- MODULE: TEXTS, CULTURE AND VALUE -
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/english-syllabus-from2010.pdf
Define and know these key terms...
KEY TERMS
Appropriation
Intertextuality
Context
Culture
Values
Paradigm
Genre
Conventions
Composer
Responder
Meaning
Literary Theory
IMPORTANT LINKS
Literary Theory @ http://www.iep.utm.edu/literary/
Module: Texts, Culture and Value
Students explore the ways in which aspects of texts from the past have been appropriated into popular culture. The module develops students’ understanding of how and why cultural values are maintained and changed.
Students examine a key text from the past and its manifestations in one or more popular cultures. Through close study they:
- consider the relationships between the text and its culture
- explore the language of the texts and examine the ways in which language shapes and reflects values
- consider the effects of different ways of responding to texts
- consider the ways and reasons the original and later manifestations of the text are valued.
- How does an appropriation of a text reflect the value of the original and the values of its own context?
- In what different ways can we respond to the texts?
- In what ways, and why, are the original and later manifestations of the text valued? How does language shape and reflect meaning and values?
WHAT IS APPROPRIATION?
A text which has been taken from one context and translated into another. The process of translation allows new insights into the original text and emphasises contextual differences between the two.
ADAPTATION OR APPROPRIATION?
Q. What's the difference? A. It's complicated.
Q. Is the 'original' better than the 'adaptation/appropriation'? A. Probably. But it's complicated.
Q. Is there an 'original'? A. Not really, which is really complicated.
Reading
http://mongrelgrim.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/adaptation-vs-appropriation-shakespearean-platonic-forms/
http://www.academia.edu/207383/Cultural_Borrowings_Appropriation_Reworking_Transformation
Appropriation Case Study # 1: The Raven
Read The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe @
http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html and make notes on meaning and techniques.
Then view the clip from The Simpsons @ http://dotsub.com/view/58591756-7128-488c-bfe9-22463d46d907
In what way has the text been appropriated? What is the purpose, audience and context of the original text and the latter appropriation? How is the change of context, medium and purpose reflected in the differences between the texts?
Module: Texts, Culture and Value
PART ONE: GIRLS BEHAVING BADLY -
COMPARING THE TAMING OF THE SHREW AND TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU
The Play http://shakespeare.mit.edu/taming_shrew/full.html
ACTIVITY: Research Shakespeare's CONTEXT with a focus on gender roles and marriage
1. Reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/jan/17/taming-of-the-shrew-rsc
No Fear Shakespeare http://nfs.sparknotes.com/shrew
2. Investigate the websites on Shakespeare
http://eng243.tripod.com/
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~sflores/345world.html
http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/index.html
Make further notes on Shakespeare's context, theatre and style where relevant to your analysis of the play.
3. Read the study guide notes on Taming of the Shrew at Folger website and add points on marriage, clothing, wordplay, naming to your analysis of the play.
4. Research the context of the film further by examining teen life in America @ http://www.frameworksinstitute.org/assets/files/PDF/youth_public_perceptions.pdf and the Third Wave of Feminism @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism and http://www.feminish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/6236_Chapter_1_Krolokke_2nd_Rev_Final_Pdf.pdf
Article comparing the film and play
https://globalshakespeareessay.wordpress.com/
LINK TO FILM https://clickv.ie/w/fYXg
5. Read through the script and find 10 quotes that demonstrate the similarities and differences between the two texts. Ten Things I Hate About You script
6. Continue your own independent investigation of an appropriation of a 'classic text' for your Assessment. Ensure your examine context, values, and language forms and features of both texts.
PART ONE: GIRLS BEHAVING BADLY -
COMPARING THE TAMING OF THE SHREW AND TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU
- Brainstorm representations of gender in texts (including popular culture texts and create a mind map, noting the prevalence of gender stereotypes in relation to behaviours and male/female relationships
- Compile a list of terms associated with gender ie how language defines gender specific terms. Why does popular culture promote these distinctions?
- WRITING ACTIVITY: Read the extract How to be a Good Wife for a school textbook today. What does it suggest about past cultural values about gender roles? Appropriate the text to demonstrate more contemporary values. You may choose to write in a different form and 'play' with the purpose and audience; eg. How to be a Good Husband, How to be a Bad Wife. etc. Cultural practices in relation of gender: male/female ‘codes’ of behaviour. Class discussion: is this changing? If so,how? Why?
