S C R I B B L E Shrewsbury High School Literary Magazine, Issue 3 (April, 2019).
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever” John Keats
A ‘FINAL’ NOTE FROM THE
EDITOR
Goodbye for now! Whenwritingmyfirsteditor'sletterlastyear,Ibeganwiththequestion‘wheretostart?’Now,twelvemonths later,Ihavetoask‘wheretoend?’ThisisthethirdandlasteditionofScribblethatIhavehadthepleasureof beingtheeditorforandIwantedtoconcludemyeditorshipwithabriefsummaryabouteverythingthatthe Scribble Team have achieved and being a part of it has meant to me. In just one year we have taken the initial idea of an 'SHS Literary Magazine' and have made it into a realisedthing.Wehaveproducedthreeeditions;conductedtwointerviews;collectivelywrittenaround eighteenarticlesandnottoforgetthecountlessemailsthathavebeensentandreceivedoverthelastyear. PerhapsthemostimportantthingthathasmadeScribblesuccessfulhasbeentheamountoftimeandeffort putintoeachedition,byeachmemberoftheScribbleteam,fromcovertocover.Beingamemberoftheteam ofwritershasbeenmyfavouritepartaboutmytimeaseditor,soIwantedtosayabigthankyoutoeveryone thathelpedmakeScribble;fromeveryonethatsubmittedanarticle,toAarifawhoproofreadeachone,to MrsPardoewhohelpedusputthemagazinetogether,totheEnglishdepartmentwhowrotefantasticarticles and helped me along the way and, finally, to all the guest writers who gave up their time. Beingeditorhasinvolvedrunningmeetings,makingsurethateveryone’sarticleisontrackandhelpingto proofread. All of which has taught me so many valuable skills.The role of Scribble editor has also given metheopportunitytoreadallthegreatarticlesandseeliteraturefromsomanyangles.Iwouldneverhave thoughtabouthowatextistranslatedwhenIreadmyfavouriteScandinovelsbutKatyBambridge’sarticle onpage12mademethinkaboutit;IhaveonlyreadafewDystopiannovelsbutDivya’sarticleonpage16 mademewanttoreadeveryonethatshewroteabout.Maddy’sarticleonpage24transportedmeto1920s Mississippiand,althoughithadneverappealedtomebefore,Iwantedtoreadaboutthedeepsouth.This linksbacktomyfirsteditor’sletterwhereIsaidthatthebestthingaboutEnglishLiteraturewasthescopeof itandIhopethatthefirstthreeeditionsofScribblehavegivenyouasnapshotofthat. IfeelthatMissHale’s article on page 28 certainly does. Iamhopefully,gradespermitting,offtoSheffieldUniversityinSeptembertostudyJournalismandIamnow armedwitheverythingthatIhavelearntwhilstbeingeditorofScribbleand,whoknows,Imaycomeback andwriteanarticleforafutureeditionofScribbleonedaytoleteveryoneknowhowI’mgettingon–justas poet Jennie Howitt has on page 10. AsIhandoverthebatontoKirstyEades,thefantasticnewScribbleeditor,Ialsowantedtosaythankyouto thoseofyouwhohavepickedupacopyinthelibraryorhaveboughtonetoread.Ican’twaittoreadthenext edition already and see how Scribble grows. But (for now) that’s all from me - The End.
Molly Huxley Scribble editor 2018-2019
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Table of Contents 4 “To Make a Long Story Short, Why Study English” by Meg Heaney.
16 The Golden Age of Dsytopian Fiction by Divya Balain.
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Faulkner’s Odyssey by Maddie Williams.
Katy Bambridge explores Other Words from Other Worlds.
2
Welcome from the Editor
20
15 Questions with Miss Hale
3
Contents
27
Coming Soon
6
Shakespeare Females
28
Miss Hale’s Recommended Reads
10
Where Could Studying English Take You?
29
The Next Editor
19
Little Miss Good Judgement (Year 7)
30
Meet The Team
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“To Make A Long Story Short” Why English? By Meg Heaney I’ve been asked that question a lot lately. From my decision to study English at university, to completing my UCAS personal statement, to the interview room, it all seems to boil down to “Why English?”
For me, my English Literature “journey” thus far has been gradual and eye-opening. The more I read and research, the more I fall in love with the subject – as corny as that sounds. It was at the start of Year 12 that I seriously began to consider studying English beyond the walls of a school classroom, and despite having read avidly when I was younger, I’ve never been one of those who had read all the classics or knew of the greatest
Such a simple question hardly ever generates an equally simple answer. If English is the subject that you want to study at university then some part of you already intuitively knows the answer to this question – whether you are able to adequately verbalise it or not, you just know! The same could be said for any other subject.
literary writers. However, I think the most important thing that
Deciding to study English Literature at university was a very easy decision – I knew it was the subject that I wanted to take further and more than anything else.
favourites were Victorian and Feminist Literature, as well as
my application has taught me is that an English student doesn’t need to have read every single book in the world, or even enjoy every book they’ve ever read, to be suited to studying English. The preparation for writing my personal statement proved the most fun; in order to write a statement that makes you stand out as a student and that eloquently describes the aspects of literature that you love and are passionate about, requires the work of reading widely and deeply, with research and critical analysis. This gives you free-reign to find your favourite time period, genre, or author within literature – my personal dystopian fiction. To build a personal statement that’s unique and substantial, you can’t just read a novel and then move on. It requires critical analysis of the text and the application of literary criticism alongside an understanding of the work’s
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context. Literature helps us form ideas, see
of Rupi Kaur or how the style of short stories, like those
the world from other perspectives, shift our
of Daphne du Maurier, were being mirrored in the online
ideologies and expose us to new ones. It has the
‘short story’ fiction of writers like Nicole Flattery. Fuelling
ability to make us feel compassion for monsters,
interests that seem bizarre or eccentric are the very thing
hatred for innocence, desire for the grotesque,
that make you unique as an applicant, so embrace them!
and repulsion for beauty; I found that being able
The additional work you do outside of your lessons and
to talk to others about my reading and findings
A Levels for your application shouldn’t become laborious
made my understanding of a text more absolute.
or a chore – if anything, it should prove to you that this is
It’s from this that you can build a killer personal
the subject that you truly want to take. My experience
statement that’s unique to you and oozes your
with applying for English Literature at university has been
passion for the subject – ultimately what any
incredible and has confirmed that this is the subject I’m
admissions tutor is looking for.
going to enjoy taking further. So, to make a long story short,
Despite English Literature evoking thoughts of simply reading, my journey included bringing
ask yourself “Why English?” and enjoy the journey your application will inevitably take you on.
English into other areas of my life. From basing
Even if you’re not thinking of studying English at
my EPQ on the fluidity of the feminist voice
university, these tips should give you the edge for A-Level
and corresponding social change, to entering
English as being passionate and reading around really does
literary essay competitions and setting up my
make you stand out from the crowd – or stand out from the
own competition within the school – the “SHS
other exam papers, I suppose.
