A2 Literature - King Lear

National Theatre discussion on King Lear - perfect revision material!

If you are looking for practice King Lear essay questions then click here.

A2 Literature: interpretations of King Lear & resources

Chickenshop Shakespeare




Padlet walls:


Christian interpretations of the play


Darwinian interpretations of the play


Marxist interpretations of the play


Existentialist interpretations of the play






Resources:


10 key moments in King Lear: use these 10 key moments in the play to structure your revision around


Key quotes from King Lear: stick them on your bedroom wall!


Differing interpretations of King Lear

A2 Lit: King Lear - the daughters

I suggest you watch this National Theatre discussion about the three daughters as part of your preparation for Thursday's mock (the focus of which will be on gender, whichever question you choose): click here to watch. It lasts for 36 minutes - definitely worth it!

 

A2 Lit: example Lear questions

A2 Lit - Lear character questions

1. 'A man more sinned against than sinning': Do you agree with this estimation of Lear's character?

2. 'Edmund represents no more than the inevitable fight of the young to claim the world from the old.' Discuss this viewpoint.

3. 'Unlike some antagonists, Edmund has a motive - and it's a motive which secures the sympathy of the modern audience.' To what extent do you agree?

4. 'Goneril and Regan's role in King Lear is purely to enable Lear's downfall. In themselves, there is no development or interest.' Do you agree?

5. 'It is Edgar's journey, not Lear's or Gloucester's, which is most significant for the play.' To what extent do you agree?

6. 'The Fool acts as a dramatic mechanism in the play - he is both the antithesis of Lear and the mirror image of Lear.' To what extent would you argue that this is a valid viewpoint?

 

I suggest you at least create detailed essay plans for the above questions - any essay you write I will of course mark & grade. As a guide, you should be producing an essay (or v detailed essay plan) a week on Lear at the moment.

A2 Literature - Edgar

Here's a link to the prezi used in today's lesson on Edgar: click here.

A2 Lit: King Lear podcast / Revision work

Please listen to this podcast, which explains the critical reception of King Lear and how it has varied through time: King Lear podcast. This is a great revision resource - remember that audience readings is the key assessment objective for this question in the exam. The podcast is about 45 minutes long.

COURSEWORK HAND-IN: MONDAY 31st MARCH

Final deadline for both A2 Lit (3000 word essay) and A2 Comms (podcast) is on Monday. You need to hand in your work between 12.30 and 3.00pm in 1D25.

A2 Comms students: you need to have exported your finished podcast as a WAV, and we will transfer this from your USB to our USB. The computers will be available during the hand-in time for any final finishing - the hand in period includes our normal lesson time. Once your courseowrk is sorted & you have handed in, you will not need to stay for the remainder of the lesson.

A2 Lit students: please remember to put your name on every page; include footnotes; include two final word counts - one including quotes, one excluding quotes & include a bibliography at the end of the essay. Remember that your word count excluding quotes must not go over 3000 words. Lear lesson as normal at 10.15!

Good luck.

A2 Lit - excellent website with some good stuff on Lear

This website is aimed at A-level Literature students and Undergraduate Lit students. Check out the Lear stuff - including a seminar next week: click here.

A2 Lit - Patterns in coursework feedback

There are some notable patterns in the feedback I am giving you during our 1-1s:

- Make sure that each section / paragraph starts with a topic sentence, which links back to the previous section (probably through a comparative phrase) and makes its relevance to your thesis clear. Here's an example from Tolu's essay, who is doing the 'hopes/dreams/reality/suffering' question:

'Like Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Pecola's dream means that she is forced to chase the inachievable, which in her case is her impractical desire to have blue eyes.'

So the link is made (red) first, then the new topic set up with clear reference to the question through 'dream', 'inachievable' & 'impractical desire'.

- Avoid using the words 'positive' or 'negative' in your essay: there are always better words you can use

- Don't allow your sentences to go on for too long, and make sure that you are not using commas where a full stop (or semi-colon) is needed

- Make sure that you remember to quote from your texts, and that you use punctuation to introduce the quote

- Have you written, in detail, about at least 3 Larkin poems?

- Are you modifying your arguments with words or phrases like 'Perhaps', 'It could be suggested that ...', 'Arguably', to make it clear that you are offering an interpretation rather than the truth?

- Don't just include secondary critics, use them - comment on them or use them to introduce a counterargument or new angle

- Remember that you can take on the question. You don't have to agree with it!

I suggest you watch the video on this blog which compares all three texts for context to make sure that you are covering all the bases which are relevant to your essay

A2 Lit: coursework 1-1s

Please bring a copy of your essay for yourself to the 1-1, so that you can make notes and follow which parts of the essay I am talking about. It would be good if you have read the essay through again shortly before we meet.