- Find of a range of visual images including advertisements and promotional material that use gender discourse to persuade responders. Analyse these texts and deconstruct the techniques used to communicate a particular discourse about gender and relationships.
The Play http://shakespeare.mit.edu/taming_shrew/full.html
ACTIVITY: Research Shakespeare's CONTEXT with a focus on gender roles and marriage
1. Reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/jan/17/taming-of-the-shrew-rsc
No Fear Shakespeare http://nfs.sparknotes.com/shrew
2. Investigate the websites on Shakespeare
http://eng243.tripod.com/
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~sflores/345world.html
http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/index.html
Make further notes on Shakespeare's context, theatre and style where relevant to your analysis of the play.
3. Read the study guide notes on Taming of the Shrew at Folger website and add points on marriage, clothing, wordplay, naming to your analysis of the play.
4. Research the context of the film further by examining teen life in America @ http://www.frameworksinstitute.org/assets/files/PDF/youth_public_perceptions.pdf and the Third Wave of Feminism @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism and http://www.feminish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/6236_Chapter_1_Krolokke_2nd_Rev_Final_Pdf.pdf
Article comparing the film and play
https://globalshakespeareessay.wordpress.com/
LINK TO FILM https://clickv.ie/w/fYXg
5. Read through the script and find 10 quotes that demonstrate the similarities and differences between the two texts. Ten Things I Hate About You script
6. Continue your own independent investigation of an appropriation of a 'classic text' for your Assessment. Ensure your examine context, values, and language forms and features of both texts.
TEXTS, CULTURE and VALUE PART TWO
The Princess and the Hag - Representations of Women in Fairytales and Popular Culture
Select ONE popular fairytale featuring female characters e.g. Cinderella and research the origins of the fairytale and permutations of the story throughout history.
Find relevant images that convey the variety of appropriations of the fairytale and present to class in digital form. How has the fairytale and representations of women changed over time?
Read Grimm's Cinderella
Read Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps passé in 1697 http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella
http://www.refinery29.com/cinderella-origins
http://www.academia.edu/246014/The_Making_of_a_Woman_Gender_stereotypes_in_Cinderella_and_Aschenputtel
How does this story reflect its contextual values and preoccupations? What role/s did traditional stories such as these serve morally and culturally for their society?
Create a definition of post-modernism by reading/viewing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8MhYq9owo
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0242.html
How have the traditional fairytales you have researched been appropriated in a postmodern way? What features of the text/s match the definition of postmodernism you have created?
Read the review of Mirror Mirror. What criticisms are made of the film as a 'postmodern' retelling of the fairytale?
View the pilot episode of Once Upon a Time. In what ways could the text be considered postmodern? Give specific examples from the text to support your answer. What values from traditional fairytales have been updated/challenged/subverted? What values remain?
1. Write your own review of the show critiquing the reworking of the traditional? Is is successful?
2. How would you rewrite a fairytale? Write a pitch for a new film or TV show.
Creating your own subverted appropriation of a fairytale.
Using your pitch for a new TV show/film based on a fairytale, write the first scene (or a key scene) from the TV series or film.
Use the Once Upon a Time script as a guide for correct script format.
Subverted Readings
What is a subverted reading?
What examples of subverted readings can you list? Think Shrek.
Subverting fairytales
Tales from the Velvet Chamber
Read the blog. What examples are given of recent feminist subversions of fairytales? What is the purpose of such subversions? What do they tell us about the the changing nature of values in texts and how we value texts?
Read the article Fallen Princesses. What is the artist's purpose? How was she inspired?
View the work @ http://jezebel.com/5292515/fairy-tale-heroines-return-to-dark-roots-in-modern-setting
and deconstruct ONE of the images. How does the artist subvert the princess figure into a modern setting? What values are being questioned or challenged?
Anne Sexton's Transformations
Read the TWO critical analyses Transformations below. How might Sexton's context contributed to her subverted readings of the Brothers Grimm fairytales in Transformations. What is the significance of the title of her collected work?
https://letterpile.com/writing/The-Transformation-of-Anne-Sexton-The-Grimm-Complex
Transformations analysis
View the trailer of the recent live action Cinderella directed by Kenneth Branagh. How does it compare to Sexton's poem? How might it suggest that the illusionary 'Happily ever after' is still alive and well in today's society? Is this a good or bad thing? (or both).