Essay Writing Prize” – I was able to expand my work with English outside of purely reading
“Short, but sweet Top Tips”
which helped to show my love and passion for the subject further. I listened to hundreds of podcasts – became addicted to a series called
‘The High Low’ – followed writers on Twitter and tracked the winners, past and present, for the “Women’s Prize for Fiction” competition. I read literary magazines like “The Paris
Review” and “The New Yorker”, kept updated
1. Read, read, read!
with the #MeToo feminist movement, watched
2. Find your "thing" - your favourite genre, author, time period.
literary talks on TED, went to the theatre and compared performances of Shakespeare’s plays. Don’t be afraid to feed a fascination with an
3. Discuss your thoughts.
unconventional or unusual aspect of literature; of modern fiction and online literature, I decided
4. Immerse yourself in literature.
to study Instapoets and online short stories. I
5. Stand out.
whilst I wasn’t particularly proficient in the area
found that I loved the short Instagram poems
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FEMALES
SHAKESPEARE William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays in his lifetime, but only four have a female character in their title; that said, in Romeo and Juliet, Antony and
Cleopatra and Troilus and Cressida the female characters are presented as part of a pair only, and the wives in The Merry Wives of Windsor are anonymised by the play’s title. Often being accused of writing weak and poor female characters, in this edition of Scribble, Head of English, Mr Aldridge, makes the case for Shakespeare being regarded as one of literature’s proto-feminists. It would be highly simplistic and arguably wrong to examine Shakespeare as a feminist in his lifetime, given that the first real stirrings
of
first-wave
feminism
didn’t begin until the end of the 19th century, a good 250 years after his death. But in Elizabethan England, anyone who could imagine a woman outside of her role as wife and mother was a pretty radical thinker, and this is undeniably what Shakespeare
Martin Droeshout, Shakespeare 1623
attempted in many of his plays. There are around seven times more male than female roles in Shakespeare’s plays – a huge disparity between
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the sexes in speaking parts – and in terms of named
The Taming of the Shrew, Lady Macbeth (Macbeth),
characters, only 16% of his dramatic canon is female.
Cordelia (King Lear), Desdemona (Othello), Rosalind
This statistic is, however, what can possibly allow
(As You like it), Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Shakespeare’s women to have significance, as he
and Viola and Maria (Twelfth Night) and these are
often creates his females as multi-dimensional
certainly worthy of consideration if you are inspired to
characters, displaying courage, intelligence, ambition,
delve further into Shakespeare’s plays.
recklessness and pride, rather than countless male
What brings all three of the female roles chosen
roles which are more limited and one-dimensional,
together is that they break social and gender pre-
needed simply for stage or narrative function, rather
conceptions of rules and expectation. Juliet is perhaps
than as integral dramatic devices. When Shakespeare
the most interesting owing to her age – at thirteen,
writes a woman, he means it! Sarah Allen from
she is by far the youngest of Shakespeare’s principal
the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon
characters. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare’s
concludes, ‘In the world in which he lived, he gave a
ingénue is constructed as an object, ‘like a rich jewel
voice to women and saw them as complex, versatile
in an Ethiop’s ear’ (I.5.44), amplified soon after by
and three dimensional. Which was huge.’
her representation as ‘bright angel’ (II.2.26)) whilst elevated in the heavens by Shakespeare’s employment
‘In the world in which he lived, he gave a voice to women and saw them as complex, versatile and three dimensional. Which was huge.’
of the balcony. This is conventional stuff, mirroring the language and dramatic function of so many precedents, but it is in Act II Scene 2 that we are given the first signs that something ‘original’ might be being offered. Juliet does not play up to the socially prescribed role of passive love interest, so quickly embraced by Rosaline at the beginning. Instead, Juliet is created as active, taking charge of her own affairs and accepting Romeo’s love on her own terms, not his. The tone for this control is set as she refuses Romeo’s initial vow – ‘swear not by the moon, th’
Helen Zimmern, in the preface to the English
inconstant moon / that monthly changes in its circled
translation of Louis Lewes’s study The Women of
orb’ (109-10), arguably a rejection of all hollow vows
Shakespeare, argued in 1895 that “of Shakespeare’s
of courtly lovers influenced by hackneyed writers of
dramatis personae, his women are perhaps the most
the Sixteenth century. Juliet commands that Romeo
attractive, and also, in a sense, his most original
swears ‘by thy gracious self’ (112) and that if his ‘bent
creations, so different are they, as a whole, from the
of love be honourable, thy purpose marriage’ (143/4)
ideals of the feminine type prevalent in the literature of
she will ‘follow thee, my lord, throughout the world’
his day’. So, who are these ‘original creations’? For me,
(148). In a time of rigid patriarchy, that Shakespeare
a number of female characters stand out over others
has a thirteen-year old girl firstly choose her own lover
– Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, Portia in The Merchant
and then arrange her own marriage is significant; she
of Venice, and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra;
is not given, but is the giver of herself. This is neatly
honourable mentions are also given to Katherina in
encapsulated in the image created at the end of this
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Ford Madox Brown. Romeo & Juliet, 1867. Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester.
character often appears constrained and a victim to fate, she retains her own choices and identity until the very end, and that is ‘original’! Of the other strong and powerful, fully realised, female characters of Shakespeare, each seems to be limited or flawed. The construction of Cleopatra is artful and one only need examine the scene of her arrival in Egypt to meet Mark Antony for the first time
John Williams-Waterhouse, Cleopatra, 1888
to see the gender politics Shakespeare plays with.
scene, where Juliet laments ‘O for a falc’ners voice;
to lure this tassel gentle back again’ (157-9), later comparing Romeo to a school-girl’s pet bird – ‘I would
have thee gone;/ and yet no further than a wanton’s bird / that lets it hop a little from her hand…/ and Mark Antony is one of the triumvirs, the three leaders
control and strength in this scene is echoed much later
of the Roman Empire, and yet he is upstaged by the
in the play, as she argues with her father, Lord Capulet,
Egyptian Queen as she arrives down the Nile; ‘The
the embodiment of the patriarchal values she rejects.
barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne, Burned on
Despite his anger and protestations that he will allow
the water’. Shakespeare revels in the scene he paints,
his only child to ‘hang, beg, starve, die in the streets’
comparing Cleopatra to a goddess, but what is truly Lawrence Alma- Tadema, The meeting of Anthony & Cleopatra. 1885
with a silk thread plucks it back again’ (177-81). Juliet’s
(III.5.193), Juliet stands up to his bullying, continuing to choose her own fate instead of the prescribed role given to her. This, of course, does not end well in the play’s denouement, but Juliet’s actions can and should be lauded; she chooses to undertake the Friar’s plan with the sleeping potion, she chooses to reject both her parents and the Nurse, and then, finally, she chooses to take her own life on learning of Romeo’s death. The key word here is choice; although Juliet’s
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with Lorenzo. This is not necessarily problematic, as
come to her, not she to him. This subversion of gender
logistics meant that Shakespeare has to have Portia
political convention of the time emphasises just what
as a man in order to gain her access to the courtroom
a force to be reckoned with Cleopatra is, and we
in the first-place, but the central issue I have with
must remember that Mark Antony agrees, following
Portia’s character comes at the very end. As a mini
her round like a lapdog; this is no seventeen year old
sub-plot, Portia and Nerissa seek to test the fidelity of
boy, but probably among the most powerful men on
their husbands by trying to gain the rings each man
the planet. And yet, Shakespeare feels it necessary
has promised never to give up; Bassanio chooses his
to wrack Cleopatra with the most irrational self-guilt
loyalty to Antonio over his love for Portia, his wife,
and jealousy, once she has got her man! There are
agreeing to Antonio’s command to give the ring as a
countless scenes with Charmian, her confidante, in
present to the young clerk. Portia, having exposed
which Cleopatra almost loses her own self-control,
Bassanio’s irresponsible and disloyal character, takes
imagining the affairs Mark Antony is having and
him back almost immediately, returning the ring,
sending envoys to spy on him; in the words of Hans
warning him ‘bid him keep it better than the other’.
