S C R I B B L E Shrewsbury High School Literary Magazine, Issue 1 (July 2018).
Harry Potter - Critical Eye Has Harry Potter been given Dementor’s kiss?
‘Egnilsh Wtih Dyleixa’ What’s it like studying English with Dyslexia? Our editor discusses her experience.
William Blake - Exploring the canon Poet William Blake is gradually becoming canonical. Read Mr Aldridge’s article to find out why.
Famous Shropshire writers
Wilfred Owen is regarded as the greatest World War I poet, but did you know he hails from Shropshire?
Introduction to Old Norse Icelandic Literature Part one introducing medieval Icelandic prose and poetry.
Virginia Woolf - A study of Females in Literature Who is Sarah Teasdale?
An exploration of the feminist American poet’s work.
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Table of Contents 18 Newham Virginia Woolf Essay by Meg Heaney Perhaps the most important question our modernday feminist movement is asking itself is where to direct our feminist message and voice next. With external discrimination against women almost extinguished, one could argue that we find ourselves at a loss as to what it is that we focus our energies on next. Virginia Woolf’s 1930’s essay A Room of One’s Own explores the possibility that women need to be “oneself”, to have a ‘room of their own’ – their own, private space – that allows them to make their own independent decisions as to their identity. Woolf argues that women need the freedom to choose and the freedom to independency if they’re ever to be able to find a sense of self, hence she provides her readers with the message that we must ‘not dream of influencing other people’. My response argues that we find ourselves in a world that still suffers from a lack of freedom for women; that with our social media voice ever-growing in volume; we’re suffering from this inability to hear our own voice and find a ‘true’ sense of self. Ultimately arguing that Woolf’s message suggested ninety years ago is still highly applicable in today’s society.
8 English with Dyslexia ‘Egnilsh wtih Dsyleixa’ by Molly Huxley For someone who loves anything English Literature, getting to be the editor for Scribble is so exciting! I have written my first piece on ‘Studying English Literature with Dyslexia’ and I hope that along with my article, you enjoy the array of Literary themed articles that this first edition of Scribble has to offer.
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30 How to revise for English Literature I’m Abby Spalding, I’m in year 12 and take English, History and Economics. To me, English is so interesting as it can be interpreted in so many different ways, there is no right answer, it is all about your own opinion and how your experiences and individuality influence the way you read and understand a text. It is because of this that literature and English are subjective and personal to each person, thus providing beauty within even the most basic book or article, allowing everyone, no matter who, to find joy and a bit of themselves in literature. My job, within this article, was to write a few of my top tips to do well in English exams, because, trust me, I know English seems almost impossible to revise for. This however, is not the case, when you know the right methods, English is actually quite easy to revise for, so, you can stop worrying about how and when! Within my article I have outlined ten top tips that are actually simple to do and extremely effective in revising, so just follow these and I can almost guarantee that you will do well… Enjoy!
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Welcome from the Editor
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The Magic of Literature
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A Spotlight on Poets
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William Blake
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Famous Shropshire Writers
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An Introduction to Old Norse Icelandic Literature
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Is Harry Potter Sexist?
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Free Direct Discourse
Hello & Welcome
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here to start? ‘Once upon a time’ is how a clichéd bookwouldbeginhowever,that’snothowI’mgoing to kick-off this first edition of our Literary Mag don’t worry! Instead, I’m going to begin with a question... what does English mean to you? If your answer is that it’s the most interesting subject in the world then, along with being in the English teacher’s good books, this magazine is for you! English to me is such a broad subject; one that reaches out into so many realms; what other subject allows you to go back time and see back into history, to understand society and above all, what other subject allows you to get inside the imaginations of others? Because I can’t think of one. So, to you: the Sixth former or GCSE student, we hope you enjoy reading this magazine as much as we enjoyed writing it and we hope that it gives you a snapshot of what this magazine is all about!
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0, what actually is it about? Well, we’re a collective group of sixth formers who are all joined together by our love of anything English. This first edition of our Literary Magazine is tailor made for anyone who enjoys English, who is considering it post Sixth Form or just about anyone who a love for reading and writing. English is a fantastic subject but it’s also a challenging one and so from cover to cover this magazine is packed with insightful advice (find Abby Spalding’s top 10 revision tips on page 30), thought provoking essays (check out Meg Heaney’s feminist angle on female writers on page 18) and more! Enjoy!
Molly Huxley Editor
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THE MAGIC OF LITER ATURE Has Harry Potter been given the Dementor’s Kiss by literary critics? by Miss B Lord Harry Potter series above the often pejorative status of a children’s book.
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irstly, it’s not difficult to apply literary analysis to Rowling’s novels: Hermione makes a nice feminist figure, Ron is the stoical sidekick and Lord Voldemort a Satan-like force of evil. Harry’s move from Privet Drive to Hogwarts has been compared to the Dickens classic Oliver Twist while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has foundations in Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale and Rowling’s brand of ‘Fictional Magic’ has been likened to the world of Narnia created by C.S. Lewis. Although these ‘borrowed’ elements have led authoritative literary critics such as Harold Bloom and Philip Hensher to criticise the simplicity of the novels’ plots, it is these allusions which have sparked literary debate.
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arry Potter has sold 375 million copies in 65 countries and was adapted into a multi-million pound movie franchise. Nonetheless, despite its unprecedented fandom with millions of people searching for outlets through which to further their passion for the books (including mounting their broomsticks in Quidditch societies, forming mosh pits at Wizard Rock gigs, or visiting the Harry Potter studios in their robed garbs), the door to the canon seems firmly closed to The Boy Who Lived. However, as the novel now finds itself on the A Level Lang/Lit specification and is featured in university degree reading lists, it is time to perhaps challenge the assumption that a popular children’s novel can not be classified as a ‘classic’ and explore how Rowling elevates the
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Thus, although familiar, Rowling’s plots enable her to explore weighty themes of death, empathy and paganism as well as introduce hidden motifs which have left many writers, lecturers and critics pondering its complexity unlike other children’s literature. Stephen King, a wellknown novelist, argues: ‘Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity – Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend… Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck, Frodo, and Dorothy and this is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages.
the language develops with the growth of the protagonist.) Thus, Rowling’s generic fusion of Bildungsroman and fantasy, whilst still maintaining the simplicity of a principal storyline of good versus evil, allows her to tap into human sentimentality and our inherent need for escapism and desire to be ‘individual.’ This makes the novel hugely appealing and makes it deserving of the title ‘a classic.’
