Literature in Translation: Reflective Statement

The guiding question for the reflective statement for all three Literature in Translation texts is:

How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral?

“Context” refers to all possible contexts. It is intended to embrace the cultural underpinnings of the works by looking at specifics such as:

·     the time and place in which the work was written

·     information about the author (particularly as it relates to the way in which the author’s ideas as presented in the work do, or do not, accord with situations in the contemporary society)

·     philosophical, political and social contexts

·     ideas that the students themselves bring to the work.

“Developed” is the other key word in the question. It is a personal statement that is most likely to be written in the first person, and should be an honest account of the evolution of understanding. If you feel that you have not really learned anything, then you should reflect on you they still do not understand. 

IB13 Homework

Read to the end of Chapter 4 of 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold'.

Come and see us if you don't have a copy.  It will cost you £6.30.

Due: Monday 8th July

IB13 Easter Homework

You will, of course, be re-reading and revising the Paper 2 exam texts over the Easter break.

Please post comments below with any short quotations, from the novels that we have studied, that you think are worth remembering for the exam and why. Your explanation needs to show an appreciation of the use of literary conventions.

IB13 Paper 1 Unseen 'The Visitors'

Today we practiced our skills of annotation and planning. Anyone who would like for us to mark their commentary and hand back before Easter, you will need to hand it in on Monday 25th March.

IB13 Paper 2 essay writing

Today we looked at Q3 from your General Questions on Literature revision sheet.

Here is the paragraph we started to write together:

"One way in which freedom of the human spirit is explored in both novels is through the presentation of restrictive societies.  Bronte presents a patriarchal society in which Jane is restricted by her gender, class and wealth.  A key moment in the text that illustrates this is when John Reed attacks Jane towards the beginning of the novel, describing her as a ‘mad cat’.  Bronte intends to show the oppression of all women which is emphasised through the male dominance of John Reed.  Bronte viewed Victorian attitudes to women, children and the poor as being out of date, and used Jane’s position within a restrictive society as a means to illustrate this."

Your homework is to finish the paragraph (using our seven part paragraph guide) and write the rest of the essay.  The plan we devised together for the following paragraphs were:

- setting (geographical)
- character
- dreaming

Please ensure that you have done this by Monday 25th March as we will be setting you another timed essay in that lesson.

Miss Neilson

IB12 George Orwell

One of Orwell's greatest frustrations, as explored in Politics and the English Language, is with euphemism.  He writes:

‘Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness. Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements. Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them.’

We know that euphemism, like idiom, is one of the hardest, most context-dependent aspects of the English language.  My favourite, politically-driven euphemism of recent times is ‘friendly fire’, because its juxtaposition completely underscores its absurdity.

So, IB12, what euphemism do you like, and why?  Which are you guilty of overusing?

Answers below by Thursday, March 21^st.

IB13 Homework 12th March 2013

You have 1 hour and 15 mins to write a commentary for the prose extract from 'Polar Breath' by Diane Glancy (1993). You had 45 mins in the lesson to write your plan.

Those who were absent (Aniqa, Ryan, Cody and Tommy) need to collect this from Miss Dalling tomorrow.

Date due: Monday 18th March

IB13 Homework - 5th March 2013

Spend no more than 2 hours planning and answering the following Paper 2 question:

Writers of fiction do not always relate events in chronological order. In at least two works you have studied, explore the effects of telling the story in a non-chronological manner.

Due: Monday 11^th March

IB12 Carol Ann Duffy

IB12 are currently studying poetry by Carol Ann Duffy selected mainly from her wonderful anthology 'The World's Wife'.

My favourite lines come from the poem 'Anne Hathaway':

I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon the next best bed.

Why? Well, for all the reasons that we explored in lesson but mainly because of the way the tense shifts from the present 'hold' to the past 'held' which is a moving signal of how Shakespeare continues to live in the speaker's memory yet she will never be 'held' by him again. 

So, IB12: What is/are your favourite line/s and why? Submit by posting your comment below by Friday 8th March 2013.

We are enjoying reading your poems in the style of Duffy and hope that this has helped you in showing an appreciation of the ways in which language, structure, technique and style shape meaning.

Miss Akhtar :)