C a p p e l e n s Il l u str a sj o n: Ing e r D a l e
nr01-2008
t i d s s k r i f t
f o r
e n g e l s k l æ r e r e
Leder
innhold Britain’s Cultural Role in the World Today by Richard Burgess
03
Vi snakker Lørdagspizza Vi snakker ekte kjærlighet Vi snakker om total fullkommenhet Vi nordmenn spiser rundt 50 millioner stk. dypfryst pizza i året, dvs. at det spises mer enn én i sekundet. Hvis man stabler Pizza Grandiosa-esker tilsvarende én dags salg, bygges et tårn som tilsvarer ca. 17,5 ganger høyden av Hotel Plaza i Oslo (alt i følge Stabburets nettsider). Du lurer muligens på hva slike kuriøse fakta fra næringsmiddelindustrien har med engelskfaget å gjøre. Kanskje har de fleste av oss glemt at “nasjonalretten” pizza en gang ble ansett som noe eksotisk og spennende? I Stuart Bowdens artikkel i dette nummeret av ['mæg@'zi:n] viser han hvordan mange matretter har vunnet innpass i nye land i den engelskspråklige verden og dermed har blitt en del av en ny og globalisert matkultur.
06 08
Mat er definitivt kultur, og denne gangen står ['mæg@'zi:n] i kulturens tegn. Britisk kultur (da ser vi bort fra mat …) har hatt en massiv inflytelse både her til lands og i store deler av verden. Men er det slik fremdeles? Richard Burgess drøfter dette i en tekst vi har hentet fra det nye læreverket vårt for programfaget “Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur” – Access to English: Literature. Øvrige “kulturelle innslag” i ['mæg@'zi:n] er et undervisningsopplegg om radiohørespill og en anmeldelse av Jonathan Saffron Foer’s roman Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
God lesning!
Access to English – programfag Vg3
Exploring English Language and Communication by Hilde Hasselgård and Magne Dypedahl
10 13
I den nye læreplanen i engelsk for videregående skole er Kultur, samfunn og litteratur et hovedområde på alle årstrinn. Det samme gjelder hovedområdene Språklæring og Kommunikasjon. Mange lærere har uttrykt bekymring for hvordan de skal undervise elevene i de til dels ambisiøse kompetansemålene som ligger under de sistnevnte hovedområdene. Hilde Hasselgård og Magne Dypedahl presenterer i en artikkel læreverket Exploring English, som de har skrevet for å hjelpe elevene med å oppnå disse målene. Vi håper å se mange av dere på våre engelskkurs i april/ mai. Se cappelendamm.no for kursdatoer.
A Question of Taste by Stuart Bowden
Pass It On! by Theresa Bowles Sørhus
14 [ mæg@'zi:n] '
CAPPELEN VIDEREGÅENDE
Read It! by Carol V. Dwankowski
Ansvarlig redaktør: Birger Nicolaysen
Cappelen Damm Fridtjof Nansen vei 14
Redaksjon:
0055 Oslo
Kirsten Aadahl
Telefon: 21 61 66 54 / 55 E-post: birger.nicolaysen@cappelen.no Produksjon: PrePress as
Britain’s Cultural Role in the World Today
npix
© Sca
by Richard Burgess
During the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany, a small town famous for its perfume manufacture saw an opportunity to market itself. They created a “trail of scent”, with a different scent for each of the participating nations. Mexico, for example, was represented by the smell of mangoes, Iran by the odour of saffron and France by its famous fragrance Chanel No. 5. Which smell do you think the English were represented by? The aroma of fish and chips generously covered in salt and vinegar? The smell of a freshly mown lawn on a summer’s evening? Or perhaps the suffocating stench of traffic in central London? Well, they chose none of these, but picked instead the sweet smell of After Eight chocolates. The choice was an interesting one. For most people the after-dinner mint chocolates conjure up a world of old-fashioned
respectability, a world of gentlemen’s clubs and quiet affluence – the sort of environment depicted in the Norwegian advertisement where people sip their coffee and murmur “Yes … it’s Evergood!”. This “After-Eight factor” is often present in foreigners’ cultural associations with Britain. It is not in itself a negative factor, but it tends to emphasise the quaint and the conservative at the expense of the dynamic. Perhaps it is inevitable that a former colonial power should have nostalgia as one of its defining character traits. But as we shall see in the following brief survey of the country’s cultural role in the world today, Britain is much more diverse and dynamic than its popular stereotype would have us believe.
The English language We must start with the language it “invented”. The position of English as the dominant global lingua franca is, of course, originally due to Britain’s former dominance as an economic, political and military power – a dominance that is long since gone. What is unusual about Britain’s position today is that its eclipse as a superpower has in no way weakened the dominance of its language – for the simple reason that the country that eclipsed it was also English-speaking! For Britain the dominance of the English language is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it means that all the channels for marketing its culture to the rest of the world are still wide-open. There is an everincreasing audience of English-speakers out there who are able to listen and understand. On the other hand, it means that in each of these channels it risks being drowned out by a louder, faster and more confident voice – that of the United States. For while America’s foreign policy may not always be popular
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Doris Lessing © Scanpix
abroad, its ability to sell its lifestyle and culture has been phenomenal. In this respect, Britain’s situation is very different from that of another former colonial power, France. The global influence of French has declined, but France at least has the consolation of knowing that it remains the undisputed heart of the Francophone world. The British, by comparison, can sometimes seem to have an identity crisis. Their language is now everybody’s. Their culture can be difficult to differentiate from the new global culture.
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
The media In the media the BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation) continues to have a high global profile. In fact, in terms of audience size it is still the biggest broadcasting corporation in the world. While its domestic channels, both TV and radio, are non-commercial and funded by licence fees, in the international market it owns a number of commercial subsidiaries (BBC Prime, BBC World, BBC America and BBC Canada are some of the biggest) that sell BBC programmes and news services to a global market. BBC productions continue to enjoy a high reputation in a number of fields. The “AfterEight factor” is noticeable in the popularity of its historical dramas, a genre in which the BBC are acknowledged masters. Documentaries, particularly nature documentaries, are another genre in which it excels, and series like Life on Earth, The Blue Planet and Planet Earth (all fronted by veteran broadcaster David Attenborough) have made a significant contribution to raising public awareness of the environment. In the field of humour BBC productions have provided a recognizably British alternative to American comedy, and series like Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Blackadder and, more recently The Office all achieved international popularity, also in America. In radio the BBC World Service, with its estimated 183 million listeners a week, holds
a unique position as a global broadcaster. Although funded directly by the British Government, it enjoys a reputation for unbiased news coverage and quality journalism. Broadcasting in 33 languages, the World Service has survived competition from television networks and remains an important international news provider. Film The British film industry is, of course, small in comparison with Hollywood, but British filmmakers have succeeded in making an international impact by finding a style of their own. Gritty realism and humour – often in combination – are typical ingredients here, and films like The Full Monty (1997) and Billy Elliot (2001) showed that it was possible for low-budget productions to achieve both critical acclaim and international box office success. Romantic comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Notting Hill (1999) established Hugh Grant as Hollywood’s favourite British film star, combining boyish charm with the faintest whiff of After Eight. In the field of animation Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit films received worldwide acclaim in spite of (or perhaps because of) the unmistakeably British flavour of the setting and the language. But when it comes to representations of British life on the screen, nothing has had quite the impact of the Harry Potter films – which is ironic, considering the highly nonrealistic content. The “After-Eight” factor has a role to play here too, for Hogwarts, minus the magic, has all the hallmarks of an oldfashioned English public school, as depicted in many classic children’s stories since Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857). The magical mixture of fantasy and nostalgia, with the addition of spectacular special effects, has proved irresistible for children and adults all over the world, while the film locations have become popular attractions for foreign tourists.