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Harry Potter Books
urthermore, I would argue that the increasing darkness which develops across the series allows Rowling to go further than just presenting the typical turmoil of teenage-hood that we expect in children’s literature. She draws a historical parallel to Nazism through her register of muggle-borns/mudbloods, the evil Death Eaters, and even the crazed dictator Voldemort who strives towards an ideal and superior race with the propaganda ‘Magic is Might.’ Pazdziora (2012) argues that this allows Rowling to create ‘a literary text which is a fertile area of study, especially due to the many historical allusions and connections to myths in her work.’ This is further supported by critic Amanda Craig who suggests that Rowling ‘may not be a great stylist but she uses history, myth and fairytale well and writes with brilliant clarity.’ We also have to recognize the creativity Rowling sustains across seven novels and must not forget Rowling's invention of a complete new wizarding language, with words such as 'muggle' even being given the status of a word by appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary.
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n particular though, it is the form of a bildungsroman that I think contributes to its literary worthiness as the reader is able to follow the development of the lightning-scarred protagonist. This bildungsroman form has a large impact on the sentimental attachment of the reader, especially the ‘Harry Potter’ generation who grew up along with their childhood heroes (I confess that I am still waiting to receive my own letter from Hogwarts!) One could even go so far as to argue that the language and structure purposefully advances in complexity in each subsequent novel mirroring Harry’s own language development and maturity in something of the same way as James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (another Bildungsroman in which
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o conclude, according to Montgomery et al in Ways of Reading, a work is accorded the title of ‘classic’ due to its ‘special value and the amount of criticism and commentary which it generates.’ The Boy Who Lived is a world-wide phenomenon who has certainly generated a storm and cast a spell over the hearts and minds of both children and adults worldwide.
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Secatibe runtum earum sincilla velenimus auta nobit raecus di omniet
by Molly Huxley
ENGLISH WITH DYSLEXIA ‘EGNILSH WTIH DSYLEIXA’ With over four billion copies of her novels sold and translated into at least 103 languages, you probably wouldn’t expect that a person with such a great success in the literary world would have problems with reading and writing. However, she did, she was dyslexic. Her name? Agatha Christie.
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tudying English Literature for A-level is perhaps an unlikely choice for someone who couldn’t spell English properly until they were 13. I’d get my work handed back to me and even the title would have a spelling correction on it; if I had a penny for every time a teacher wrote ‘SPAG” on my work I’d be able to
pay someone to write it all down for me! I never understood why I didn’t get spelling nor why the words on a page never made as much sense to me and just got branded as ‘stupid’ or I was often misunderstood in lower school for not concentrating. But, as it turns out I wasn’t careless, I am Dyslexic.
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Literature at a high level can be solved.
'm lucky, I only have a mild form of the condition, however, it’s always been the full stop between me and a full understanding of letters. I’ve always loved writing since I can remember and I love nothing more than getting stuck into a good book (and I don’t even hate writing English essays - nerd) however, I’ve always been held back by my Dyslexia. It mostly holds me back by the fact it affects me time wise - I used to return library books late because I was still busy reading them or I’d get filled with dread with reading in class at GCSE at the fear of reading something wrong.
I began researching into famous dyslexics and got a mix of actors and artists from Richard Hammond to Richard Branson but, what’s worthy of discussion in this article is the suffering of a female author whose stories were filled with such intriguing and mysterious tales, whose novels have sold over four billion copies and have been translated into at least 103 languages. You probably wouldn’t expect that a person who found such success in the literary world would have had problems reading and writing, but she completely did. She he word dyslexia is overwhelming. was dyslexic. Her name? Agatha Christie. When I first found out I had it I was hristie was educated by her mother at mainly confused on what it actually home, the youngest of three sisters. was; I was also embarrassed. I hated the As an adult, she is quoted as saying fact that I had something wrong with me, that she remembered being looked upon as in fact, it took a while to come to terms with the “slow one” by her family members. Just it. I remember the test we sat for it, back in like me, she felt isolated by her struggles lower school, and all my friends had come with spelling and reading. She once said that out laughing about how easy they found ‘writing and spelling were always terribly it and in the back of my mind, I couldn’t difficult for me. My letters were without help thinking ‘What? That was impossible’ originality. I was an extraordinarily bad and that made me feel inadequate. speller and have remained so until this day.’ yslexia isn’t something I notice in However, Christie’s success is significant my own writing, it’s something that for presenting that despite the fact that I’ll is only highlighted by others as, always write my ‘d’s as ‘b’s the wrong way after all, I’ve never known any different around and I’ll forever have to say, ‘big and this is what was even more frustrating. elephants can’t always use small exits’ in my This frustration of not being able to do head when I spell ‘because’ it’s okay because something is a familiarity to all of us; we’re it can’t stop me from performing well. It all human, so although Dyslexia itself isn’t never held Agatha Christie back after all. directly applicable to everyone, we all n balance, I still love English; I can face difficulties and things that get in our still read a book and get to grips with way and the solution to that is not to let its depths despite my poor spelling it get the better of you and do your best. or slow reading speed because I’m so n English, many challenges face us as interested in the subject. I may not be able students because of the demanding to spell ‘intradiegetic’ or ‘ellipsis’ without insight required to access texts spell check but I can still use them in an and therefore, this article is aimed to essay because I know what they mean and educate on the issues of dyslexia but as my research shows, nothing should hold it’s also to highlight how challenges you back. English Literature 1: Dyslexia 0. that surface when studying English
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A SPOTLIGHT ON POETS
by Eleanor Wade
Photograph by Gerhard Sisters, ca. 1910 Missouri History Museum
Who was Sarah Teasdale?