The Frog Prince
Analysis of Sleeping Beauty
Reading of Snow White
Roald Dahl Revolting Rhymes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtXGmnR9F5Y
http://reachateacha.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/1/5/16150348/dahl_roald_-_revolting_rhymes.pdf
How does Dahl retell the fairytale with humour to subvert the notion of happily ever after?
CINDERELLA STORY REVIEWS
lwww.cinemablend.com/reviews/Cinderella-Story-576.html
http://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2004/acinderellastory.html
Read the reviews. How was the text received and valued in different ways on release. What reasons can you give for these differences? Write your own 250 word review that evaluates the success of the film in 'updating' the Cinderella myth.
Critical Response Question: "Examining appropriations of the Cinderella myth can inform us of the tensions between purpose, values and context."
Examine the validity of this statement in relation to your study of Anne Sexton's Transformations and TWO other texts of your choosing. (1,500 words)
HSC Extension 1Standards package
Find relevant images that convey the variety of appropriations of the fairytale and present to class in digital form. How has the fairytale and representations of women changed over time?
Read Grimm's Cinderella
Read Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps passé in 1697 http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella
http://www.refinery29.com/cinderella-origins
http://www.academia.edu/246014/The_Making_of_a_Woman_Gender_stereotypes_in_Cinderella_and_Aschenputtel
How does this story reflect its contextual values and preoccupations? What role/s did traditional stories such as these serve morally and culturally for their society?
Create a definition of post-modernism by reading/viewing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8MhYq9owo
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0242.html
How have the traditional fairytales you have researched been appropriated in a postmodern way? What features of the text/s match the definition of postmodernism you have created?
Read the review of Mirror Mirror. What criticisms are made of the film as a 'postmodern' retelling of the fairytale?
View the pilot episode of Once Upon a Time. In what ways could the text be considered postmodern? Give specific examples from the text to support your answer. What values from traditional fairytales have been updated/challenged/subverted? What values remain?
1. Write your own review of the show critiquing the reworking of the traditional? Is is successful?
2. How would you rewrite a fairytale? Write a pitch for a new film or TV show.
Creating your own subverted appropriation of a fairytale.
Using your pitch for a new TV show/film based on a fairytale, write the first scene (or a key scene) from the TV series or film.
Use the Once Upon a Time script as a guide for correct script format.
Subverted Readings
What is a subverted reading?
What examples of subverted readings can you list? Think Shrek.
Subverting fairytales
Tales from the Velvet Chamber
Read the blog. What examples are given of recent feminist subversions of fairytales? What is the purpose of such subversions? What do they tell us about the the changing nature of values in texts and how we value texts?
Read the article Fallen Princesses. What is the artist's purpose? How was she inspired?
View the work @ http://jezebel.com/5292515/fairy-tale-heroines-return-to-dark-roots-in-modern-setting
and deconstruct ONE of the images. How does the artist subvert the princess figure into a modern setting? What values are being questioned or challenged?
Anne Sexton's Transformations
Read the TWO critical analyses Transformations below. How might Sexton's context contributed to her subverted readings of the Brothers Grimm fairytales in Transformations. What is the significance of the title of her collected work?
https://letterpile.com/writing/The-Transformation-of-Anne-Sexton-The-Grimm-Complex
Transformations analysis
View the trailer of the recent live action Cinderella directed by Kenneth Branagh. How does it compare to Sexton's poem? How might it suggest that the illusionary 'Happily ever after' is still alive and well in today's society? Is this a good or bad thing? (or both).
The Frog Prince
Analysis of Sleeping Beauty
Reading of Snow White
Roald Dahl Revolting Rhymes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtXGmnR9F5Y
http://reachateacha.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/1/5/16150348/dahl_roald_-_revolting_rhymes.pdf
How does Dahl retell the fairytale with humour to subvert the notion of happily ever after?
CINDERELLA STORY REVIEWS
lwww.cinemablend.com/reviews/Cinderella-Story-576.html
http://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2004/acinderellastory.html
Read the reviews. How was the text received and valued in different ways on release. What reasons can you give for these differences? Write your own 250 word review that evaluates the success of the film in 'updating' the Cinderella myth.
Critical Response Question: "Examining appropriations of the Cinderella myth can inform us of the tensions between purpose, values and context."
Examine the validity of this statement in relation to your study of Anne Sexton's Transformations and TWO other texts of your choosing. (1,500 words)
HSC Extension 1Standards package