Literature Literature in the English language has long since gone global and British writers must compete for readership and critical acclaim with writers from all over the world. It has to be said that the global impact of British literature has declined as a result. Even the annual Booker Prize, awarded to the best novel written by British, Irish or Commonwealth authors (i.e. American authors are excluded), has only been won by Britons nine times in the last twenty years. It is difficult to talk of a specific “British voice” in fiction, but an interesting development in the last two decades has been that many of the most influential British writers have at least one foot in immigrant communities. With authors like Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, Hanif Kureishi and Kasuo Ishiguro, British literature has become global and multicultural in outlook. It is interesting to note that the 2007 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Doris Lessing, although British by citizenship and origin, was born in Persia (Iran) and grew up in Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). Ever since Shakespeare’s time the theatre has had a central position in Britain’s cultural life, and British dramatists continue to impress both audiences and critics around the world. The tense psychological dramas of Harold Pinter (another Nobel prize-winner) and the witty situation comedies of Alan Ayckbourne exemplify the breadth of modern British theatre. In children’s literature there is no getting
around the name Harry Potter again. Translated into 65 languages, British author J.K. Rowling’s books have sold a staggering 325 million copies worldwide and are credited with making reading popular with children again. In the words of Gordon Brown (Prime Minister and well-known “muggle”), “J.K. Rowling has done more for literacy around the world than any single human being”. Music In classical music, composers like Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle enjoy international reputations, while, at the more popular end of the classical scale, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals are performed not only on Broadway and in London’s West End, but in concert rooms and village halls from Hong Kong to Hønefoss. British orchestras like the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra are numbered among the very finest and London’s annual Promenade Concerts (affectionately known as “the Proms”) remain the largest classical music festival in the world, broadcast by the BBC to a global audience. In popular music, particularly rock, Britain’s influence is even greater. The roots of the music may lie in America, but ever since the 1960s, when the Beatles and the Rolling Stones competed for the crown of “world’s best band”, Britain has been at least an equal partner in the development of rock. Many of rock’s “grand old men” (and they are mostly men) are British – Elton John, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Mick Jagger to
name a few – while every new style or trend, from progressive to post-punk, has had British artists at the forefront. Art London has never been regarded as the art capital of the world. Paris and New York are stronger contenders for that title. However, conceptual art – i.e. art where the focus is on ideas behind a work rather than its technical execution – is one area in which British artists have achieved fame, not to mention notoriety. The Turner Prize, awarded every year by London’s Tate Gallery to a young Briton, never fails to gain international media attention, often due to the bizarre nature of the exhibits and the wacky behaviour of the artists. Controversial winners have included Damien Hirst (who exhibited a dead cow and calf, cut in two and preserved in formaldehyde) and Tracy Emin (who exhibited her messed-up bed complete with condoms, empty vodka bottle, and dirty knickers). Sport Many of the world’s most popular spectator sports originated in Britain, and the country maintains a central role even though its performances at a national level may not be what they were. Football (i.e. soccer) is a good example. Whatever the fortunes of the English football team – and they generally fall short of their own expectations – the English Premier League is by far the most popular sporting league in the world. It has long since stopped being a purely English affair. At the
time of writing the league’s twenty teams include 337 foreign players from a total of 66 countries. Some clubs (e.g. Arsenal and Chelsea) regularly field teams in which there is not a single English player. This has simply increased the international appeal of the league and a team like Manchester United, for example, boasts some 50 million fans worldwide. In cricket, usually ranked the second most popular sport in the world (except by the Americans!), England competes at the very top, but usually loses to archrival Australia. In rugby all four nations of the British Isles have an international reputation (and, interestingly, this is the only sport in which Northern Ireland and the Republic play as one nation). Finally, tennis deserves mention, for while British players seldom make an impression at the very highest levels, the Wimbledon Tournament in London has maintained its position as the most prestigious championship in the sport. How long “British culture” will retain a recognisably separate identity in an increasingly globalised and, some would say, Americanised world, remains to be seen. For the time being, at least, Britain continues to have a global cultural impact, often punching above its weight, to use a boxing metaphor. Like so much national stereotyping, the “After-Eight factor” is part of a myth of Britain that, while it contains a grain of truth, is long out of date. Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be – and if you look carefully at the box of After Eights, you will notice that they are made in Switzerland now.
Damien Hirst: “Mother and Child, Divided” © Astrup Fearnley Samlingen, Oslo/Fotograf Tore H. Røyneland, Oslo
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
A Que
“Celebrity chef” Jamie Oliver © Scanpix
by Stuart Bowden
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
In recent years there has been much talk about ‘globalisation’ of food. Different food cultures have found their way into widely differing parts of the world, places vastly removed from their origins. Lately the worldwide influence of Americanbased hamburger chains has become an object of discussion: but this has to a greater extent been a negative discussion, based on the fact that this type of food is supposedly unhealthy, and is an example of the growing domination of global companies. There is a positive aspect to the ‘migration’ of food. Australia, for example, has become famous for its ‘fusion’ cuisine, where styles, ingredients and techniques from Europe, Asia and other world regions combine to create a uniquely ‘Australian’ form of cooking. Immigrants have brought their cooking styles from all over the world, leading those who have an interest in such matters to look at their own ‘native’ cuisine in new, exciting and often very creative ways. Descendants of immigrants from a huge swathe of differing backgrounds populate the modern Americas, particularly the northern half of the continent. The various regions of the United States and Canada, for example, were taken over by widely differing cultures, the French in Quebec and the southern USA,
© Scanpix
Indians in Ontario, the Spanish in the southern and south western parts of the US, Scandinavians in the mid-Western states, Poles in Chicago, Irish in New England, Italians and Jews in New York, Chinese in the west… the list goes on and on. They all brought their cuisines with them and adapted them to their new circumstances, and in many cases these adaptations are now being ‘re-exported’ as American-style foods. The ‘bagel’ bread roll is a good example of this, as is the humble pizza. More notable are such styles as ‘Tex-Mex’ and Cajun, the spicy Creole/French/Caribbean fusion of New Orleans. Food on the ‘box’ The cult of the ‘celebrity chef’, a televisual phenomenon that has proved immensely successful over recent decades, has further fuelled this process, bringing widely varied cooking styles to the TV screens of billions. Keith Floyd, Nigella Lawson, Delia Smith, Anthony Worrall-Thompson, Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver are all names with which most of the world is familiar, their programmes attracting huge audiences worldwide. Interestingly, this area of entertainment seems to be an almost uniquely British ‘export’, although in all cases the cooking they demonstrate draws from as wide a range of influences as their audience is varied.