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arah Teasdale was a 20th century American poet, who as a sickly child grew up in a sheltered and lonely atmosphere. She was forced to amuse herself with imaginary worlds, stories and poems, where she was very much influenced by the poetry of Christina Rossetti. She started to write when she was young, publishing her poems first in the local newspaper, and then later going on to publish her own collections such as: Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems, Rivers to the Sea and Flame and Shadow.
changing perspectives on beauty, love, and death. Although many later critics would not consider Teasdale a major poet, she was popular in her lifetime with both the public and critics. She won the first Columbia Poetry Prize in 1918, a prize that would later be renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
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arah was always frail and sickly, but in 1933, Teasdale caught chronic pneumonia and it weakened her not only in body but also in mind and spirit. No longer able to see the beauty in simple things, Teasdale committed suicide at age he received public admiration for her 48 in New York, on January 29, 1933. Her well-crafted lyrical and highly pictorial final book of poetry was published that year. poetry which centred on a woman's
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May Wind
Many of Teasdale’s poems chart developments in her own life, from her experiences of a sheltered and lonely upbringing, to those as a successful yet increasingly uneasy writer in New York City and finally to a depressed and disillusioned person who would commit suicide in 1933 The context behind Teasdale’s unhappy life, in my opinion adds a whole new level of depth and understanding to these poems.
I said, “I have shut my heart As one shuts an open door, That Love may starve therein And trouble me no more.” But over the roofs there came The wet new wind of May, And a tune blew up from the curb Where the street-pianos play. My room was white with the sun And Love cried out in me, “I am strong, I will break your heart Unless you set me free.”
The Solitary My heart has grown rich with the passing of years, I have less need now than when I was young To share myself with every comer Or shape my thoughts into words with my tongue. It is one to me that they come or go If I have myself and the drive of my will, And strength to climb on a summer night And watch the stars swarm over the hill. Let them think I love them more than I do, Let them think I care, though I go alone; If it lifts their pride, what is it to me Who am self-complete as a flower or a stone.
I Shall Not Care When I am dead and over me bright April Shakes out her rain-drenched hair, Though you shall lean above me broken-hearted, I shall not care. I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful When rain bends down the bough; And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted
Painter Painter and poet William Blake (1757-1827) was born in London, England. Image: 2016 Poetry in voice.
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WILLIAM BLAKE by Mr Aldridge
The poet William Blake is gradually becoming a canonical, establishment poet, studied by GCSE and A-level students the country over, and he is increasingly being seen as a core British writer, representing British values and embodying the consciousness of a nation.
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owever, this position is one which Blake may have rejected in his own lifetime, preferring instead to stand as a rebel poet, calling out the establishment’s own values and highlighting the hypocrisies and failings of his time. His is the poetry of discontent, the poetry of rebellion, the poetry
of dissatisfaction and the poetry of enlightening the people, but also poetry rooted in pride in his nation and a steadfast faith in God’s omni-benevolence. The archetypal tortured poet, Blake’s work often reveals a frustration in recognising a tension between seeing an idealised life which he views as easily
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attainable, and seeing the suffering, pain incidentally, ‘Jerusalem’ is one of and brutality of the real world around him. the hymns sung at Shrewsbury High School’s leavers’ service each Arguably Blake’s best known work is the year. King George V of England poem ‘Jerusalem’ which has become the was also noted to say that he unofficial national anthem of England. preferred the hymn over ‘God save Written in 1808, the poem uses the apocryphal the King / Queen’, the national story of a young Jesus Christ visiting England with anthem of England. But why? Joseph of Arimithea and travelling to Glastonbury, What appeal does this work hold an important site of druid mysticism connected for people for it to represent the with King Arthur and the knights of the round image of England and Englishness table. The poem’s popularity perhaps owes a huge we want to portray to the world? debt to Sir Hubert Parry who set it to music in 1916, formulating the poem as a hymn which was Jerusalem’ is typical of Blake’s poetic then accepted widely by the Church of England; style and an ideal poem to begin an enjoyment of his work. The pastoral imagery of the first stanza centring on ‘England’s mountains green’ and ‘England’s pleasant pastures seen’ establishes Blake’s love for the country and a sense of an idealised view of its natural beauty, in keeping with many other Romantic poets. In stanza two, Blake comes to amplify the spiritual dimension of the poem created in line 3 with a focus on ‘the holy lamb of God’ walking in this countryside, with a further reference to ‘the Countenance Divine’ who he imagines bringing light to the ‘clouded hills’. It is always important to recognise the subtext in Blake’s works, however, for a full understanding of his message, as often text and subtext are contradictory. Where we can take pleasure in the regularity of rhyme and metre in the first two stanzas, as well as the gentle bucolic imagery created, there is a worrying alternative tone also at play. Note Blake’s use of in medias res in the opening line – ‘And did those feet…’, throwing the reader straight into a train of thought we have only partial access to, which is then developed
Image: Wordsworth.org
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by three further unrhymed couplets beginning with an anaphoric ‘and’. Indeed, stanza two progresses from statements by the poet into unanswered questions, indicating possibly a more uncomfortable relationship between speaker and message. The sinister symbolism of ‘clouded hills’ is developed by Blake in lines 7 and 8 as he questions whether Jerusalem can have been built among ‘these dark Satanic mills’. It is striking that in eight lines, Blake has inverted the tone of the poem from a pastoral celebration to philosophical rejection of everything which the Industrial Revolution stands for in the form of the nineteenth century cotton mill, so prevalent in industrial cities of the 1800s. In the first half of the poem, we have everything that makes Blake such a skilful and engaging poet – the beautiful lyricism of his imagery, the adoration of everything in its natural form, the rejection and questioning of modern life and a significant spiritual dimension. In this way, Blake is a poet writing not about his life and his times,
but the essentials of the human condition and what it means to be alive and on the Earth. Blake’s poems are often journeys, and in ‘Jerusalem’ we see this structure clearly as the second half of the poem seeks to raise the spirits of the reader from the metaphysical doldrums into which Blake has led us. The anaphora of ‘Bring me…’ in stanza three develops the poem into a call to action, rich in spiritual imagery and symbolism of war; a ‘bow of burning gold’, ‘arrows of desire’, ‘my spear’ and finally ‘my chariot of fire’ are all invoked by the poet as weapons of change and catalysts for a better life when the ‘clouds unfold’ and reveal a better life. This imagery is continued into stanza four as Blake asserts ‘nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand’, another typical motif of his poetry in recognising that his pen (the poet’s sword) is as mighty a weapon for change as any soldier’s tool. Finally, Blake locates himself into the poem by appealing to his audience with the collective pronoun ‘we’ and encouraging them to join him in rejecting the physical, metaphysical, spiritual and social shackles
William Blake's Jerusalem Plate 51
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of the time which have led to the ‘clouds’ and ‘dark Satanic mills’, instead re-establishing England as a ‘green and pleasant land’ where people can be happy and valued.
