Thursday 20 October 2011

Coursework

Hello Y13

Sometimes, something weird happens with the formatting on blogger. Sorry. Not the most attractive post. Hope you like the new slideshare though. I think it looks great and you'll be more likely to actually read it - win win!

A lot to get through now. You have a choice of doing an essay from Marxist or Feminist critical perspective.
Option 1: Marxism
Explore a Marxist interpretation of National Trust by Tony Harrison.
Here is a merge of PowerPoints that we looked at in class. Look at it!
Use your assessment Ojectives to guide your essay writing.
For AO3, ensure you have a solid connection between text. Them and Uz works well for this; it immediately establishes the divide between the social classes. Ensure you also have some of the critical interpretation.
Here are some key terms for AO1, but don't use them if you don't understand them!
Commodificaion 
the attitude of valuing things not for their utility but for their power to impress others or for their resale possibilities
Conspicuous consumption
the obvious acquisition of things only for their sign value and/or exchange value.
Dialectical materialism 
The theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a linear one but instead as struggle between contradictions that ultimately find resolution in a synthesis of the two sides. For example, class conflicts lead to new social systems.
Material circumstances 
the economic conditions underlying the society. To understand social events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and the historical situation in which they occur.
Reflectionism 
a theory that the superstructure of a society mirrors its economic base and, by extension, that a text reflects the society that produced it.

Superstructure 
The social, political, and ideological systems and institutions--for example, the values, art, and legal processes of a society--that are generated by the base
Bourgeois
Of or characteristic of the middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic values or conventional attitudes
Proletariat
Workers or working-class people, regarded collectively
Marxism
The political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society's allegedly inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society

Capitalism

An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market


Option 2: Feminism
The question for this is:Would you agree that Donne presents the man as dominant and exploitative in To His Mistress Going to Bed or would you agree that he presents women as equal?
Here, we looked at Donne's use of metaphysical conceipt. We also considered the objectification of women. Remember, you are not seeing if these texts agree or disagree with Marxism or Feminism, but considering interpretations of them.
We looked at some criticism  and another Donne poem. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.
We considered how these viewed women differently, perhaps because one was written for his wife. Though it could also be that THMGTB was written for his wife.


If you have any questions or queries, please let me know. I'll be sending back emails ove rthe weekend and in the beginning of next week.


YOU NEED TO EMAIL YOUR ESSAYS (should be about 1200 words) BEFORE SUNDAY.


You should also read Wide Sargasson Sea over the holiday.


Have fun.
Ms
PS IC - will you please bring some cake on Monday when we're back? It'll feel like a long day!









2 comments:

  1. Hi Ms,

    I'm away the whole of half term and over a week after so I was wondering what work should I do? Because I really don't want to be behind so if you could just give me a rough idea of what you'll be doing in lessons, then I can do my own independent work to support and reinforce it.

    Thanks,

    ReplyDelete
  2. E - I'll email you the resource we use in Monday and Thursday's lessons. Ms :)

    ReplyDelete