They have all served to ‘open the minds’ of the viewers, to make them receptive to new and exciting ways of preparing what might be familiar and formerly mundane ingredients. They have additionally changed the ranges on offer in supermarkets, due to demand for things that people want to try for themselves. Due to these and other factors, food culture around the English-speaking world is nowadays a fascinating blend of colours, flavours and styles. Probably there is no other group of nations that enjoys such a rich variety of food on a regular basis. This is a direct reflection of the broad cultural and racial mix evident in almost all of them. Historically, local availability of ingredients naturally influenced what people traditionally ate in any given country, but in the modern world, this is no longer a restriction, with rapid transportation of fresh ingredients so easy and cheap. As people move into different societies through migration, so do their cooking styles and food. And as people travel around the world for business or pleasure, they quite naturally discover new flavours and dishes that they want to be able to enjoy when they get back home. But this is not such a recent phenomenon. One could argue that it all began several centuries ago, perhaps during the height of the British and other empires. As the European
estion of Taste A Question of Taste
nations set their sights on ever more distant lands as sources of income (and subjects of exploitation, some would argue), those who settled in these far-flung outreaches of the new-found dominions gradually absorbed aspects of the cultures they had settled among. They developed tastes in food quite different to the fellow nationals they had left behind for their work, or in service of their country. And when they inevitably returned from their spells abroad, they brought back with them a desire to continue their enjoyment of these tastes. Thus is was, in Great Britain, that ‘native’ citizens of such colonies and dominions as Hong Kong and India began to arrive on British shores to cater for this new market. The first Indian and Chinese restaurants began to spring up in London and other major British cities in the nineteenth century, and in the early years of the twenty-first century it is virtually impossible to find a town of any size in the UK without at least one example of each. A survey carried out in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s discovered that Britons’ favourite dish was no longer that great stalwart of British cuisine, fish and chips. Chicken Tikka Masala had taken its place at the top of the list. Although not a true Indian dish, it is an adaptation of the sub-continent’s
Chicken Tikka Masala © Scanpix
Fish and chips © Scanpix
cooking style developed by Indians for British diners with a taste for spicier food. And the ‘Brits’ generally like their food spicy; anyone who grew up in a military family, for example, will tell you that a good ‘curry’ is one of the best meals of the lot. This strong Army tradition dates back to the time of the Raj, the British rule of India. The truth is that the boundaries between food styles, particularly around the English speaking world, are becoming ever more indistinct. While some people stick to the tried and trusted foods they know, the more adventurous eater is never far from an exciting new taste treat! Cheap and efficient transport enables quick delivery of ‘foreign’ food products such as meat, fish and vegetables anywhere in the world. And really popular food types find their way onto farms far from their native lands. A good early example of the latter is the humble turkey. Native to the Americas, it found its way to Europe in a big way during the nineteenth century, during which it supplanted the traditional British Christmas Day goose as the focal point of the feast. Now people eat the bird year-round, and there are many turkey farms in the UK and elsewhere. More recently, ostrich farms are springing up in the most unlikely places – it can be quite disorienting to be driving along an English country lane and see a flock of the huge birds
in a nearby field. Not farmed to any great extent outside Africa, Asia and Australasia, but also becoming very popular in Europe, the equally healthy crocodile and kangaroo offer interesting alternatives to more traditional meats. Of course, inhabitants of the southern United States have long enjoyed the croc’s smaller cousin, alligator. Fish and vegetables too are subject to similar ‘migration’, helped by horticultural and fish farming technology. It is hard to imagine a world without tilapia, but less than two decades ago it was almost impossible to find this versatile and extremely tasty fish in European shops – another example of migrating people bringing beneficial foods with them to their new homes.
01 02 03 04 05 06
Stuart Bowden is a British journalist, working mainly as a freelancer, writing (primarily about travel, tourism and related industries), designing and producing newsletters for various tourism and educational clients, editing and producing travel trade magazines and newspapers. He is a regular contributor to the Columbus World Travel Guide (a major on-line resource for international travellers).
07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Programfag Vg3:
Samfunnsfaglig engelsk og Engelskspråklig litteratur og kultur Access to English: Social Studies John Anthony, Richard Burgess, Robert Mikkelsen, Theresa Bowles Sørhus “Vi vil hjelpe lærere med å gi elevene den grundige innføringen i historie, politikk, økonomi og sosiale forhold som læreplanen legger opp til og kombinere denne med 'dypdykk' i spennende debattemaer og aktuelle konflikter.” Læreverket består av: Lærebok med oppgaver Lærer-CD-er Gratis fagnettsted for elever og lærere. Fire deler - ni kapitler I første del av boka er fokuset på historie, i del to på politikk og økonomi. Del tre tar for seg sosiale problemer, konflikter og verdier, mens del fire går i dybden på to omfattende temaer som spenner over både historie, politikk og sosiale forhold: den økende oppsplittingen av nasjonene innenfor Storbritannia, og forholdene for den svarte befolkningen i USA. Sakprosatekstene i boka er mange, dekker et mangfold av sjangrer og
gir kontekst og analyse. Men det er skjønnlitteraturen som best formidler personlig innsikt og opplevelser. Derfor har vi inkludert et spennende utvalg dikt, noveller og utdrag fra romaner og skuespill. Et eget element i boka er 'snapshots' som gir korte møter med kjente personer og hendelser - for eksempel Guy Fawkes, Bonnie Prince Charlie og Nixon/ Watergate. Oppgaver Sammen med nettstedet gir boka elevene et vell av muligheter til å forbedre sine engelskkunnskaper gjennom studiet av samfunnsfaglige emner. Oppgavene spenner fra tekstanalyse og diskusjon til arbeid med bilder, film og nettressurser. Språklig trening er viktig, ikke minst opptrening av samfunnsfaglig vokabular og sjangerbevissthet. På nettsiden gir Toolbox elevene veiledning i forhold til ulike teksttyper, og her finner man også et omfattende skrivekurs for å hjelpe eleven med bl. a. forskjellige slags essays. Hver hoveddel avsluttes med 'Digging Deeper', der elevene får forslag til temaer for fordypningsarbeid og hjelp til selvevaluering.
Lærer-CD-er Alle de litterære tekstene i boka er innspilt på CD. Her er det også lytteøvinger. Lytteøvingene og en del av sakprosatekstene vil også ligge på nettstedet access.cappelen.no. access.cappelen.no Access to English: Social Studies har et innholdsrikt, gratis fagnettsted med egen ressurs for læreren. Til hver tekst tilbyr vi ekstra materiale. Det kan være interaktive språkøvinger, ekstratekster og interaktive kart som gir liv til framstillingen av et tema - f. eks. det britiske imperiets framvekst. Vi tilbyr også et utvalg 'web texts' der vi har laget introduksjoner og oppgaver til et utvalg tekster som gir elevene innblikk i historiske perioder og personer.