Bertens, the actions of a ‘repeated familiar cultural
Because the play is not a tragedy, convention dictates
stereotype’ – the shrew, the harridan. Of course, the
that the narrative ends happily with all the characters
ending of the play doesn’t help Cleopatra’s case either
married, but the ending does seem wildly at odds
as, similarly to Juliet, she kills herself upon hearing
with the strength and resolution of Portia’s character
the news of her partner’s death, her final words
established in the preceding four acts.
being the melodramatic ‘O Antony…!’. The difference
The significance of female characters is a rich
here, and possibly the reason why Cleopatra cannot
area for debate and further reading in Shakespeare
be regarded as having the same strength as Juliet,
and this exploration only but touches the surface
is that she becomes weaker as the play progresses,
of it. For me, at a time when acting was exclusively
rather than stronger, much in the same way that Lady
a male profession, when female characters were
Macbeth begins with great strength and ends up a
played either by adolescent boys or effeminate men,
babbling, psychotic mess, and simply feels that she
it would have been very easy for Shakespeare simply
has no purpose without her partner.
to construct popularist, conventional stereotypes of
Finally, there are Portia (The Merchant of Venice)
women – the shrew, the seductress, the daughter – but
and Katherina (The Taming of the Shrew) who are
he doesn’t; he pushes boundaries of what women were
also often lauded as female role models who break
seen as at the time, in Sarah Allen’s words making
and challenge patriarchal values of the time. Granted,
them ‘complex and three-dimensional’, and there
Portia’s character is integral to the narrative of the
is a definite originality in what he does with female
play – she fully rejects her father’s possessive casket
characters. A feminist playwright? Probably not
test and then ultimately is the pivotal character of the
because the Sixteenth Century was not yet ready for
play by saving Antonio during the long court scene in
feminism. Radical, subversive, revolutionary, avant-
which she outwits Shylock’s insistence on executing
garde? Always, and his female characters are just an
the law. But, this is all done in the guise of a man –
extension of Shakespeare’s two-fingered salute to the
she has to disguise herself as a young lawyer’s clerk
establishment and convention. Why are rules there, if
to even be able to enter a courtroom, a motif used
not to be broken?
previously in the play to facilitate Jessica’s elopement
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WherecouldstudyingEnglish Literature take you? As part of a new series, we are getting in touch with some of the old girls who studied English Literature A-Levels here at Shrewsbury High School. The guest writers are either studying English further or have entered the working world. This series gives us a view of what life is like post A-Levels and offers an insight into why English Literature is so valuable in the real world.
Top: Poetry Busking in Trafalga Square Bottom: Open Mic Poetry Night
She left less than a year ago and is now studying English at University College London. Our first guest writer is Jennie Howitt. Jennie studied English Literature at A Level and deeply loved poetry. But now, she isn’t just reading poems, she’s writing them too!
Jennie has been published in two Voices of Youth Anthologies; The Young Writer’s Magazine, The Awakened Voices Magazine, UCL Writers Block Magazine and is a top 15 winner of the prestigious Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2016 for her poem The Hanging Rock and Highly commended in the Young Poets Network Namedropping Challenge with People Need Nature and Jen Hadfield. Jennie is enjoying university and is loving her course; she is especially excited to be studying T.S. Eliot. Jennie is involved heavily in the Drama and the Writers Societies at UCL and has written her first play which she hopes to put on soon. It just goes to show that English Literature can lead down so many paths and perhaps her work has inspired some people to study English Literature where there are so many different courses to study, so why not have a look! Links for Jennie’s published articles http://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poets/jennie-howitt/
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Midnight blue
Charlie
Before I stopped naming poems each stanza was a photograph a second of electric time unfading – sounds unfurling – I’d mix in the tongues and hear the space between planets linger and burn ear drums to black.
air settled short is blue and seeping – it will slip though the cracks in the rib arch like fallen sun through dusted shutters – those bones that shatter with the little league baseball – wound splaying out with the weather – with the phone crackle – and I’d never felt so alone – a tree untampered – a sunk kite feather lodged on a wall where a staccato kind of light ebbs in silence – where his “they’ll come around?” remains unanswered
If this poem is a colour it is the dark of the wakeless sky the unlit jet holding back warmth and waves just as “you glow with midnight blue” is held fettered behind teeth in a trembling unnamed verse. Bloodletting
I used to think people were bottles a Thames worth of blood sloshing in rigid skin now i imagine the space between veins as soil between stem and empty vase as cracks in a stack of paper straws whetted by soda bubbles slowing the pace at which we can taste how pulses are constrained in blue straws i am a poet so i sip my coffee alone feeling the weight of a hundred rivers on my tightly bound bones as the pulse of a pencil in a notebook and i feel my cells un-knitted with each purple and green - each temper of Mingus - each breath of coffee - each light blub flicker thickened with plastic - limp as a wheat husk tangled and bound in reams of wires grounding me down to cement and dust
By Molly Huxley
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Other Words from Other Worlds The Importance of Literary Translation
T
here are millions of books, plays and poems that we have access to due to the fact that we are native English speakers - and it is something we often take for granted. To mention just a few of some of the most recognised writers, Shakespeare and J.K Rowling, who are known to be incredibly influential in the world of
by Katy Bambridge
literature, are readily available to us. In contrast, take the language of Kawishana as an example. It was once a language utilised by many in Brazil but the numbers began dwindling – eventually dropping to 200. Now, there remains only one documented person still able to speak the language. Not only would this person not be able to access the multitude of material that we are able to, but if they had a story of their own to
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tell, how would we hear it? Closer to home, iterary translation gives us access although Wales is only 15 miles away, how not only to other books, but to many people can name a Welsh author? other cultures in their entirety. Even Dylan Thomas, who is arguably the It also allows us to explore most prominent Welsh writer, exclusively alternative styles of writing, such wrote in English. If he had written in his as Native American Folklore and own language, how many of his poems the Greek Fables. However, accessing other would have been read or even known? literary works doesn’t signify equality. Whilst the Harry Potter series has been translated into 73 different languages, it is very unlikely that
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Aesop Cast in pushkin museum from original in Art Collection of Villa Albani, Roma
a book written by an Icelandic author would have the same reach. This may not seem like a major problem, but for many writers who are living in undemocratic countries, being able to speak to audiences beyond their own borders can mean the difference between life and death. There are thousands of writers across the world who are imprisoned for their beliefs. The translation of their books as well as their plights by organisations like ‘Writers in Prison’ means that they have a better
The Legend of the Baffalo Woman, American Folklore
About 550 b.c., a Greek slave named Aesop wrote his now famous fabels. A fable is a short tale that teaches a lesson. In most of Aesop's fables, animals talk and act like people.
chance of gaining freedom. Understanding a writer’s experience through expression of their views is hugely important in developing us as global citizens. The Egyptian journalist and novelist Sonallah Ibrahim was arrested and imprisoned for voicing support for the government’s opposition, however, his book ‘Notes from Prison’ was translated into English. This resulted in awareness being raised for the lack of democracy in Egypt; a country
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that many English people visit on holiday and that advertises itself as a place of equality. It is situations like these that emphasise the importance of literary translation in our society.
W
hilst literary translation is obviously important, it is more than replacing one word with another. Translators have to not only understand complex vocabulary, but they have to convey the pace, fluency and passion of other tongues and other worlds. Furthermore, it is often difficult to locate someone who is familiar with a particular dialect and, therefore, difficult to translate the exact meaning the author intended. The Washington Post reported that in the north of Scandinavia and Russia, there are more than one thousand words for reindeer, and there was a similar problem encountered when translating ‘Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow’ by Peter Høeg. The book highlighted how the Inuit dialect has forty-three different words for snow – imagine how difficult a job it would be to translate when the English language has only two.