position as one of England’s ‘National poets’, as his work still allows us to open doors, have new ideas, see the world from a new perspective and this open-minded thinking could easily represent a form of ‘Jerusalem’ This then is a poem primarily of hope; that in the judgemental, hypocritical, selfhowever dark and cloudy life seems to be, obsessed world of the c.21st. with collective thought and collective effort a better place is just around the corner. However, we return to the idea of Blake’s poems containing a significant subtext, and then the poem can be read as much darker and worrying indictment of modern life. If we need this change and if we need the battle which stanza 3 points towards, then modern life is essentially flawed and destructive, even if we have not come to recognise it yet ourselves. The ideology of the alternative national anthem is not one of celebration and pride, but quite the opposite, one of fear and oppression, where the people are very firmly encouraged to rise up and reclaim what has been taken from them by the establishment. For me, ‘Jerusalem’ embodies all of the reasons why I love William Blake so much. He is unquestionably a skilled poet who creates artful and lyrically impressive poems; his use of evocative imagery is particularly engaging. Yet it is also the dangerous side to his character – the rebel – that makes him so admirable. He had the confidence to question the very fabric of society, at a time when Empire suggested that the Industrial Revolution was an unparalleled success, because it did not adequately nurture the core of society – mankind. A dreamer, a rebel, a protestor, an agitator, an idealist, a critic, William Blake said “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” This is why I support Blake’s
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FAMOUS SHROPSHIRE WRITERS
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Wilfred Owen by Esther Dowd
ilfred Owen is regarded by many as the greatest poet of World War One. His poems about the experience of war were honest and did not in any way cover up the gruesome reality of what soldiers on the front line experienced. Poems such as “Dulce et Decorum est”, “Anthem for the doomed youth” and “Spring Offensive” are some of the most famous. People studying GCSE English Literature will recognise that it was Wilfred Owen who wrote the powerful poem “Exposure” which is studied in the poetry section of the course (found in the power and conflict section of the anthology.)
such as these are referenced in his poems. After these terrible events Owen was diagnosed as suffering from shellshock and was sent to a hospital in Edinburgh to recover. It was during this time that he met the prominent war poet Siegfried Sassoon. Owen and Siegfried formed an extremely close relationship and much of Sassoon’s work had a large influence on Owen’s poetry.
In July 1918, Owen returned to active service in France, although he was given the option to stay on home-duty indefinitely. His decision to return was probably the result of Sassoon's being sent back to England, and put on sick-leave for the remainder of What a lot of people do not know is the war after being shot in the head. Owen that Shropshire was the birth place saw it as his duty to add his voice to that of Wilfred Owen. He was born on 18 of Sassoon’s, so that the horrific realities March 1893 at Plas Wilmot, a house in of the war would continue to be told. Weston Lane, near Oswestry. Owen later lived in Monkmoor in Shrewsbury. He Tragically on the 4 November 1918 during attended Shropshire schools including the the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal, Shrewsbury Technical School (later known Owen was killed in action. Almost exactly as the Wakeman School). Owen's last two one week before the signing of the years of formal education saw him as a armistice which ended the First World War. pupil-teacher at the Wyle Cop School in Shrewsbury, (very close to the High School). His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice On 4 June 1916, he was commissioned as a Day, as the church bells of St Chad’s in second lieutenant and was sent off to fight Shrewsbury were ringing out in celebration. on the front line in France. Here he suffered wen’s legacy has and will live on from the traumas of war. He fell into a shell for ever and it is amazing to think hole and suffered concussion; as well as that like many of us from the being blown up by a trench mortar and spending several days unconscious on an High School, he grew up in Shropshire embankment lying amongst the remains and walked the streets we walk. Indeed of one of his fellow officers. Experiences you will find his name on the war memorial opposite St Chad’s church.
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Dulce et Decorum est Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.— Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
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NEWNHAM VIRGINIA WOOLF ESSAY
“I find myself saying briefly and prosaically that it is much more important to be oneself than anyone else. Do not dream of influencing other people”
To what extent was this possible for female writers pre-1928? Ninety years on, is the situation any different? “It was very peaceful and quiet…I did not want anyone with me, not even Maxim. If Maxim had been here I should not be lying as I was now…I should have been watching him…wondering if he liked it, if he was bored…How lovely it was to be alone again.”
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aphne du Maurier epitomises the symbolism that Woolf cites in A Room Of One’s Own, that a “woman must have [a] room of her own if she is to write”, whereby “a room” is a microcosm of a wider society allowing women the independence to decide whose influences enter their four walls of freedom. Perhaps Woolf’s suggestion brings to light the important fact that women pre-1928 weren’t allowed the physical and metaphorical concept of ‘space’ to have a voice and consequently, a patriarchal society restricted them in the process of their self-discovery.
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et, considering our modern-day society, it could be argued that Woolf’s notion made ninety years ago is still applicable today and that stereotypes still remain; the fight to conform to society’s preconceived idea of who one should be, restrains women from being “oneself”. 18
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Essay by Meg Heaney
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Image Credit © www.glamourdaze.com
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t’s crucial to understand that with the current momentum and power of our social media voice, our preoccupation of exposing the zeitgeist, and our now innate desire to be the most shared and most liked initiator of a popular hash-tagged trend, have we confined ourselves into a room (or, as it is now more commonly known, in an ‘echo chamber’) and lost our sense of self due to a need to influence others? Perhaps one could put forward the possibility that just as pre-1928 females found it difficult to define who they were, have we, post1928 women, lost who we’re meant to be?