01 02
Activities
03
1 DISCUSSION a) What has replaced paradise in the first stanza? b) What environmental dangers does Mitchell warn against in the second and third stanzas? c) What is the significance of the big yellow taxi in this song? d) The song “Big Yellow Taxi” was written in 1970. Is it still relevant today, in your opinion? Why or why not?
04 05 06 07
Go to the Access website for a link to Joni Mitchell singing her song in concert.
08
2 WRITING a) The protest song is just one way of responding to an issue you have strong feelings about. Transform the song into a different text genre, e.g. a letter to the editor, a short story, a speech, a poem, or an article. b) Do you agree that “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”? Write a personal essay on this topic.
09 10 11 12
3 GRAMMAR TASK A run-on sentence is a common error. It occurs when two sentences which can stand on their own are incorrectly fused together in a sentence, joined only by a comma.
13 14 15 16
For example: It’s raining, put a hat on. The correct way to join these sentences would be:
418
CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
T
he Bounty – Homecoming
by Derek Walcott It’s raining. Put a hat on. or It’s raining; put a hat on. or It’s raining, so put a hat on. Which of the following are run-on sentences? How can they be corrected? a) Media Studies is a relatively new subject, students are choosing it in large numbers. b) She looked anxiously over her shoulder, turned the key and entered the house. c) My Uncle Joe is a geography teacher, he’s also a keen balloon dancer. d) Knowing that everyone was watching me, I tried to behave as naturally as possible. e) It’s a pity it’s raining, I was thinking of going for a walk. f) He didn’t get the job, however he found the interview a useful experience. g) Paddy has the luck of the Irish, he never seems to put a foot wrong. h) The exam starts at 8 o’clock, make sure you’re there on time. i) He was used to strict discipline, his father having been a military man.
iii When the violin whines its question and the banjo answers, my pain increases in stabs, my severances from odors and roots, the homemade shac-shac scraping, the dip and acknowledgement of courteous country dances, the smoke I would hold in my arms always escaping like my father’s figure, and now my mother’s; let me for invocation’s sacred sake, for the lonely hallowing of leaves and turning corners, come on the breaking sea around the sharp brown cliffs of Les Cayes, billowing breaker, the salt Atlantic wind; I hear a language receding, unwritten by you, and the voices of children reading your work in one language only when you had both. I should ask the clouds to stop moving, for the shadows to pause, because I can feel it dying and the growth of all that besieges it, the courtly gestures of grace. My fingers are like thorns and my eyes are wet like logwood leaves after a drizzle, the kind in which the sun and the rain contend for the same place like the two languages I know – one so rich in its imperial intimacies, its echo of privilege, the other like the orange words of a hillside in drought – but my love of both wide as the Atlantic is large.
Derek Walcott was born on Saint Lucia in the West Indies in 1930. He is a poet and dramatist. Walcott is of mixed black, Dutch and English descent and in much of his writing he explores the dilemma of divided loyalties between West Indian culture and the culture of European colonial settlers, not least as it is reflected in the island’s two languages. English is the official language, but a French patois is also widely spoken on Saint Lucia. Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. patois = dialect severance adskillelse/(åt)skiljing odor lukt invocation påkalling hallowing helligholdelse/ heilaghalding billowing bølgende/ bølgjande breaker havbølge/havbølgje recede trekke seg tilbake / trekkje seg tilbake besiege beleire/omleire drizzle duskregn imperial som angår imperiet / som har med imperiet å gjere
CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
419
Litteraturutvalget vil glede og overraske. Oversiktsartiklene er grundige og gir forståelse og innsikt. Elevene arbeider med film, arkitektur og andre kunstarter og opplever engelskfaget som inspirerende, krevende og lærerikt. Vi har laget opplegg som utvikler elevenes språkkunnskaper og formuleringsevner og oppgaver som utfordrer intellekt og fantasi.
Access to English: Literature John Anthony, Richard Burgess, Robert Mikkelsen, Theresa Bowles Sørhus Læreverket består av: Tekstbok med oppgaver Lærer-CD-er Gratis fagnettsted for lærere og elever
Access to English: Literature har sju kapitler. Intensjonen med det første kapitlet, “Read and Enjoy”, er å fokusere på leseglede – og å gi hjelp til å forstå og tolke litteratur. Vi presenterer en kort novelle og leder elevene gjennom denne steg for steg. Så følger et utvalg moderne kortnoveller som elevene skal arbeide med. Vi gir forslag til hvordan en kan bearbeide tekstene og gir elevene en sjekkliste til hjelp. Resten av boka er bygd opp kronologisk i seks kapitler: The Renaissance and Shakespeare The Enlightenment Romanticism The Victorian Age (en britisk og en amerikansk seksjon)
Modernism Contemporary Literature + Literary glossary Hvert kapittel gir en grundig innføring i de litterære strømningene og samfunnsutviklingen for øvrig i perioden. Forfatternes mål med disse oversiktstekstene er å gi elevene et solid faglig grunnlag gjennom en form og et språk som motiverer og inspirerer. Litteraturutvalget til de forskjellige periodene er gjort etter flere kriterier: det er litteratur som er representative for perioden, som gir en forståelse av tiden den er skrevet i – men som også er allmenngyldig. Det har vært viktig å vise at eldre litteratur ikke er museumsgjenstander fra tidligere tider, men er levende uttrykk som fortsetter å gi gjenklang i vår tid. Ikke bare litteratur I tillegg til litteratur fins blant annet artikler og opplegg omkring kunst, musikk, arkitektur og film. Elevene kan høre og se ideer og tanker i periodene, ikke bare lese om dem. Vi har lagt stor vekt på utvelgelsen av illustrasjoner, og mange av dem er satt inn i en kontekst og krever like stor oppmerksomhet som en tekst.
Skriftlig og muntlig kommunikasjon Kurset setter høye krav til både skriftlig og muntlig framstillingsevne hos elevene. Dette har vi tatt på alvor, og boka inneholder fem grundige “skrivekurs” med oppgaver hvor elevene ledes trinnvis gjennom de forskjellige fasene fram til et vellykket essay. Boken har også et opplegg for muntlig framføring. I tillegg er det mange og varierte oppgaver til tekstene, også språktreningsoppgaver. Lærer-CD-er Alle litterære tekster, dikt, sanger og lytteøvinger er innspilt på CD. Et utvalg av tekstene vil også ligge som lydspor på nettstedet access.cappelen.no access.cappelen.no Access to English: Literature har et innholdsrikt, gratis fagnettsted med egen ressurs for læreren. Hver tekst får ekstra materiale, for eksempel ekstratekster, relevante lenker og interaktive språkøvinger. Her vil elevene finne stoff til ekstra fordypning i litteratur, kunst, musikk og arkitektur.
01
F
02 ire and Ice
03
by Robert Frost
04
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To know that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.
DISCUSSION a) Frost – a Modernist poet? What in your opinion separates Frost from other Modernist poets that you have read in this collage?
his adherence to language as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of ambiguity and irony.”
