of gender roles and society’s expectations through character’s actions and relationships. Ibsen depicts this social group as confined, conservative and vulnerable. Both literary texts are influence by the socio-cultural context in which they are set, and may be regarded as the authors persona response to the circumstances of their context, revealing an understanding of the social groups of that time. Tiffany, Rick Ahn, Hannah, Antonio
In what ways and for what purposes do playwrights use monologue and dialogue for specific effect? Dialogue and monologue are two styles of dramatic speech that can be used to communicate emotions as well as thematic ideas. Churchill’s Top Girls uses a Brechtian style of overlapping dialogue that highlights a disunity between characters and thus questions the progress of feminism in a capitalist world; a central issue in Churchill’s work. Monologue is employed only when female characters release emotion they must usually suppress in order succeed, which also questions the sacrifices necessary to make it ‘to the top’. In Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, realistic dialogue follows the central conflict between the worlds of Stanley and Blanche, opposing one another in length and complexity. Monologue is explicitly used to communicate Blanche’s personal internal deteriorating highlighting Williams’ focus on character turmoil in contrast to Churchill’s ideological themes, to the purpose of inspiring fear in audiences for the society she fell prey to. Ellie & Vivien
Explain how the authors of at least two literary works have portrayed a social group in a particular way. How might the contexts of the authors have influenced their portrayal of these social groups? A social group is the established strata of society one belongs to, as dictated by wealth, reputation and inheritance. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde’s use of social satire and moral inversion mocks the idleness of upper class late 19th century Victorian society. The listlessness and amorality of Wilde’s principal characters explores the social conventions of the time. Meanwhile, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House questions the patriarchal society of late 19th Century Scandinavian middle class households commenting on the duties that confined women in their respective roles. Both playwrights attempt to challenge the status quo of the different social groups within the times. Emily, Michelle, Elena
Explain how the authors of at least two literary works have portrayed a social group in a particular way. How might the contexts of the authors have influenced their portrayal of these social groups? The success of a literary work is often dependent on its relatability with its intended audience. Both ADH and THOBI depend heavily on the conventions of Wilde and Ibsen’s 19th century social context. As an egalitarian, Ibsen opposed the patriarchal conventions of late 1800s, middle Christian, Norway, Ibsen sought to expose the systematic oppression of women by creating strong-willed and, above all, independent female characters. Nora’s deviation from the Christian conventions of Norway at the time. Through leaving her children and husband could be seen as a challenge to the expectations of motherhood and marriage placed on women at this time. Wilde’s expose of the idleness and ennui of late 1800’s, English aristocrats would be interpreted as a glamorisation of the ‘Dandy’ lifestayle, or as a mockery of the Dandies whom he associated with. Luke & Isabel