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owever, we must also question if men are really the sole culprits for our confining circumstances, as arguably there’s an aspect of the feminist voice post-1928 that strives to be superior to our male counterparts, not equal. If we look at the difficulties of living within a patriarchal society that women faced pre-1928, it allows us to question whether or not we’ve lost a sense of who we are in trying to escape these restraints. With the many pressures that women faced – the stereotype limiting women to being the bearer of “thirteen children” , the role of
housewife and mother who shouldn’t “show her face alone in the street” – we worryingly question why stereotypes still remain ninety years later. Kimberley Reader brings to light in her article for the Independent a most depressing reality of society’s current situation. She states that “The fight has changed, that is needless to say. Women can vote, get the same education as the boys…Women can live their lives…do and not do whatever, however and whoever they please. Or can they?” Reader presents the problematic realisation that “nowadays, it is so easy to dismiss the need for feminism because the ‘big issues’have been dealt with”, and although “we have come a long way since the feminist movement began… we have not come far enough”. By making a major focal point out of the fact that women’s social status has not, altogether, changed that much, brings to mind the fact that a woman’s identity has always been problematic. Perhaps we’ve lost sight of what it means to be a woman and to be a feminist; therefore limited progression on the ideology of being “oneself” has occurred since Woolf made her fertile notion.
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drowns herself in the ocean, as well as the subsequent history that followed Woolf’s advice (“a woman needs a room of her own if she is to write”), revealing a history of women crushed by their attempts to break free from society’s restraints. Caitlin Moran epitomises this reality in her novel How To Be A Woman as she honestly recounts: if you “show a girl a pioneering hero - Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Parker, Frida Kahlo, Cleopatra, Boudicca, Joan of Arc… you also, more often than not, show a girl a woman who was eventually crushed.”
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lthough this impacts negatively upon us – as pioneering feminists and as young women ourselves –we’re forced to question what the point was, in the actions taken by our predecessors, if we find ourselves in a situation no different than ninety years ago. However, our conditioned belief that it was the overshadowing of women by men that has forced us into the position we find ourselves in today – that it’s men who have determined us to be the inferior sex and it’s men who have failed to changed, and must, in order for us to ever be happy with our place in society – is
Image Credit © www.glamourdaze.com
oolf’s suggestion in A Room of One’s Own is cohesive with the message that Kate Chopin presents in her late 19th century novel The Awakening, whereby both authors showcase the woman’s struggle to “be oneself”. Where Woolf explores the means to improve a woman’s opportunity for selfempowerment and self-discovery through having a room of her own, Chopin explores the journey of women who fight for selfdiscovery – Edna Pontellier’s character casts “aside the fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world”. It’s significant that Chopin draws from a contextual need for a woman to disguise her true self with a “fictitious self”, as it echoes the modern day struggle with ‘imposter syndrome’ – the fear of being “exposed as a ‘fraud’”. Arguably, women’s fear of being seen for who they truly are, leaving room for ridicule and mockery, is what both authors are envisaging when they depict the problems that women were facing. Chopin describes the consequences of this in her mournful closing scene that sees Edna reminiscing through memories of her childhood and family as she
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perhaps misconstrued. We find ourselves questioning if the most vocal of feminists truly want equality, or rather superiority. Perhaps we find ourselves with the innate desire to punish men for their actions taken against women in years gone by, and have reacted against the treatment of pre-1928 women to such an extent that we’ve forgotten what it is that we’re actually fighting for.
#Times Up Movement founded January 1st 2018 by Hollywood Celebrities.
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weekly pop-culture and news podcast called The High Low touched upon the recent Times Up Movement that made it’s monumental debut at the Oscars. It reflected upon the significance of the movements resonating message due to the black dresses worn by majority of the women who attended. The podcast brings its listeners attention to New York Times critic, Alexander Fury, who beautifully epitomized the impact of the event when he tweeted: “It was powerful. Why? Because it conveyed a message. Plenty of news outlets will still only print an image of a woman on the red carpet, and not report what she has to say. So why not make your appearance semaphore, in some way, what you want to convey?.. these black dresses had a deeper meaning than satin and sparkle. They represented something” He wrote that “it was a demonstration that women will not – cannot – be silenced. It had strength and dignity… It united the women in attendance. It transmogrified then from an audience into a movement”.
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lthough it’s important to realise that whilst the Movement’s ultimate goal was to highlight sexual harassment in the workplace, especially within the acting industry, we mustn’t overlook the fact that they also seek to castigate men for their actions. Although this is understandable, one wonders what it is that women will be condemned for in return if it is equality that we truly seek. Yet women do not want their actions questioned, which not only proves that superiority is what we’re fighting for, but also makes us wonder if we’re simply ‘cutting off our noses to spite our faces’. If what we’re fighting for has changed, then we’ve lost a sense of who we’re meant to be as our influence on others seeks to challenge the superiority of men instead of elevating the importance of being a woman.
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re-1928 women weren’t allowed a voice, but now we are, though to effectively use our voices we must have a clear viewpoint of ourselves; we must know who are before influencing others. It could be argued that this is what Woolf was emphasising when she stated that we must not “dream of influencing others”; that without first being “oneself”, we should not have the power to influence others. Our society, post-1928, still suffers from a lack of clarity about the meaning of being a woman, and the meaning of being a feminist. We’ve strived so hard to break from the boundaries that men placed around us pre-1928 – the role of housewife and mother – that we’ve devalued the meaning of such roles.
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ike Woolf cited in A Room of One’s Own, that “women are hard on other women. Women dislike women”, the same profound sentiment still applies to a society ninety years later. The High Low revealed an honest confession made by Anne Hathaway in an interview when the actress stated that when watching a movie directed by a female she looks for what’s wrong with it, but when watching
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Charlotte Bronte , George Richmond c.1850, chalk on paper.
a movie directed by a male she looks for what’s good with it. Likewise, The High Low also described a true scenario where a “female author emailed a manuscript under a female name to 50 publishers and she received 2 responses”, but then she sent the exact same manuscript under a male pseudonym to the same publishing companies and she got 18 responses – statistically, the author got “8.5 times better as a writer” when she was a male.