Now read the following assessment of Frost’s writing taken from The Academy of American Poets site: “Though his work is principally associated with the life and landscape of New England, and though he was a poet of traditional verse forms and metrics who remained steadfastly aloof from the poetic movements and fashions of his time, Frost is anything but a merely regional or minor poet. The author of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes, he is a quintessentially modern poet in
b) What is Frost’s message in the poem? Are there several “layers” – i.e. can he be saying several things at the same time?
CONCLUSION a) Based on what you have studied in this collage, what do you see as some of the characteristics of modernist poetry? Some key words to remember are: • Language and structure • Subject matter • Mood b) Which poem do you like best in this “collage” of poems? Why?
05 06 Robert Frost (1875–1963) won the Pulitzer Prize four times during his lifetime. Frost’s poetry often depicts rural life in New England but hidden behind apparently simple settings he touches on complex philosophical ideas. In 1961 at the age of 88, Robert Frost received the distinction of being the first poet ever to read his poetry at a presidential inauguration – that of John F. Kennedy.
07 08 09 10 11 12 13
perish omkomme suffice være nok / vere nok
Edward Cucuel (1879–1951): “Farewell”
MODERNISM
285
14 15 16
Pupils commonly ask their teachers why they did not get a better grade, especially if they have not made many mistakes in spelling and grammar. The essays may seem flawless to the pupils, but the teacher has intuitively, and appropriately, given them a “3” or a “4”. How do we explain that writing good texts in English includes more than avoiding mistakes in spelling, concord mistakes and the like? We can of course say that the essay is too simple. To be more concrete, we
can say that there are too many informal expressions and that the text is not well organized. So far, so good. But the next question the pupils might ask is what they can do to get better grades. Some keywords are cohesion, register and genre. However, flashing a few academic and technical terms is not very likely to do wonders. We should also be able to give examples and offer pupils a concrete, long-term plan for how they can improve on these points.
Exploring English Language and Communication 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
The requirements for language competence in the new syllabus can be a challenge for pupils and teachers alike. In the article “Language Learning and Communication in the New Syllabus” ([ mæg@'zi:n], number 02-2006), we discussed ' these requirements. As we pointed out, the main requirements for language skills are more explicit than before, including knowledge and skills in using vocabulary and idiomatic structures, spelling, grammar and syntax in sentences, paragraphs and texts. Not least, the requirements for communication skills include proper register, fluency, precision and coherence. Almost two years have passed, and we have now seen that various aspects of language and communication, such as grammar, text structures and genre awareness, have been tested in the official exams and trial exams available so far. There is no doubt that also a Vg1 student needs a fairly advanced level of language awareness in order to do well in the exam. “Language learning” includes strategies for learning and assessing one’s own language, in addition to the expected mastery of language components.
Excerpts from the competence aims after Vg1 Language learning The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to • exploit and assess various situations, work methods and strategies for learning English Communication The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to • express himself/herself in writing and orally with subtleness, proper register, fluency, precision and coherence • write formal and informal texts with good structure and coherence on personal, interdisciplinary and social topics Similar – but slightly more advanced – compe tence aims for language and communication are also present in the English programme subjects at Vg2 and Vg3. Some selected points (from both of the main subject areas) have been listed below. The two English subjects for Vg3 have relatively similar aims for language and communication. Thus only one of them has been exemplified here.
International English (Vg2) The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to • give an account of fundamental features of English usage and linguistic structure • give an account of fundamental principles for constructing texts in a variety of genres • use language appropriate to the situation in social, professional and intercultural contexts • write coherent, well-structured texts on general, specialized and literary subjects English Literature and Culture (Vg3) The aims of the studies are to enable pupils to • elaborate on and discuss the relationship between form, content and stylistic register in sentences and texts • use suitable language, appropriate to the situation, in oral and written genres • produce texts in a variety of genres with clear content, appropriate style, good structure, and usage that is precise and accurate
The extent of explicit grammar instruction in upper secondary schools has been practiced very differently across schools in the past (e.g. Mella 1998 and Burner 2006), but it is difficult to see how both explicit and extensive grammar instruction now can be avoided after the introduction of a new syllabus and new exams. The question is rather how this is done and, if needed, what kind of teaching material should be used in preparing pupils for the new exams. There are of course a wide range of grammar books for Upper Secondary School, but traditionally grammar books have not both explicitly and extensively covered such central topics in the new syllabus as cohesion, register, genre and style. Nor have such topics been given much emphasis in the grammar instruction at Norwegian universities and university colleges. This does not mean that teachers do not have the skills necessary to teach these topics, but still most teachers might prefer to use tailor-made teaching materials which can support the pupils in their endeavours to achieve the national requirements for language competence. With two of the three main areas of the English syllabus focusing on language and communication, it is natural that these areas should require separate teaching materials. For this reason Cappelen offered us an opportunity to write a book which could make it much easier to meet the challenges of the new syllabus and the new exams. The book should be suitable for Vg1, but it should also be able to cater for the more advanced needs of pupils in the programme subjects. The teaching materials should aim to develop an awareness of discourse phenomena such as genre, formality, style and information structure as well as traditional grammar.
level, this book tries to address how pupils can continue to improve their language also after having learned the basic rules of grammar. The book is intended for use in English courses at all levels of Upper Secondary School. That is, it will be useful for pupils at Vg2 and Vg3 in continuing to develop their language and communication skills. Varied tasks divided into two main levels make it possible to adapt the material to each course and to the needs of each pupil. The book is divided into three sections: Part A – Text construction, Part B – Grammar and Part C – Look-up section. The section on writing texts comes first because many teachers have signalled that there is a particular need for a framework for teaching text linguistics systematically. This is also the area in which all pupils need more competence. Part B can be used as a similar framework, but teachers might want to make use of the grammar section only for some of the pupils. If this is the case, Part B can be regarded as a reference section used very differently by different pupils. By and large, the chapters of the book can be used independently of each other and in any order teachers find useful for their pupils. Exploring English partly follows the tradition of making linguistics as accessible as possible to upper secondary pupils by using Norwegian to explain potentially complicated topics. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that English is the target language all through this book. In addition to long and short text examples in English, relevant terminology is given in English in each chapter as well as in a separate terminology list in part C. Moreover, the instructions for all the tasks are written in English in order to prepare the pupils for the format of the exam.
of sources, as we believe exposure to a lot of texts is the best way to acquire discourse competence. To give an impression of what Part A contains, we will show a few examples of the topics presented. One of the chapters, “Writing sentences”, deals with how sentences are constructed with respect to information structure. One of the tasks simply asks the pupil to identify the given information in each sentence of a text excerpt, while the one below is slightly more challenging in asking the pupils to choose between two alternative sentences (underlined) with the same meaning but a different distribution of given and new information. In this case the second alternative starts with information from the first sentence and thus fits the context better.