O
f course, translation isn’t just about books. Any football commentator translating an Italian match may find it difficult to convey the meaning that Italian commentators are wanting to express. In Italy, football is about drama, performance and the theatre of dreams. The players don’t have positions, they have roles. The passes are referred to as ‘dialogare’ which literally means dialogue. The Man of the Match is often called ‘regista’, meaning director. Furthermore, the goal scorer is referred to as ‘L’autore del gol’ which has the meaning ‘author of the goal’. All these terms invoke the idea of a dramatic and theatrical performance, which for football journalists, can bring the match to life.
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n the end, the technology that exists such as Google Translate can help us in translating simple terms and simple words. What technology can’t do, however, is translate the subtleties, subtexts and feelings that relies on a real understanding of other cultures and other countries. For that, only literary translators can tell the whole story.
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The Golden Age for Dystopian Fiction: An Exploration into Dystopian Fiction and its Influence By Divya Balain Dystopian fiction paints a futuristic society that is oppressed by tyranny - often apocalyptic. The novel’s world can be seen as prophetic for the direction of our own society or act as a warning; it often focuses on and exaggerates the negative and frightening elements of the world. The term dystopia is translated as a “not-good place” and was used as an antonym for utopia by John Stuart Mill in 1868. Dystopian fiction has been a popular genre since the 20th century, and in recent times young adult dystopian novels have topped best-seller rankings, showing how the genre resonates with a large demographic of readers. In order to understand why dystopian novels are so influential and why, as a genre, dystopian fiction is so popular today, it is important to understand the key themes that are central to it. One tenet of the genre is that the society constructed provides a reflection of today’s society, albeit in a distorted way. This allows dystopian fiction authors to be able to provide a critique of society that feels in some way plausible – due to the fact that it is rooted in the contemporary society and culture of the author and readership. Therefore, the impactful nature of dystopian novels can perhaps be attributed to the fact that they are ultimately rooted in the flaws of our own society; we can recognise these flaws as they are amplified and extended. For example, in one of the most classic dystopian novels George Orwell’s 1984 (published in 1949), Orwell addresses political issues and exaggerates fears we have such as government surveillance, totalitarianism and censorship by crafting aspects of his novel to play on these fears – features like the thought police, the omnipresent surveillance, the rewriting of history. This amplification of our own fears results in the unsettling, unnerving atmosphere of the novel. The startling relatability to certain elements of the novel increases the fear and impact it has because the reader can begin to deliberate the plausibility of these events if we lived in this darkened version of
society. Another way that societal fears are explored in the novel is through its echoes of history. Orwell himself was fascinated by fascist regimes of Hitler and Stalin. These influences would have been familiar and easily noticed by readers, as aspects of the novel echo elements of their rule – the censorship of history is reminiscent of Stalin rewriting history in his own published book “A Short History of the USSR”. Moreover, the trial of “thought criminals” is similar to the show trials used in communist Russia to create the illusion of justice. In this way, echoing history forces the reader to draw parallels between our past, and this dark, dystopian society the author has created, ultimately making the dystopian world seem not too far out of reach as the events don’t seem as distant as originally thought. what is genre? It is essentially a contract or set of conventions which the writer follows. However, Atkinson’s charm is that she brilliantly and idiosyncratically adapts these conventions. With a deceptively familiar form, When Will There Be Good News treats crime fiction with a fresh complexity. Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) is another example of this style of dystopian novel. Her society is based on things that already happened, therefore providing a critique of our own society by holding up a mirror to our flaws but in a more obvious, frightening way. In the novel, America is a theocracy where women are treated as ‘childbearing chattel’; she paints an unsettling society where the role of women is reduced to being purely functional. This is exemplified by the fact that the world ‘sterile’ is outlawed, and men are never responsible for infertility – rather it is always the woman’s fault, and she will be called “unwoman” rather than sterile. By reducing women in this way and stripping away any other aspect of humanity, Atwood extends our own society’s treatment of women in a more drastic way. An illustration of this idea is that the violation of woman is described aby Offred as inevitable and accepted; “… nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven’t signed up for”. Atwood stated that everything that happened in the novel was rooted in reality – for example, the quotas for childbirth were based on “Ceausescu in Romania forcing women to have children”, and the laws that governed her society were founded upon Old Testament biblical laws. By using aspects of history as well as important cultural aspects – such as religion – Atwood’s dystopian society is crafted as being
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not as distant to our own as we may like, further highlighting the flaws our society possesses. Dystopian novels are undoubtedly impactful to the reader as the ideas in the novel tend to stay with the reader. When Kellyanne Conway coined the term ‘alternative facts’ in an interview in 2017, sales of her novel increased, and it soared through the Amazon bestseller list. Moreover, following Edward Snowdon’s story on government surveillance, sales rose about 6000%. Margaret Atwood stated in an interview that “it’s a sad commentary on our age that we find dystopias a lot easier to believe in than utopias”, perhaps providing an explanation for this rise in sales – we can easily relate aspects of dystopia to modern life. Another reason for this influence may be the sense of morality that shines through the novels, and the call to arms. In 2014, anti-government protesters in Thailand used the 3-finger salute from The Hunger Games as a sign of protest, showing how dystopian novels can in some way aid real-life, personal resistance. The idea of individuality in dystopian novels is emphasised by an overwhelming, omnipresent government. This type of government results in the personal need to break the mould and be an individual, thus leading to a sense of inspiration as the novel places emphasis on the individual’s responsibility for action in order for change to occur – that is, the individual versus society. For example, in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (published in 1962), there is a sense of irony in the fact that the government unsuccessfully uses the “Ludovico’s procedure” to correct Alex’s – the protagonist – ultra-violent behaviour, and instead it is only when he – rather underwhelmingly – decides to grow up that he changes. The ideology of a dystopian novel is explicitly linked to the idea of resistance and rebellion, as the idea of morality shines throughout. We can find reassurance in that we will not reach a society like that which we read about, so long as we resist and show morality and compassion as a society. In more recent times, dystopian fiction has tended to become part of the ‘Young Adult’ genre – the novels tend to be more
impactful nowadays to a younger generation, which is shown by the difference in the dystopian novels published. This is demonstrated in the resolution of older dystopian novels compared to those of more modern versions. In older dystopian novels, the resolutions tended to be bleaker, for example in Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the uprising fails to start; in 1984 Winston realises “He loved Big Brother” and is brainwashed; and in The Handmaid’s Tale, despite a successful superseding of the oppressive constitution, “there wasn’t even any rioting in the streets”, showing a sense of apathy, which in itself, is bleak. In contrast, in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the revolution is successful, and in Divergent by Veronica Roth, despite the death of the main protagonist, there is a sense of hope and success as she dies for the cause of resistance. Kay Sambell writes that young adult authors are “reluctant to depict the extinction of hope within their stories”, perhaps showing that a sense of naivety – or even false hope – is what makes these types of novels impactful to a younger generation, rather than a more experienced generation. Another difference is in the portrayal of technology. In older dystopian novels, the portrayal of technology is often symbolic of abandoning human values and our natural instinct; shown through the contrast of science and rationality with our sense of humanity and love. In Brave New World, Huxley uses Henry Ford as a symbol for this, replacing ‘oh lord’ with ‘oh ford’, which is a direct representation of this idea. Moreover, in The Handmaid’s Tale, there is no technology in the “Republic of Gilead” that doesn’t exist already, making it more fearful and demonstrating the negatives of technology. In 1984, Orwell explored this idea of technology as a contrast with humanity as “the Party” manages to take away Winston and Julia’s love, using their extreme technological torture methods.