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oth men and women are suffering from an internalised misogyny, and whilst, perhaps, it’s unsurprising that men were sexist, it shocks us that women act in such similar ways, especially against other women. Although this is an unconscious bias, therefore making it difficult to address, it exists and ultimately confirms that women no longer give much value to the role of a Mother, when arguably, this is one of the most important roles in society. Therefore we must consider if we’ve restricted ourselves again and that although our parameters may differ, they still exist. By fighting for empowerment and for the right to “be oneself”, have we lost what we want as individuals in return for being something society wants us to be – we “must be pretty/beautiful/sexy/hot” , “able to cook, clean and cater to the man”, be “ladylike”, have a job as well as being “great mother[s]” – we think that we’ve got the freedom to choose who we want to be, but really we don’t. We need only look as far as social media to see that the most liked Instagram photos ever are Beyonce’s pregnancy shot and Kylie Jenner’s recent baby photo; therefore forcing us to question what this truly says about the role of women in society. Perhaps, we’re still restricted to “a room” as a now ingrained need to influence others forces women to see, what’s ultimately defined, as the perfect woman – a successful businesswoman, a mother, as well as a beauty icon.
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harlotte Bronte first explored the idea of women being confined to a room in her timeless novel Jane Eyre. The novel transitions from Jane being imprisoned, first, in a physical room – the “red-room” because all believed her to be “wicked” – followed by her confinement in a metaphorical room where she reflects upon the unjust treatment of women. “Woman are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel…they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags”. Bronte seemingly responds to the world she sees around her to highlight the fact that women were confined in a ‘space’ when not conforming to society’s stereotypes of women.
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Thor and Hymir go fishing - from an Icelandic manuscript c. 1700
oolf ostensibly draws from Bronte’s words to again bring to light the discrimination she suffered because of her sex when she began her exploration of Women and Fiction – being challenged for walking on the grass instead of the gravel path, being banned from the library where “ladies are only admitted…if accompanied by a” man, and that her research in the British Museum reveals the extremely sexist work about women written by men. Perhaps like Bronte, Woolf is suggesting that women are confined to a metaphorical or physical room when they fail to conform to society’s expectations. However, ninety years later, we’re forced to acknowledge that we now self-perpetuate these stereotypes, whereby we influence others and gain our identity from the numbers of shares or likes we obtain on social media as part of click-tivism feminism and ultimately imprison ourselves in yet another “room”.
only empowered women can empower women. Only then can we truly influence others positively, when comfortable with our own identity. Perhaps Kimberley Reader’s right in assuming that it’s unlikely one’ll ever be able to “be oneself” and positively “influence others” when simply “the fight has changed, the stereotypes remain, and the cause will never die”
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herefore, when Woolf writes that it is “most important to be oneself than anyone else”, this is of course true, but perhaps too ‘out-of-reach’ for both females pre-1928 and post-1928. We once lived in a society where women were not free to be themselves and females couldn’t write as they were restricted “by their parents and held to it by all the power of law and custom”. Yet, we now find ourselves living in a society that Moran depicts in How To Be A Woman; that “when a woman says, 'I have nothing to wear!', what she really means is, 'There's nothing here for who I'm supposed to be today”. Woolf’s sentiment is insightful, but the reality is, women have always found themselves in a society that restricts them. Once we understand that “feminism is not about overpowering or emasculating men in society. It is not a war between the sexes or an attempt by women to become more ‘manly’” , and that we must first empower ourselves to see men as allies and not the “opposing faction”, because 24
AN INTRODUCTION TO OLD NORSE-ICELANDIC LITERATURE: PART ONE BY MISS HALE
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The literature of medieval Iceland is a great world treasure – elaborate, various, strange, profound, and as eternally current as any of the other great literary treasures” (Smiley, 2000. p.3). celanders pride themselves on being a literary nation. They will tell you that, per capita, more books are written, published and sold per year in Iceland than any other nation. November traditionally
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marks the beginning of the Jólabókaflóð (Yule Book Flood), when every household receives in the post their Bókatíðindi (Book Tidings), a catalogue of everything published in the coming months, usually around 700-1000 titles; books are the most popular Christmas present in Iceland. Að ganga með bók í maganum (literally, to go with a book in your stomach) is a popular saying; every Icelander has a story in them and 1 in 10 will have their work published.
Skaldic poems (from the Old Norse skáld meaning ‘poet’) have named authors and are usually linked to historic events. Over 5,000 skaldic poems exist, most of them in dróttkvætt, or court metre. A dróttkvætt verse has eight lines, each line has six syllables, three of which are stressed, there are two rhyming syllables in every line, and each line pair has three alliterative staves. As Potts (2013, p.5) says:
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Dróttkvætt makes the Shakespearean sonnet look like child’s play. The strict metrical demands require its craftsman to possess high levels of linguistic dexterity, conceptual ingenuity and acoustic sensitivity. A large vocabulary wouldn’t go amiss either.
How did a geographically isolated country with fewer than 350,000 inhabitants develop such a love and appreciation of the printed word? Allard (2007) suggests that it is hard to imagine any secular literary development without a corresponding, and vigorous, oral tradition. Prior to the late nineteenth century Iceland was a nation of farms; outside of Reykjavík there were no villages or towns. During the period of evening entertainment in the winter months known as kvöldvaka, or ‘evening wake’, all members of the household would sit together in the cramped communal living quarters of their turf farmhouses and recite or tell each other stories and poems while they attended to chores like knitting, carding and spinning of wool. However, these stories and poems were not the result of improvisation, but the retelling of Viking age tales and myths that were first written down during the medieval period in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries; it has been the oral circulation of these stories that has proved to be their main means of dissemination for centuries in Iceland (Clunies Ross, 2010).
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n Old Norse, saga is related to the verb segja ‘to say, tell’, and despite not having a precise English equivalent can be roughly understood as denoting something said or a narrative in prose (Kellogg, 2000). The Íslendingasögur, or ‘sagas of Icelanders’, are forty prose narratives written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries based on historical events that took place from c.870 to c1000, predominantly in Iceland but also in the rest of Scandinavia, England, Orkney, Greenland and America. The sagas feature complex family stories of feud, conflict, love and loss that take place over many generations. Characters have names such as Unn the Deep-minded, Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue, Thorfinn Einarsson the Skull-splitter and the infamous warriorpoet Egill Skallagrímsson who committed his first murder aged seven. Prose is laconic, terse and succinct (Allard, 2007), and occupied with the moral, political and legal life of a whole society of ordinary people which Kellogg (2000) states was an achievement unparalleled elsewhere in Europe at this time; most medieval European literature had an aristocratic audience and was predominantly poetry rather than prose. The literature of medieval Iceland prefigured the literature of the modern world and will be explored in more depth in forthcoming issues of Scribble.