Exploring English The new language book is called Exploring English. The main purpose of this book is to encourage pupils to explore various aspects of both communication and language. Since studies show that pupils often stagnate at a certain
Tasks Each of the chapters in Part A and Part B includes a number of tasks. Under the headline Language skills the focus is on usage and practical skills. The second headline used in each chapter, Explore and explain, indicates a more advanced type of task since the pupils are challenged to reflect on how language is used. At the end of each section of the book there is a separate chapter with additional tasks. These tasks summarize each section, and teachers will also find that many of the tasks resemble those given in the exams and trial exams so far.
[problem] Massachusetts drivers use seven million gallons of gasoline every day. With the price of a gallon surging past $3 and continued instability in the Middle East, it's time to take action locally to conserve fuel and reduce our future dependence on oil. [solution] By encouraging commuters to use public transportation instead of roadways, we can do both.
Foto © UiO
Magne Dypedahl is a senior lecturer at Østfold University College. Most of his work is within English didactics, American Studies and intercultural communication. Dypedahl has coauthored text books both for the university level and upper secondary school.
Hilde Hasselgård is a professor of English language at the University of Oslo. Most of her work is within grammar and text linguistics and the comparison of Norwegian and English structures. Hasselgård has co-authored an EnglishNorwegian dictionary as well as several text books for the university level and upper secondary school.
Part A – Text construction This section presents and discusses topics such as cohesion, paragraphing, text structures, genre, register and linguistic devices. The aim is that the pupils should improve their own language skills and their ability to analyze how other people use language. Not least, there is plenty of advice on how to improve writing skills with regard to the form and structure of texts. Thus it should have some general applicability across the curriculum, as writing is now a basic skill in all subjects. The section on text construction naturally contains numerous examples of authentic texts from a wide range
Ayers Rock, in Australia, is believed to be the largest rock in the world. The white man who discovered it named it after South Australian premier Sir Henry Ayres. / It was named after South Australian premier Sir Henry Ayers by the white man who discovered it. Until recently large numbers of tourists visited the rock and climbed it using a rope-and-pole path drilled into the side of the rock. As a result the rock was becoming eroded. Another chapter deals with the structure of texts. The pupils get many examples of typical structures and how different structures can be combined. One example is how a presentation of a problem often is followed by a suggestion for a solution, in the same manner a question can be followed by an answer:
01 02
By working with texts in this way, students should gradually become better at writing logical texts adapted appropriately to the context. Three chapters are devoted to the subject of genre. The most important thing is to make the pupils familiar with various types of texts, and Exploring English includes numerous authentic samples from a wide range of sources, both formal and informal. As the number of genres is limitless, even two chapters on spoken and written genres cannot pretend to cover the ground. It is therefore very important to give pupils a framework for analysing texts with respect to register and genre, even if the text in front of them belongs to a genre they have not worked with before. Such a framework includes considerations of who the receiver of the text is, whether a personal tone is appropriate or
03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
expected, what purpose the text has and whether or not it will be public. Tasks for these chapters involve comparing texts from different genres but with similar topics, writing their own texts in different genres (including argumentative and literary essays), and preparing and/or carrying out discussions and spoken presentations. Below is an example of a task in which pupils should apply what they have just learnt about characteristics of informal spoken language and style in general to pick out the sentences that stick out stylistically from this conversational piece of text. (The task is in the “Explore-andexplain” category.) In the following exchange, there are some sentences that do not fit the style of an informal conversation. Identify these and explain why you think they do not fit. MEL: What are you so cheerful about this morning? LISA: Phil’s going away for a few days tomorrow. MEL: Oh. Very romantic. Love is a doll dress’d up for idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle. LISA: Well, he’s going away tomorrow. So, we’re having a special meal tonight. Let all our neighbours know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion. MEL: I see. Is he taking you somewhere nice? LISA: His place. He’s cooking for me. First a roulade of foie gras with a spiced apple and fig compote; then a beautifully presented dish of roast monkfish tails with linguine, Parma ham and braised cabbage in a great creamy sauce that “brings together the different flavours and textures brilliantly”. MEL: (Laughs) Lovely. That’ll be cosy. You, Phil, Jamie. And Grant in the background with a gypsy violin! LISA: No. It’s all arranged. Just me and Phil. So let us begin anew – remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness.
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Towards the end of Part A, a separate chapter introduces pupils to various linguistic devices for creating particular effects in texts, such as the use of emotively coloured adjectives, word play and metaphor. In one of the tasks pupils are asked to find linguistic devices in the following advertisement that are used to connect the reader with the product. A Milky Way is less than 120 calories. So you can dive in with nothing to fear. With all the talk these days about the “dangers” of unhealthy snack food, you’ll be pleased to hear that a Milky Way contains no artificial colours or preservatives and no nasty E numbers. It’s also 118 calories per standard 26g bar. So now you can enjoy every bite without worrying that it’ll bite back. To find out more please visit marsnutrition.co.uk.
In this case the pupil would do well to note the use of the personal pronoun you, which creates a personal tone. At the same time you is used as a grammatical subject in contexts of eating Milky Way or worrying about the calories it contains. You – the reader – thus will be identified as somebody who eats and enjoys the product. Part A ends with a chapter on self-evaluation, aims and learning strategies in which pupils are given advice on how to evaluate their own written and spoken English and various techniques for making progress in their language learning. Part B – Grammar In this part of the book the emphasis is on topics which Norwegian learners of English have problems with. The range of topics spans from the relatively basic, such as the use of definite and indefinite articles and subject-verb concord to more advanced topics such as the use of dependent clauses. This grammar section is closely linked to Part A because it is important to have knowledge of grammatical form in order to be able to describe linguistic devices in texts. Moreover, an important point made in Part A is that many genres require a high level of grammatical accuracy. These are mostly the more formal genres, but they do include the traditional essay and other types of text that pupils may be asked to produce in the exam. Grammar is thus not separate from a general discourse competence but an integral part of it. As in Part A, both the main text and the tasks are written with pupils at different competence levels in mind. Most of the tasks are sentencebased, but some also take a text as its starting points, for instance asking pupils to complete a text with modal auxiliaries (chosen from a set of alternatives), identify examples of the past progressive, or in some cases, improve on a text written by a Norwegian pupil. Part C – Look-up section This section contains look-up material which can be of help when the pupils are going to produce English orally or in writing. There is an extensive terminology list giving explanations and English translations of the terms used in the book. This is followed by two “toolboxes” – one for oral communication and one for written communication – which include hundreds of useful expressions and phrases for most occasions. The remaining chapters give an overview of some basic differences between British and American English, an overview of some problematic words pairs in English as well as false friends between English and Norwegian and finally some guidelines for punctuation. Website The book has its own website at exploring. cappelen.no, where pupils can find additional information on some grammar topics. Special mention should be made of a section on the use of digital tools in English language learning, in particular the use of freely available corpora of
English, some electronic dictionaries and the spell-checking and grammar-checking facilities of the word processor. There are also interactive tasks to complement those found in the book. Some of these require the pupils to make use of digital resources such as the British National Corpus in order to find out how different words or phrases are used in authentic oral and written texts in English. Finally, the website will contain keys to all the tasks where it is possible to give one answer. The way ahead Although the three sections of the book are based on established traditions within the field of English linguistics, Exploring English partly represents something new as far as text books for Upper Secondary School in Norway are concerned. It has truly been very exciting to plough some new ground by combining so many aspects of both language and communication exclusively in one book. However, it is over the next few months and years which the book really will be put to the test by teachers and pupils. We hope that as many teachers as possible will find the new book useful, and we welcome feedback to Cappelen Damm or the authors so that we can continue to develop this product in the best interest of the pupils and all others concerned.