What modern dystopian novels seem to emphasise more greatly is the reader engagement and relatability, with younger characters – often similar in age to those reading the novels – the more positive endings to show a sense of hope, and sometimes a first-person address which increases the relatability to the reader – taking the idea of mirroring society that has been prevalent in more classic dystopian novels, to a more elevated height. The question is, where will they go from there? One sector in which this is already being demonstrated in is in video games, in which the idea of audience relatability is extended even further to audience engagement; the sense of rebellion and resistance is further heightened by the sense of ‘fixing’ or resolving that the participant gets. Nowadays, there are a plethora of video games which take place in a dystopian society – certain versions of Call of Duty and Fallout, for example, in which the participant can take part in surviving and overcoming the dystopian society – it seems that whatever the form, a dystopian narrative has an engaging quality and sense of self-recognition and awareness that is present throughout.
Liberal and conservative dystopias do battle, in proxy wars of the imagination. Illustration by Daniel Zender
In Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We published in 1921, Zamyatin shows the character D-503 as being brainwashed by having his imagination and emotion removed and living in a nation run by reasoning and logic. Furthermore, the idea of humanity being at contrast with this society is emphasised by the character O-90, who gets pregnant and then realises they can’t part with the baby, needing to join the rebellion due to the realisation of their emotions – that is, human instinct. In contrast, more modern dystopian novels focus less on the negatives of technology; it is inevitable and present. Instead, the dangers are the people that use these technologies. In The Hunger Games it is not the technology itself that is explicitly focused on – it is the characters behind the negative uses for them. This shift in presentation is a reflection of growing up with more advanced technology as the normal.
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YR 7 Little Miss Good Judgement Who didn’t love the Mr Men books? They were a childhood favourite of so many. The Year 7 ‘Little Miss’ competition last term was so exciting and this annual competition gave girls an opportunity to write their own short children’s story. All of the entries were fantastic; the winning team, Zaynab Khan, Alice Pearson, Jemma Greatorex, Lucia Schrijver-Maydew and Catherine Read, came up with Little Miss Good Judgement who begins a new school. The short story has a didactic message and shows us that we should always speak kind words about others. Read the winning story below and, who knows, some of the members of the winning team may be published authors one day! In a small town, Little Miss Good Judgement was very excited as she was starting a new school tomorrow. Little Miss Good Judgement wasn’t nervous about making friends. Shehasalreadymadefriendswithfunny,tomboyishLittleMissMessy wholivedjustnextdoor.Theyhadsleepovers(eventhoughLittleMiss Messy’s room was extremely messy to play in).
LittleMissGoodJudgementgottheimpressionthatLittleMissMean was spoilt, rich and popular but said:
“I’d love too!” Little Miss Mean settled down beside her and Little Miss Good Judgement started plaiting her hair. “Have you made any friends yet?” asked Little Miss Mean.
“Yes, I am best friends with Little Miss Messy”. Little Miss Mean and her gang started giggling. “Hey, it’s not funny” said Little Miss Good Judgement. They stopped laughing and Little Miss Mean said:
Theydideverythingtogetherandwerethebestoffriends,splashing inmudintheirlittlewellieboots! Laughingandhavingfunthewhole day long! On the bad side of things, Little Miss Good Judgement was unfortunatelyayearaboveLittleMissMessyandtheywouldonlysee each other at break. When school started the next day, Little Miss Good Judgement said goodbye to Little Miss Messy. LittleMissGoodJudgementgotthroughEnglishandMathsandshe was glad when it was break time because she would be able to see Little Miss Messy! In the meantime, she sat on the bench waiting for her.
“Look, all I’m tring to say is that you don’t want to be hanging around with the wrong people!” “Youdon’twanttobefriendswithher,she’sthewrongsort.Youcould behangingoutwithme. Notsomesmellycountrygirl”arguedLittle Miss Mean.
“Heydon’tsaythat!She’sjustadventurous,”answeredLittleMissGood Judgement. LittleMissGoodJudgementwasgettingrapidlymoreannoyedand frustrated with Little Miss Mean because of what she had just said.
“I think I can judge with who I’m friends with and I don’t want to be friends with people who insult my best friend!”
After a few minutes, Little Miss Mean and her gang, after staring at her, approached Little Miss Good Judgement on the bench. “Heyareyounewaroundhere?Bytheway,Iloveyourhair!”exclaimed Little Miss Mean.
Thatday,LittleMissGoodJudgementrealisedthatyoudon’thaveto look the part to be popular and that kind friends are always the best ones!
“Oh thanks. I love doing hair and yeah … I’m new around here,”
Evennow,LittleMissGoodJudgementandLittleMissMessyjumpin the mud, have sleepovers and are the best of friends!
explained Little Miss Good Judgement. “Do you want to do my hair?” asked Little Miss Mean.
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15 Questions with
Miss Hale
Welcome to our second exclusive interview conducted for Scribble readers to find out about how literature has contributed to the Staff at Shrewsbury High School. Being such an influential person, not just for English as a subject, but for all members of the school, Miss Hale, our school librarian, is always there for any question you may have on any book you can think of. From poetry to biology, the Shrewsbury High School library has an amazing array of novels and textbooks to accommodate any subject. Therefore, we wanted to find out more about the person who has such wide-ranging knowledge about our school library, as demonstrated by her amazing celebration of World Book Day. As seen in Miss Hale’s answers, we have discovered even more about her ‘passion for Potter’ which is always prevalent in Book Club meetings that regularly take place across all year groups. However, even more surprising is Christie being taking as a preference over J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter due to it being ‘a long-lasting favourite’ of Miss Hale’s.
Q1
What is the best part of being a Librarian? One of the best parts of being a school librarian is helping pupils to find the right book at the right time that hopefully ignites a passion for reading in them. To recommend a book to a student that they become enthused by is pure job satisfaction! I also love helping students find the information they want and also the information they want but didn’t know existed.
Q2
What is your favourite genre of literature? I probably read more realistic fiction than any other genre, and I always prefer novels that are character rather than plot driven. I also seem to have a weakness for Scandinavian writers translated in to English, such as Per Petterson, Sjón, Arto Paasilinna, Halldór Laxness and Knut Hamsun.
Which author in particular has influenced your love of literature? One of the main authors whose books have continued to enthral and challenge me since childhood is Alan Garner. His novels all evoke a sense of place, time and myth, and two of my favourite books by Garner when I was at primary school were The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and its sequel The Moon of Gomrath. Both were published in the 1960s and are fairly traditional British children’s magical realism novels heavily
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influenced by the myths and folktales of the Cheshire landscape. A few years later I read Garner’s The Owl Service and Red Shift which on the surface appeared to be like his first two novels but both turned out to be unnerving, unsettling and challenging to read. Both books left me with more questions than answers and a sense of not completely understanding everything that had taken place, but it was this complexity and sense of intrigue that I found appealing and from then on I found other children’s books rather formulaic in comparison. Reading a book by Garner is by no means a passive experience. His precise and pared-down dialogue and frequent use of dual narrative and stream of consciousness forces the reader to explore beneath the surface of the text and to make connections between myth, landscape and the human condition. In 1975 Garner wrote that “the nature of myth is to help us understand boundaries, to cross them and to comprehend the new; so that whenever mankind reaches out, it is myth that supports him with a truth that is constant, although names and shapes may change.” Garner’s writing challenges us to keep in touch with the stories that made us who we are; whether those stories are associated with a particular time or a place, they have the ability to shape our identity and our sense of belonging. Despite having only published fewer than ten novels for children and adults in a career that has stretched over seventy years, Garner’s exploratory and revelatory writing inspired and challenged me as a child and continues to do so to this day, more than any other author.