Medieval Old Norse-Icelandic literature is traditionally divided into three parts: eddic poetry, skaldic poety and the sagas. Eddic poetry is in ballad form and, apart from archaeological evidence, is our main source of knowledge on Norse mythology, from Thor’s adventures against the hostile giants to the coming of Ragnarok (Larrington, 1996). Most of this poetry is preserved in a single manuscript known as the Poetic Edda which has no named author and was probably written in the early thirteenth century.
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IS HARRY POTTER SEXIST?
Representations of Gender in the Harry Potter Series by Miss B Lord
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OR: Contrary to the male characters, Hermione often shows fear. For instance ‘[Herminone] was still flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror’ when she is faced with a troll which Harry and Ron save her from. Heilman (2003) acknowledges that Hermione’s knowledge is important but only contributes to Harry’s adventures and not hers. Additionally, her knowledge is anti-intellectual as she is interested mostly in magic of the lower order as taught in Divination class. Moreover, the stereotypes in Hermione's characterization are reflected in her hysterical, timid and fearful behaviour, as well as the language Rowling uses to describe her behaviour. These are typical terms connected with the "weaker" sex (crying, sobbing) and in the novels they are never used to describe male characters. This is mirrored in Hermione’s female peers: the only girl in the Tri-Wizard tournament is Fleur who performs worst of all and Cho Chang is the only female seeker in Quidditch who chases Harry instead of the snitch (Heilman, 2003: 226). Thus it could be argued that Rowling replicates the gender conventions
of modern society in the creation of a hegemonistic magical world which features only 115 females compared to the 201 males mentioned in the novels as a whole.
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GAINST: Dresang (2002) argues that the novels are feminist in nature as she refuses to view Rowling’s writing as female subjectivity. Drawing on an interview with Rowling, Dresang suggests that Rowling created Hermione in her own image as she ‘embodies [Rowling’s] own flaws.’ Furthermore, female characters become more prevalent as the series continues as Rowling adds numerous female characters into the history of this world and into the present action. For instance, in The Order of the Phoenix, Harry picks up a photograph of the original order in which those women who had been hidden right at the back appear at the forefront of the picture (p174). This seems like an apt metaphor for the transformation of gender presentation in the series. Lastly, while few women are in top positions of power in the series and often take the shape of a ‘helper woman’ archetype, there is one position that is given great
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Hermione Granger - Emma Watson
importance in the series and dominated by women: motherhood. The love of mothers is a powerful image through the Harry Potter series. Lily Potter died in order to save Harry’s life, and her sacrifice becomes a key aspect of Harry finally defeating Voldemort.
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FREE DIRECT DISCOURSE What are they thinking? by Mr Allen
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hen analysing a text at A Level students often become bogged down with a strict focus on word level analysis in a vain attempt to tick the AO2 ‘methods’ box. Unfortunately, the days of ‘the effect of this personal pronoun suggest that this event is very personal to the narrator’ do not quite cut it at A Level (or, with that example, at GCSE either!) One way that you can really showcase your abilities at A Level is to discuss with confidence some of the narrative methods that a writer has used and one of the most interesting but often misplaced examples of this is the use of Free Indirect Discourse.
What is Free Indirect Discourse|? When we think about narration, we are asking ourselves a very basic question: ‘who is telling the story?’ There are many different options for a writer here, are we given an omniscient perspective by a narrator that knows everything about all of the characters within a text? Do we have a narrator who focuses more specifically on an individual character giving a more limited point of view? Do we see things from the point of view of an individual character (or characters) so that we see things exclusively from their point of view? Is our narrator even reliable and to be trusted? Free indirect discourse blurs the boundaries of these narrative perspectives to create something new and far more intriguing for a student of English.
Back to basics In general, when writing is in the third person, the reader is positioned ‘outside’ of the action. Everything we are told is controlled and determined by the narrator either directly or through reported information. He walked into the room. ‘What an ugly colour’ he thought. In this example, we begin by listening to the narrator. We then take a step into the thoughts of the character before leaving again because of the speech marks. The narrator remains present at all times. We are told directly what the man thought as he entered the room but this can also be reported: He walked into the room. He thought the colour was ugly. The narrator remains in control. We know no more or no less than the narrator wants us to know and our understanding of the character’s thoughts remains limited. Now consider this example: He walked into the room. How ugly. At this point, do we not move from an outside perspective to the perspective of the character himself? The response to the room is more likely to be from the character rather than the narrator. It is better exemplified when we read more: He walked into the room. How ugly. The ridiculous floral curtains only further enhancing the absurdity of her colour choice. That framed picture was another issue altogether.
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Clearly now we are seeing things from the character’s point of view. It is not the narrator who finds the curtains ridiculous but the character himself and the reference to ‘her’ suggests some sort of relationship that as of yet, we are unaware of. The character’s thoughts and feelings have taken over from the narrator. The same can happen with reported speech. The narrator can tell us that: He told her how much he dislike that picture. However, Free Indirect Style can allow the character’s words to leach into the text: He told her how much he disliked that god-awful picture- three times!