Thursday 6 March: 1E6
10.15 - 10.45: Alex R
10.45 - 11.15: Jess

Friday 7th March: 1D7
3.05 - 3.35: Alex G
3.35 = 4.05: Tekla

Monday 10 March: 1E6
10.15 - 10.45: Katie
10.45 - 11.15: Jada
11.30 - 12.00: Tolu - come to D8

Tuesday 11 March: come to D8
10.15 - 10.45: Sasha
1.00 - 1.30: Ali

Wednesday 12 March: come to D8
2.00 - 2.30: Noah
3.00 - 3.30: Leonie

Thursday 13 March:1E6
10.15 - 10.45: Amelie
10.45 - 11.15: Nana

A2 Literature - comparing context video

Now updated, complete with cheesy music:

A2 Literature coursework - some advice

Some advice

 

• Go through each of our texts with a toothcomb & with the question you have chosen in mind. Identify key moments ripe for textual analysis; extract key lines that would work well in terms of quotations
• Create a mind map of the key ideas emerging from each text - use arrows to show where the connections could be made. Add social & literary context (relevant) in a different colour
• Remember that 'compare' also means contrast; examining differences can be illuminating
• You are unlikely to be spending a lot of time comparing all three texts at the same time - most of your connections will be between two of your texts
• Look again at the example openings we looked at in class - note the things you must include. Draft an opening (you might not be able to include a thesis (or an especially strong one) at this stage)
• Start writing where you feel comfortable - no need to start from the 'beginning' of the essay
• Make sure that your register is relatively formal and detached; the odd 'I would argue', 'I think', 'What I find most interesting' is fine, but also remember 'It can be argued', 'One counterargument might be...', 'Another interpretation could be ...'
• Avoid using contractions
• Use the first sentence of each paragraph (the topic sentence) to set up the paragraph and relate to the question / overall argument. Don't allow your paragraphs to drift off in a different direction
• Use comments from critics, don't just include them. Bounce off them, comment on them, create new arguments out of them
• Be painstakingly careful about not plagiarising
• Use the texts to anchor your analysis - don't slide across the surface of them
• The first draft you submit on 3 March should not be your first attempt at writing the essay. Have a go, then go through it and play with it, reshape it, rethink it, refine your thesis
• Make sure that you cover the three texts fairly evenly
• Make sure that you have proof-read & run a spell check before you submit the first draft; keep sentences controlled
• Please doublespace (or space & a half) your 1st draft & block paragraphs clearly

GOOD LUCK!

A2 Literature Coursework questions

A2 LITERATURE COURSEWORK TITLES

Remember that there are materials to support you on Moodle, in the folder labelled with my name.

First draft due: 3^rd March 2014

1.      “How we see the world defines our experience of it.”

Compare how Toni Morrison, Philip Larkin and Arthur Miller explore the power of perception in their texts.

2.      “It is the inability to reconcile our hopes and dreams with the reality presented by everyday life which makes our suffering inevitable.”

Compare Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Larkin’s Collected Poems and Miller’s Death of a Salesman in the light of this statement: to what extent do you think it is valid?

3.      “All relationships are selfish.”

Compare the ways that Toni Morrison, Philip Larkin and Arthur Miller present relationships: do they draw the same conclusion as the opinion offered here?

4.      “Time is a promise, a threat and a burden.”

Compare the ways that Toni Morrison, Philip Larkin and Arthur Miller present the effects of time passing on both the individual and society.

5.      “All writing is a form of social commentary.”

Compare the ways that Toni Morrison, Philip Larkin and Arthur Miller use their texts to comment on their respective societies.

6.      “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” (Albert Camus)

Compare the ways that Toni Morrison, Philip Larkin and Arthur Miller use their texts to explore the ways that we attempt to create meaning for our lives.

7.      ‘In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act’  (George Orwell)

Compare the ways that Toni Morrison, Philip Larkin and Arthur Miller use their texts to explore our negotiation between truth and deceit.

First draft due: 3^rd March 2014

Final deadline: 31 March 2014

A2 Literature - The Whitsun Weddings & Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Whitsun Weddings

 

 

 

 

 

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

 

Part 1

 

 

 

Part 2

 

 

 

 

Part 3

 

 



A2 Literature - plans for the comparative essay

Your questions:

Essay plan 1: Expectation v Reality

Essay plan 2: Struggle

 



Essay plan 3: Truth

 

 

 

Essay plan 4: Isolation

 



 



A2 Literature: Philip Larkin documentary

Part 1

 

 

 

Part 2

 

 

 

Part 3



Exam dates 2014

Toads - Philip Larkin: Literary Allusions

Extract from Paradise Lost (John Milton, 1667)

'Him there they found
Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,
Assaying by his devilish art to reach
The organs of her fancy, and with them forge
Illusions, as he list, phantasms and dreams;
Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint
The animal spirits, that from pure blood arise
Like gentle breaths from rivers pure, thence raise
At least distempered, discontented thoughts,
Vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires,
Blown up with high conceits ingendering pride.'

 

 

Extract from The Tempest, 4.1 (Shakespeare)

Prospero:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

A2 Literature - An Arundel Tomb

 

A2 Lit: work in place of today's lesson

Sorry for missing today's lesson. Could you watch the end of Death of a Salesman via these two clips:

Clip 1
Clip 2

Write down 3 interesting decisions made by the director in interpreting the play for this film version.

Then:

Make sure you have read through all of the Larkin poems in the booklet I gave out last lesson. Do some research & make notes on:

The Movement
Pastoral poetry

Come to Thursday's lesson ready to share your ideas.

For those of you on Twitter, you should follow @LarkinQuotes !