Q4
What is the next book you are planning to read? I usually have three books on the go: one fiction, one non-fiction and one from the school library. The novel I’m planning to read next is The Sorrow of Angels by the Icelandic poet turned novelist Jón Kalman Stefánsson. It is the second novel in a coming-of-age trilogy set in and around a small fishing village in the Westfjords of Iceland at the turn of the twentieth century. Heaven
and Hell is the first in the trilogy and featured some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read. Stefánsson’s writing is rarely plot driven and his poetic prose, lyricism and superb use of imagery are used to relay some very common themes in Icelandic literature: the fragility of human existence amidst the power of nature, the importance of books, stories and the power of words, the enduring strength of friendships, and the willingness of individuals to persevere and survive under challenging circumstances. He also manages to capture the essence of the land in a way that is very similar to classics such as Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Independent People by Halldór Laxness. My next non-fiction book is going to be The Tale of the Axe: How the Neolithic Revolution Transformed Britain by David Miles. And my next book from the school library will be I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan which has recently been shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2019. It is a portrayal of a British Muslim teenage girl and her experience of radicalisation and Islamophobia along with the universalisms of growing up and discovering your place in the world.
Q5
Could you pinpoint your childhood’s favourite book? That’s a really difficult question! My very earliest favourites were all the Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond, so much so that my sole career aspiration at that time was to be a bear when I grew up. I also loved The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken, Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston, The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper and The Owl Service by Alan Garner. Also, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott probably taught me my first lesson in novels not behaving in the way you want them to; it took me a very long time come to terms with Laurie marrying Amy March, rather than Jo March!
Q6
Harry Potter or Agatha Christie novels? This may come as a surprise to anyone who has seen the frequency with which I’m involved in a game of Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit in the library, but I’d have to say Agatha Christie. I read very little crime fiction now though that’s possibly because I went through a very protracted crime and detective fiction phase as a child and was obsessed with the Famous Five and Nancy Drew books. Christie’s books were the natural follow on from those and the Miss Marple books in particular became long-lasting favourites.
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Q7
What are your thoughts on the Review articles that are in the Library? The Review Magazines are a print and online resource available in the library and provide A-Level and GCSE students with topical articles, latest research and expert exam advice to deepen their subject knowledge and develop their independent learning skills. There are over 14 titles covering nearly all the A-level subjects taught at the High School and each annual volume contains three or four issues that can be accessed in print in the library. Alternatively, 24 years’ worth of back issues can be accessed online via the library area on Firefly. They are a fantastic resource to use, not just for A-Level subjects, but also for EPQ research. They are incredibly accessible and very up-to-date with regard to the curriculum. Plus, they are a great starting point for sixth formers and GCSE pupils who want to embark upon some wider reading.
Q8
What is the best thing about Harry Potter? As a librarian, the best thing about the Harry Potter series is its seemingly never-ending appeal to every generation. Every year group at the High School contains a group of hardcore Potter fans all with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the wizarding world. Any book that inspires such dedication to reading can only be a good thing. As a reader, I always enjoyed J. K. Rowling’s ability to write page-turners that made me want to keep reading no matter how late it had become. Rowling once described the Harry Potter series as a whodunnit in disguise and I think it is the mystery element of the books that I enjoy the most.
Q9
What is the most common genre borrowed from the library? Fantasy and mythology novels are very popular at the moment such as the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas and Kate O’Hearn’s Pegasus and Valkyrie series. Crime and thriller books are also in demand, especially those by Robin Stevens, Sophie McKenzie and Karen McManus. Since the publication of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer in 2005 there have been numerous books published which I put into the supernatural-gothic-romance category. They are still popular, especially novels by Rachel Caine, Alyson Noel, Becca Fitzpatrick and Lauren Kate. Whilst not a genre, I was once asked if I knew of a novel featuring zombies, faeries (not fairies) and no kissing – unfortunately I still haven’t been able to locate anything with that precise combination!
Q10
What is your favourite character from the latest book you’ve read? I have just finished reading The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden which was from the school library. It is the final book in Arden’s Winternight trilogy and is a beautiful literary fairy tale set in medieval Russia and inspired by Russian folklore and history. The main character, Vasilisa “Vasya” Petrovna, is one of the most inspiring and original heroines that I have come across in Young Adult fiction for some time. She fearlessly and relentlessly pursues her own fate whilst continuously trying to break free from the expectations society and family place on her because of her gender.
Q11
Are you a member of a book club? Along with any book groups that I have running in the library, I am also a member of two book groups outside of school. This usually means that I am always speed reading something, but it has meant that I have read and enjoyed books that I wouldn’t normally choose for myself. There are no right or wrong answers when you are part of a book group as everyone is entitled to communicate their own thoughts and feelings on what they have read; hearing everyone else’s opinions can help you gain a much greater understanding of a novel. And, just as importantly, any self-respecting book group should always feature a generous amount of snacks!
Q12
Do you prefer reading from a tablet/phone or a traditional book? If given the choice then I would always prefer a physical book, especially for non-fiction, but I will happily read on any sort of device if it means I can get my literature fix.
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Q13
How are you going to celebrate World Book Day?
Q14
How did you get involved in Amnesty Interational?
It is going to be something Harry Potter related but I can’t reveal any more than that at the moment!
My involvement with Amnesty International began at university where I joined a student group and that involvement has continued since then by attending local groups, up to now where I help with the school Amnesty group. Amnesty International’s main aim is campaigning for the protection of human rights. They undertake a wide variety of methods to do this and in 2016 they joined forces with CILIP, the library and information association, to launch an award for the children’s books that best illuminate, uphold and celebrate human rights. Reading fiction can develop our empathy for people and places that are very different and very far removed from our own realities. It allows us to momentarily step into another person’s shoes; it is through empathy that we can encourage tolerance, understanding and empowerment. The inaugural winner of the award was Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley. Set in America in 1959 it looks at the racial bigotry and homophobia unleashed on a group of African American children entering a whites-only school for the first time. The 2017 winner was The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon, which highlights the plight of Burma’s Rohingya people and what life is like for a refugee boy who has spent his entire life living inside an Australian detention centre. Amnesty International also published
Here I Stand in 2017, which is a collection of short-stories exploring human rights issues. It is aimed at teenagers and features contributions by several leading contemporary children’s authors.
Q15
What are your top tips for getting the most out of wider reading? In terms of non-fiction, I would suggest that students speak to their teachers or myself for recommendations. You may not need to read the whole book so it is a good idea to get an overview of the book perhaps by reading the introduction and the first few pages of each chapter to see how relevant they are to you. Reading around your subjects is an essential way to help you better understand the fundamentals of what you are studying. For fiction books, I definitely believe that reading should be a pleasure rather than a chore. If you have given a book a good chance, read the first few chapters and still don’t like it, then it is time to try another book. There is a book out there for everyone but sometimes they’re not easy to find. One of the best things about libraries is that you get to try out as many books as you like for free until you find the one that truly inspires you to keep reading
During our interview, we have seen the vital role Miss Hale plays throughout the school. She always helps with areas of enrichment such as EPQ, often being the catalyst for ideas, and providing guidance on how to make the most out of research. Everyone benefits from her teaching us how to navigate the incredible world of online resources. Miss Hale’s understanding of review articles, and wider reading, leaves a lasting impact on our own abilities to take forward these skills in our own interpretation of words. Miss Hale always creates an environment in which everyone is able to study, with her support always on hand. As seen from Miss Hale having three books on the run at one time, her passion and commitment can easily be seen and is an inspiring quality for Scribble readers.