Sources Burner, Tony. 2006. Is the teaching of English grammar neglected in today’s foundation course? Språk og Språkundervisning 2/06, 8-13. Hasselgård, Hilde and Magne Dypedahl. 2006. Language Learning and Communication in the New Syllabus. [ mæg@'zi:n], number 02-2006. ' Læreplaner i Kunnskapsløftet: www. utdanningsdirektoratet.no/templates/udir/ TM_UtdProgrFag.aspx?id=2103 Mella, Arne. 1998. On the Role of Grammar in English Language Teaching. Unpublished ‘hovedfag’ thesis, University of Oslo.
Writing and producing a radio play
Har du et tips å gi til kolleger? Publiserte bidrag til spalten vil honoreres med boksjekker til en
by Theresa Bowles Sørhus
When “War of the Worlds” aired on public radio in 1938, a veritable wave of panic spread throughout the eastern coast of the United States. Listeners truly believed the world was under attack from outer space. Although we can not aspire to the scope of H. G. Wells’s radio drama in the classroom we can, nevertheless, create a radio play that incorporates several elements of true radio drama and have great fun in the process. Before beginning work on your radio play, it may be helpful to listen to an NRK dramatisation to pick up some ideas. Ask your teacher for suggestions for programs. Then follow the guidelines for writing and producing a radio play. Recordings can be made either with tape recorders or directly on your computers. Your computer science teacher can help you to download a suitable recording program such as Audacity. Guidelines: • Pick a story from your textbook that you would like to adapt. You will need to rewrite the dialogue so it is important to pick a story that has some dialogue to start with and not too much description. • Discuss the different ways in which you can structure the story as a radio play. Try to choose as interesting and gripping a structure as possible. • Decide how many characters you want to have in your play. (If you have more than 4 characters, some of you will have to play several roles.) • Decide whether or not you want a narrator. A narrator may be used to comment on events, explain that time has passed, fill in background information and relate past events. • How will you show past events and the background of the different characters? • Use the original dialogues in the story but feel free to invent new dialogues and change existing ones. • Try to avoid long monologues where only one person speaks. These can be very tiring for listeners. NB! • Your listeners must be able to distinguish the different characters/voices in the story. Practise your roles until this is clear to the listeners. • The plot must be straightforward. Try to avoid subplots which will confuse the listeners.
verdi av 400 kr.
• Keep in mind that all the information you want to give must be given orally. Your main medium is the spoken word. The use of music, however, should not be underestimated. • In contrast to stage plays, radio plays can include dreams and thoughts. Even dead characters can be included. • How will you indicate that there is a scene change? This must be done audibly. Perhaps you can use music? Even a bell or gong can serve this purpose. • Give background information early. Be careful not to confuse your listeners. Leave the climax until rather late in the story and then come to an end quickly. • Remember to use sound effects. These can make the storyline easier to follow. How can you produce such sound effects as wind, running, background noise or even a galloping horse if that is important to the story? Small photo: H.G.Wells © Scanpix
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Read It! Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
New York writer, Jonathan Safran Foer (1977), has won several prizes and awards for his novels and short stories. He is best known for his first novel, Everything is Limited (2002). His second novel Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud (2005) is one of the first works of serious literary fiction that deals with the terrorist attack of 9/11. The main protagonist is a 9-year old boy by the name of Oscar Schell. The backdrop against which the main story takes place is New York after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center 9/11/2001. Foer focuses on how the lives of one family are affected by the tragedy. Oscar’s father, Thomas Schell, is killed in the attack leaving a wife, a son and a mother to deal with the pain of their loss. The narrative is written in the first person and mostly told by Oscar, a highly intelligent, precocious, extremely sensitive little boy. The book has a rich “New Yorkian” flavor to it, not only with regards to setting, but in Foer’s portrayal of characters. Oscar’s credibility as narrator comes from his being a son of a progressive Manhattan family. His eccentricity and interests are uncommon for a 9-year old. He speaks French, plays the tambourine, creates unusual jewellery, writes to famous people such as Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr, plays Yorick in the school production of Hamlet, and reads complicated academic books i.e. A Brief History of Time. Foer creates a character who understands both the physical and historical aspects of the world around him, while at the same time demonstrating a 9-year old’s reactions, confusion and frustrations. Oscar now lives alone with his mother whom Oscar both loves and resents. His paternal grandmother lives across the street from them with a mysterious “renter” whom Oscar has never met. The action revolves around two historical events in time. Oscar’s story takes place after the 9/11 bombing, while his grandparents’ narratives take place before and after the bombing of Dresden by
American and British bombers during World War II. Past and present are juxtaposed. First meetings Our very first meeting with Oscar is through his own descriptions of odd inventions to keep people safe – his method of coping with tragedy. We discover that Oscar and his father shared a very close relationship filled with complicated games, joke telling, and discussions concerning the universe. On that one fateful day when Oscar is sent home from school after the attack, he finds 5 phone messages from his trapped father trying to reach his family before his death in one of the Twin Towers. Oscar keeps these secret from his mother until the end of the book to protect her. Even after a year has passed Oscar has difficulty in carrying out every day activities such as riding in elevators higher than the 9th floor. He panics at the sight of planes and various objects related to building constructions, for example, scaffolding. Similar to what many New Yorkers felt at the time, Oscar fears the sight of Arabs in public places. He describes himself as “in the middle of a huge black ocean, or in a deep space…everything far away from me”. Oscar’s suffering is so intense that he goes into his father’s closet to be close to his personal possessions. It is here that his quest for answers to how his father died actually begins. In a blue vase that he knocks over, he finds an envelope with a key inside. Written on the envelope is the word “Black”. From here on it becomes a detective story spanning 8 months, with Oscar trying to uncover the secret kept by his father. Oscar interprets “Black” to be someone’s name and decides to find the lock the key fits into by visiting all the “Blacks” in the phone book – a literary device which propels the story forward. Foer moves us from Central Park to the bombings of Dresden with a short glimpse of Hiroshima, and builds on the effects such destruction and chaos have both physically and mentally. Two parallel narratives are interspersed throughout and told by Oscar’s
Reviewed by Carol V. Dwankowski