The Benefits Free Indirect Discourse allows a writer to utilise the advantages of third person narration: omniscience and reliability, and first person: deeper access to a character, effectively offering the best of both worlds. The style is often associated with Jane Austen as shown in this passage from Pride and Prejudice: Her astonishment, as she reflected on what had passed, was increased by every review of it. That she should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy! That he should have been in love with her for so many months! So much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had made him prevent his friend’s marrying her sister, and which must appear at least with equal force in his own case, was almost incredible! - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice We begin, quite traditionally, with a regular third person omniscient narrator who tells us of Elizabeth’s shock at Mr Darcy’s proposal. However, we then slip quite quickly into Elizabeth’s personal reaction, the emotional force of her musings exemplified by the consistent exclamative use. This response is not the narrator’s, who has been aware of Mr Darcy’s state of mind for some time but that of Elizabeth herself. It is as though her emotions are too difficult to contain, the narrator cannot simply report them, it is Elizabeth who needs to take over for the full dramatic impact to be realised. Here is an example from one of the modernist proponents of free indirect style, James Joyce: He kicked open the crazy door for the jakes. Better be careful not to get these trousers dirty for a funeral. He went in, bowing his head under the low lintel. Leaving the door ajar, amid the stench of moldy limewash and stale cobwebs he undid his braces. Before sitting down he peered through a chink up at the nextdoor window. The king was in his courthouse. - James Joyce, Ulysses. With typical Joycean wit we get an exceptionally vivid representation of a character visiting the toilet. We slip into Leopold’s mind as he worries about dirtying his trousers and possibly again when he considers the regality of his position. Perhaps in this instance, the use of free indirect style is particularly apt given that our character would not wish to be disturbed. Joyce is consciously removing his narrator at this most private of moments. Ultimately, Free Indirect Discourse allows a writer to build a tremendously deep insight into a particular character and the way they think while at the same time maintaining control through third person narrative. While the use of Free Indirect Style can be awkward and at times a little confusing, it does allow for some really insightful comment regarding the narrative choices made by a writer. And it could also prove useful for any budding Austens or Joyces out there.
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HOW TO REVISE FOR ENGLISH LITERATURE by Abby Spalding English Literature can seem like a daunting subject to revise for, both for GCSE’s and A-Level; so here are some tips on how to revise and get the grade you want: 1. Firstly, and most importantly: RE-READ YOUR TEXTS and make sure you actually know what’s going on! although this may seem menial and even boring, reading your texts can you help familiarise yourself with both the key events and the sequence of events. So, tip one is to read your texts 4 times, although this may seem daunting, it’s really not that much, if you read your text: before starting the course, once during class, once after finishing studying the book, and once when revising, you can really become familiar with your texts. By doing this, you are much more likely to pick up on little details which you can include within essays to make the examiner think you’re clever.
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES! Revision guides, extra reading, websites and youtube videos are a great way to gain additional knowledge, that other people may not have, and to make your essay stand out! Shmoop and Get revising are great websites for characters and themes, which you can add to your own ideas to make them even more interesting, however, – do not rely only on these as they can be quite brief. Youtube is also great at explaining exam technique or key ideas within texts – I highly recommend Mr Bruff for GCSE.
2. YOU CAN’T LEARN EVERY QUOTE, you need to prioritise quotes that are most useful and most versatile, which show multiple themes or ideas within the book. You can learn quotes in multiple different ways, however, the most useful – is flashcards. Either physically or using quizlet, either by writing half a quote on one side and the second half on the back or by writing, for example ‘quote about….’ And a quote on the back. If flashcards aren’t your thing, you could create quote summaries, for each theme or character: with a specific quote and its analysis.
5. CHAPTER SUMMARIES can help you condense a 200-page book into 3 a4 sheets of paper. They are a great way to make texts manageable, and easy to quickly glance at before an exam to remind yourself of the order of events. Within the summaries, you can include: key quotes, key events, and analysis of both – to extend your summaries into a useful revision resource.
3. MINDMAPS ARE CRUCIAL, mindmaps are an EXTREMELY effective method to learn both characters and themes within a book – getting to know both these things can improve your knowledge and subsequently essays by miles. Mindmapping is a great way to get everything you need to know down on one piece of paper, making it easy to revise – Plus they look great if you have pastel pens! The only hard thing about mindmapping is obtaining the information, to do this I suggest reading through your texts and post-it-noting key themes, events and characters, whilst annotating the book and quotes and writing down ideas, and then transferring it onto your mind map. .
6. MAKE A REVISION PLAN! This is probably the most common piece of advice for any subject, as by planning out your time, you are bound to be much more effective within your revision. I suggest 1 week per text, consisting of varied revision; by doing this it stimulates ideas and creates a headspace within text, to help you extend your ideas. Within this week you can use different revision methods, like quote flashcards or more interestingly different interpretations and adaptations e.g. films, can help you visualise a text – so in this way I guess watching a movie does count as revision, however, DON’T ONLY RELY ON THE FILMS, as they could misinterpret or miss out key scenes. Do this per text, and when it becomes closer to exams you can incorporate multiple texts into the same week, if you’re a bit worried.
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7. (For A-Level) LEARN THE GENRE, this is one of the major differences between GCSE and A-Level – the fact that you have to know the genre of your texts to gain marks. This can be as simple as making a timeline or key criteria that is usually present within the genre, to allow you to understand the development of the genre to expand your essay knowledge. One tip is to learn key words within the genre to help you sound clever, and prove you understand the concepts, for example androcentric within feminist theory. By learning the genre, it also helps with the unseen text, as this is likely to be the same genre that you’re studying.
9. (For an unseen extract) READ THE CONTEXT! Everything they’ve given you is there for a reason, so USE IT! Even if it writes about where the author is from, this will probably help you when writing your essay. This is the bit that people often miss or skip over, but it is the most crucial bit, it gives you context which you can link with the genre and give you higher marks.
8. DO/ PLAN PRACTICE QUESTIONS! The only way you will ever familiarise yourself with the layout or the typicality’s within an exam is to actually do an exam paper, this can either be in timed conditions or with your notes. By doing or planning questions, you can become familiar with themes you are comfortable with and ones that may need more revision, it also helps you see how much you know. One way to do this, is to give yourself a question and have your notes with you – answer the question with your own knowledge and in a different colour write additional information with your notes. This helps you establish what you need to revise and can make you achieve a higher grade as you are familiar with doing questions.
10. Finally, For GCSE poetry MINDMAPS AGAIN, poetry is often found the hardest bit of the subject, because it can seem quite vague. So, for each poem, it is crucial that you read it and write down key quotations and annotations of the poem onto a Mindmap or any layout. By identifying key themes and ideas, along with quotes, you are much more likely to understand the poems and to know how to answer questions upon them. Also, by identifying themes, you can split up your poems into different sections and learn how to compare them. For continual revision, I also suggest writing the quotes and everything you can remember from poems, onto a piece of paper and when finished compare with your Mindmap and fill in what you don’t know – as this is what you need to revise!
Well, there are some revision tips, that may help you get through either GCSE’s or A-Level, English may seem like a hard subject to revise for, however, with the right revision methods and quick tips, it can become easier to revise, and can help you get whatever grade you want!
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