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Kirsty Eades
Interviewer
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illiam Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying (1930) is an explorative piece written in one of the most turbulent periods of American history during – The Great Depression. Faulkner saw his novel as an opportunity to resist against the pressure of writing for commercial purposes (as a result of the tough economic conditions) and instead, wrote during a creative burst over a six-week period whilst working in a power plant. The novel is set in 1920’s Mississippi – the state of his birth – in the fictional region of Yoknapatawpha county, which features in many of his novels. Unlike his previous novel, The Sound and the Fury (1929) which focussed on the declining aristocracy following the reconstruction of the South in the aftermath of the Civil War, Faulkner follows an impoverished family on its journey to bury their dead mother, Addie, in her home town of Jefferson in order to fulfil her final wishes. The novel’s name borrows from Homer’s Odyssey and echoes the journey taken by the protagonist. However, the parallel can extend to the entirety of the novel, which is about a quest to Jefferson, where the reader enters a turbulent voyage into each character’s mind, exploring their own psyche through the struggles along the way. This level of intimate exploration is reached due to Faulkner’s use of modernist techniques of stream of conscience and multiple focalizations from each of the characters, allowing the reader to explore family dynamics. However, while Homer’s Odyssey ends in a satisfactory completion, Faulkner’s ending leaves characters in a state of trauma, fractured by their experiences and the futility of their heroism and stoicism
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aulkner wrote as part of the Southern Renaissance movement, which aimed to challenge the glorification and nostalgia of the “old” South and its role in the Civil. It aimed to critique Southern Conservatism by exposing the true conditions under reconstruction, racism and the rigid class system which remained despite the abolishment of slavery. However, writers of the Southern Renaissance were uniquely existentialists, questioning what it meant to have an identity beyond religion and family which formed the foundations of Southern conservatism. As I Lay Dying is an excellent example of writing from this movement as it deeply explores identity within the rural and impoverished reality of the rural South. The poverty was the result of the deterioration of the South after the Civil War and further suffering through the Great Depression – eventually, one quarter of land owned by Mississippi farmers was sold off in order to pay the
taxes that had become unaffordable as a result of the financial crash. In the novel, the death of Addie and the suffering experienced by characters alongside the progressive destruction of Addie’s coffin on the journey to Jefferson all contribute to the question on the futility of living and questions the presence of God in a world that endures suffering.
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here is a contrast between Cora and Addie, the former being devoutly religious. Addie is someone who observes Cora’s blind faith as naivety when she declares “sin and love and fear are just
sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had”.
Addie’s lack of faith stems from her disillusionment with the life she has been promised – she is driven only by her love for her son Jewel and resentment of her husband, creating a moral dilemma for the reader. The doomed quest to Jefferson is a selfish request; an act of final revenge against her husband, Anse, ironically backfires as it is her children who endure the greatest suffering, while Anse remains relatively unscathed. A religious parallel forms between Cash and Christ, as he sacrifices the use of his leg and his money for a gramophone to ensure the coffin reaches Jefferson. He acts as a figure of morality in the family as unlike them he doesn’t resent the situation, silently enduring the pain of a broken leg , described as “immobilized as if nailed to a cross.” In this way Faulkner, further affirms himself as a Southern renaissance writer as he challenges the glorification of the Southern soldier’s cause – the themes of futility of actions as well as critiquing the conservative religion in the South, despite Faulkner being a Christian himself. Faulkner and the other renaissance writers’ revolutionary idea to challenge such principles in the South, led the poet, Allen Tate, to state that the term “renaissance” with regards to the movement was a misnomer “as it was more precisely a birth, not a rebirth” as no such literature had risen so explicitly out of the region previously.
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aulkner’s use of multiple focalisers allows the reader to explore family dynamics under strain, from different generational perspectives as well as including external views on the family’s actions. Tull and Cora criticise Addie’s ludicrous request as well as Anse’s idleness while his family bears the burden of his poor decisions, which the family members cannot see due to their close relationships. However, most significantly the authorial technique grants the reader intimate access to each characters’ desires and rivalries. The haunting final image of Anse strolling down the
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Faulkner’s Odyssey: As I lay Dying An exploration of the modernist novel As I Lay Dying (1930) and how the trials of family life of a quest through the agrarian heartlands of Mississippi so effectively enables an in-depth exploration of an individual’s psyche.
Maddie Williams
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As I Lay Dying Illustration by Kate Fulop
coffin, which becomes a symbol for the family’s sense of duty and God’s judgement on the family’s sin, as the gathering birds, vivid descriptions of the rancid and decaying body and deteriorating state of the coffin presents fragmenting faith and family values on this cursed journey
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he generational divide within the family presents one of the most intriguing facets of the novel. Vardaman’s observations “Why ain’t I a town boy, pa?” I said. God made me… If he can
make the train, why can’t he make them all in the town because flour and sugar and coffee.” His
As I Lay Dying (2013)
road with his new teeth and wife is symbolic of his superficial vanity and his inherent and callous greed. Anse’s need of “comfort” is heavily ironic as despite his family’s immense poverty and suffering throughout the novel, he remains on the side-lines. Instead, he chooses to observe his children suffering the consequences of his choices, leaving the reader to heavily empathise with Addie’s resentment of her husband. The reader is left with this final image of his family utterly exhausted and distraught while Anse introduces his new wife; “Meet Mrs Bundren.” Faulkner emphasises the flaw in traditional Southern family values when he writes that Anse’s beloved Addie could be so easily replaced. This disillusionment with family morals is voiced mainly through the progressively fragmenting narrative of the most insightful family member, Darl. His rivalry with and jealousy of his brother, Jewel, and his questions of
his own existence without his mother, alongside his reflections on the futility of their journey, ultimately leads to him trying to burn his mother’s coffin in the barn at the climax of the novel, as he believes it to be the source of their suffering, which leads him to be placed in an asylum. His narrative becomes increasingly more disturbing and distant “I cannot love my mother because I have no mother.” Faulkner’s use of Southern Gothic elements presents disturbing images of Addie’s
youth presents an innocent perspective on the world, conveying the unfairness of his unfulfilled desire to buy a toy train in Jefferson which exist beyond the reach of the rural, impoverished family. It ultimately echoes each character’s deepest desire which is to escape the confines of the family, which ultimately fails, along with their quest to Jefferson. Vardaman’s innocence is further used as he is unable to comprehend the death of his mother and states in his confusion “My mother is a fish.” This echoes the loss of identity experienced by Addie as she is viewed by her children as she feels no longer an individual but part of the family unit as a mother and a wife and is only truly at peace in her confession in Chapter 40. The scholar Dorothy Hale states, Faulkner’s efforts to expose the private self, are effectively conveyed through the intimate and confessional monologues used to narrate each character’s tragic voyage. The symbols of animals are used throughout the novel, as Darl states “Jewel’s mother is a horse” presenting his envy of Jewel’s horse, as the horse symbolises Jewel’s elevation beyond the family unit, so escaping it’s confines and ultimately reveals Darl’s underlying resentment of Addie’s favouritism towards Jewel, who only wishes to escape the family. While Darl drives the narrative through language, it is Jewel’s spontaneous and heroic actions which drive the plot, such as his rescue of Addie’s coffin from the burning barn; “Then it topples forward, gaining
momentum, revealing Jewel and the sparks raining on him too in engendering gusts, so that he appears to be closed in a thin nimbus of fire.” Thus, drives family
tensions as it makes Darl’s actions to burn the coffin futile, and further drives Darl’s descent into insanity. However, the motif of Jewel’s horse is further symbolic of Jewel’s ambition to escape the poverty and control of the family. His possession of it places himself above his father who he resents as he often “stares straight ahead” in a sullen determination, ignoring his father’s commands, and segregates himself as he doesn’t have to ride on the wagon with the rest of the family.