paternal grandparents. Their lives are portrayed through letters written in diaries to both Thomas Schell (Junior) and Oscar. Both sets of stories deal with loss and tragedy. Structurally, they give a second dimension to the book that ties all three narratives together and carries the action up to the present. Oscar’s paternal grandfather, is also called Thomas Schell (Senior). As a promising sculptor in Dresden he falls in love with a girl called “Anna” whom he loses along with his entire family during the fatal bombing. The horror is so devastating that he completely loses the ability to speak. His only “voice” is heard through his letters to his son whom he abandoned before his birth and has never seen. In New York Seven years later, Thomas (Senior) comes to New York. He meets Anna’s sister who also grieves for the loss of her family. She too left Dresden and is being sponsored by a refugee program in the US. Although both refuse to talk about the past, they never let it go. Thomas (Senior) dwells on life’s emptiness. He tries to remake Anna’s sister into “Anna”. Clinging to something that will keep her connected to her past, she asks Thomas (Senior) to marry her. Everything they have together is bound by strict rules to govern and organize their lives by. Most of the areas in the apartment they share together are marked off as “Nothing Places” to assure complete privacy that creates a crater-like distance between them. Many of Thomas (Senior’s) actions seem totally loathsome, until we read his depiction of the grotesque scenes of carnage during the Dresden bombing. He leaves his family to face the carnage alone, never to see them again, while he searches for his pregnant “Anna” in the burning rubble. His scars are so deep that he is unable to love for fear of losing the one he loves. We hear the voice of Oscar’s grandmother also through letters to her son Thomas Schell (Junior) and Oscar. Her letters are warmer and mirror the abandonment and longing she feels both for her dead relatives
betrayal she feels when Thomas Senior leaves her a second time. She uncovers her feelings by telling him, “I don’t know if I ever loved your grandfather. But I’ve loved not being alone.” By this time, we all understand who the “renter” is, although this remains somewhat of a mystery to Oscar. and her husband. Desperately needing a child to fill the gap, she breaks one of their rules. She writes in one of Thomas (Senior’s) diaries that she is pregnant. Unable to love anything or live his life, he leaves her. The past and present are continuously juxtaposed throughout. He writes to his son for 40 years and writes his last letter the day Thomas Junior’s death is posted on the lists of those missing in the Twin Towers. Thomas Senior reappears at a distance to observe the family getting into a limousine for his son’s funeral (memorial service). The two stories are made to overlap and are woven into each other. What ties the three stories together is that all three entail a quest for someone or something. The narrative speeds to its climax when Oscar ends up at his grandmother’s apartment only to find the “renter”. It is to him, a stranger, that he spills his entire story of searching and grief. Oscar plays the last phone messages from his father that he has up to now concealed. He tries to interpret the details surrounding his father’s death so that he may stop dreaming and inventing how his father died. He comes up with an idea that is “closer” and “louder” to him – digging up his father’s empty coffin and filling it with objects that were close to his father. The grandmother’s final letter to Oscar tells of the
Tying up loose ends In the final chapter called Beautiful and True, many loose ends are resolved. Oscar’s relationship to his mother is strengthened. She too has suffered and has tried to make sense out of her ordeal by attending a help group for people who have lost family. Later Oscar sneaks out of the house at night to dig up his father’s empty coffin. The “renter” or Thomas Senior helps him fill the coffin with letters he has been writing for the past 40 years to Thomas Junior. I found the grave scene a definite weakness in the book. The overly intelligent Oscar never consciously gets it that “the renter” is actually his grandfather. On his return, Mother and son finally talk together for the first time about what she experienced on September 11th before the building collapsed on her husband. The book ends with the image of the Falling Man who jumped out of the burning building, which I will discuss in more detail below. Earlier Oscar tried to imagine that it is a picture of his father in a gray suit. He then makes a flip book animation out of it, symbolically reversing everything that has happened. After describing what would have happened if the entire day had been reversed, he states, “We would have been safe.”
Images and symbols It is impossible in a review of this length to describe all the merits of this novel. The theme, narrative techniques, structural complexities and attention to detail make reading the novel an worthwhile challenge. Its enormous strength lies in the fact that Foer does not fall into the trap of discussing the politics of war, but focuses on the suffering shared by its victims. The narratives may twist and turn, but they never become sentimental. Though gruesome at times, the situations Oscar experiences are written with humor and warmth. Oscar grows and gains insight. As readers we are introduced to three different narrative styles through Oscar’s child-like straightforwardness, the grandfather, Thomas Schell’s visually “gimmicky” letters full of one lined sentences, blank pages and photos symbolize visual as opposed to verbal communication. And Oscar’s grandmother’s letters are filled with mellow dramatic renderings. Although Oscar’s story alone would easily have stood on its own merits, the grandparents’ narratives are used to connect the disasters together. Just as the title suggests war experiences and human relationships are all loud and close. The images and pictures, mostly inspired by the internet and other media, give us the feeling that we are actually inside the minds of the characters seeing what they saw. The most important one, of course, is the Falling Man by photographer Lyle Owerko. There have been various interpretations to his fall, one being that he hurled himself out of a window in an attempt to choose his own manner of death, or in hope that by some miracle the New York firemen would catch him. This was an extremely controversial picture that many people found distasteful at the time. Some newspapers even refused to print it. It is not without intention that the author uses this image in the very last pages of the book, only reversing the pages so that the man seems to be peacefully floating upwards. Perhaps this is Foer’s way of giving his readers spiritual hope amidst chaos and turmoil.
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
ISBN: 978-82-02-28601-9
Engelsk ordbok – yrkesfag Engelsk-norsk/norsk-engelsk
Nyhet
Herbert Svenkerud, Kari Bjerkeng, Petter Fuhre og Anne Lerø
Engelsk ordbok - yrkesfag er en nyutviklet ordbok spesielt tilpasset elever som tar yrkesfag. I tillegg til allmenn engelsk, har ordboka et faglig ordforråd som spenner over alle de ni yrkesfaglige utdanningsprogrammene. Oppslagsord og uttrykk er satt med blå skrift, noe som gjør det enkelt å finne fram og slå opp. Ordboka har de riktige oppslagsordene for dagens brukere. • • • • • • • • • •
Over 36 000 oppslagsord Tusenvis av faste uttrykk Lett og raskt å slå opp på riktig ord Elevvennlig layout Både britisk og amerikansk engelsk Alt fra slang til høytidelig språk Lydskrift etter internasjonal standard (IPA) Rikelig med illustrasjoner Minigrammatikk Nyttige faktasider og kart
Engelsk ordbok
Ny utgave
Engelsk-norsk/norsk-engelsk
Herbert Svenkerud og Anne Helene Aarflot Engelsk ordbok kommer nå i sin 4. utgave. Engelsk-norskdelen er gjennomrevidert for denne utgaven og oppdatert fram til mars 2008. Det er innført en egen blåfarge for oppslagsord og uttrykk. Midtsidene er nykomponerte med oppdaterte fakta og minigrammatikk. Ordboka er spesielt tilpasset elever i den videregående skolen. • • • • • • • • • •
Over 60 000 oppslagsord Tusenvis av faste uttrykk Lett og raskt å slå opp på riktig ord Elevvennlig layout Både britisk og amerikansk engelsk Alt fra slang til høytidelig språk God dekning av mange fagområder Lydskrift etter internasjonal standard (IPA) Minigrammatikk Nyttige faktasider, kart og illustrasjoner