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However, Anse’s later sale of Jewel’s horse later in the novel, restores his authority over his son by removing his independence, emphasising the restrictive nature of the family, as Jewel joins them on the wagon, no longer a separate entity.
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ddie is perhaps the greatest figure in the novel who represents the loss of identity and loneliness, shown through marriage and motherhood - “I knew that living was terrible
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and that this was the answer to it” and “Motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn’t care whether there was a word for it or not.” Faulkner, through Addie, exposes the inability of
words and faith to convey imagine the true reality of life. This raw exposure of the grim nature of her existence is only redeemed by her son Jewel, from her affair with Whitfield which she sees as a brief liberation from the control of her family. Her favouritism of Jewel perhaps results in his reliance on actions rather than verbal communication and “words” which she so mistrusts, that others such as Darl appear to favour. However, Dewey Dell, Addie’s only daughter, experiences loneliness as she too is secretly pregnant and craves female companion to confide with, following the loss of her mother “I wish I had time to let her die. I wish I had time to wish I had.” As the only remaining female in the family, she becomes isolated, with increasing levels of anguish, resulting in concern for her future. Dewey Dell’s desperation for a secret abortion is explored through her tragic efforts to obtain one when they reach Jefferson with the ten dollars she has been given. She is left at the end of the novel in a position of uncertainty and utter desperation as all her efforts fail and Anse takes her ten dollars to buy his new teeth.
F
aulkner’s exploration of multiple themes within the novel is impressive, particularly his ability to intertwine the narratives of his separate focalisers to create an honest reflection of a family dynamic, while still exploring each of the characters as individuals. The use of identity as a core theme in the novel reflects his own writing style. The family are presented as victims of modern desire, as their wishes to escape their impoverished upbringing are restricted by the traditional values of the South; they cannot truly be there separate selves.
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Miss Hale’s Recommended Reads As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner The death and burial of Addie Bundren is told by members of her family, as they cart the coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi, to bury her among her people. And as the intense desires, fears and rivalries of the family are revealed in the vernacular of the Deep South, Faulkner present a portrait of extraordinary power - as epic as the Old Testament, as American as Huckleberry Finn.
Independent People by Halldór Laxness This huge, bleakly comic and humane revelation of a novel is set in rural Iceland in the early twentieth century, written by the 1955 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, dubbed the ‘Tolstoy of the North’. A magnificent portrait of the eerie Icelandic landscape and a man’s dogged struggle for independence. Bjartur is a sheep farmer determined to eke a living from a blighted patch of land. Nothing, not merciless weather, nor the First World War, nor his family will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart. As she grows up, keen to make her own way in the world, Bjartur’s obstinacy threatens to estrange them forever.
Scythe by Neal Shusterman (YA Read) A dark, gripping and witty thriller in which the only thing humanity has control over is death. Set in the far future, where death by natural causes has been virtually eliminated thanks to advances in technology, and an advanced computer system known as the “Thunderhead” controls society. In a world where disease, war and crime have been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (“gleaned”) by professional scythes. Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythes’ apprentices, and despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation, they must learn the art of killing and understand the necessity of what they do. Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice and as Citra and Rowan come up against a terrifyingly corrupt Scythedom, it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to glean the loser.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury was Faulkner’s first extended attempt at the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique that he successfully employed in As I Lay Dying. Both novels also concern familial relationships and include penetrating psychological portraits. Depicting the gradual disintegration of the Compson family through four fractured narratives, The Sound and the Fury explores intense, passionate family relationships where there is no love, only self-centredness.
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EDITOR
EversincehearingaboutthenewEnglishMagazine, now known by everyone as “Scribble”, I have been reallyfascinatedbyhowthemagazineisputtogether in such a professional and sophisticated way. Since havingsuchasupportiveEditorofScribbleatpresent, ithasallowednewmemberssuchasmyselfandother year 12’s to feel as much a part of the team as older members. The first contribution I made to Scribble was an article about our New Headmistress, Ms Sharrock, who, being such an influential part of the school, we just had to interview her and find out how literature hasinfluencedher!Amorerecentinterviewconducted for this edition features our School Librarian, Miss Hale. From finding out surprising facts such as Agatha Christie being the favourite over the more expected Harry Potter, to the revelation that fantasy and mythology novels are the most popular in the library at the moment.
LookingforwardtobeingEditor,Iaimtostarttoincorporateandintroducetheyoungeryearstothemagazine,andto English at A-Level as a whole.This could be through a“taster”into an A-level Literature essay, or an outline of the texts and genres studied at A-level to bring insight into English Literature at a higher level.There are just so many options! I think this is essential for younger years to understand English A-level and what they might think of as daunting could beunderstoodthroughataster.TheamazingthingaboutScribbleishowitcanencapsulatesomanydifferentaspectsof English, and can give those contributing the potential to take their articles wherever they want! IhopetocontinuetohelppublishtheoutstandingarticleswrittenbythekeenandcommittedcurrentmembersofScribble, includingtheEnglishdepartmentteachers,whilstputtingothermembersofstaffintothespotlightthroughinterviewing them. I also have plans for some articles to write next term and hopefully can work with Molly, the current Editor of Scribble,inordertofindoutmoreabouttheproductionofthemagazine.IwouldlovetobuildonthefoundationsMolly hasalreadyputinplaceforScribble’ssocialmediapresence,andhopefullyusethisplatformtoextendthelinksitcanallow Scribbletohave.Iwouldalsolovetocontinuethefocusonmorelocal,Shropshirewritersasacelebrationoftheamazing literature that has been written in our county. Ican’twaittogetstartedwiththeeditionintheSummerTermandIfeelreallyfortunatetobestartinganewchapterinthe life of Scribble! Let’s get pens at the ready for the next exciting edition! Thanks
Kirsty 29
SCRIBBLE
Meet The Team
01
M O L LY HUXLEY
Editor English Literature, Geography, Fine Art. I have continued my editorial role in this edition and have been so proud of what we as a magazine team have created. In my last term as editor, I have loved getting to help put together this edition. Enjoy!
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MEG HEANEY
Deputy Editor English Literature, Maths and Biology. In my final edition as deputy editor I talked about my experiences of applying to study English Literature at university. I wrote about all the things that I haven’t learn from the process to help and inspire others to study English post A Levels. I rounded off my article with five top-tips for applying one of which was to ‘immerse yourself in Literature’ which I feel summarises what Scribble has allowed all of us contributors to do.
03
K AT Y BAMBRIDGE
Contributor - Year 12 Studying Spanish, French and English Literature I have chosen to write about literary translation and have explored the importance of and difficulty in translating pieces from all over the world.
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ROBIN ALDRIDGE
ALEX HALE
Contributor
Contributor
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MADDY WILLIAMS
Contributor - Year 12 Studying Biology, Chemistry and English Literature. I have written about Faulkner’s As I lay Dying which is a modernist novel published in the 1930s. The article explores how the novel captures the turbulent period of the great depression and the way that history is infused in literature.
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KIRSTY EADES
Contributor - Year 12 English Literature, Geography and Psychology. I have continued the interview series in this edition and got to know what our own Librarian, Miss Hale had to say about her favourite thing about being a school librarian and the authors that have enthralled and her and inspired her passion for reading. Excitingly, I am taking over from Molly as editor and I have lots of plans for upcoming editions of Scribble so, watch this space!
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D I V YA BALAIN
Contributor - Year 12 A A R I FA K H A N O M
T I F FA N Y PA R D O E
Proof Reader
Graphic Designer
English Literature, Chemistry, Religious Studies, Biology. In this edition, I have written an article about dystopian fiction and explored why the genre has become one of the most popular since the 20th century.
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