Much Ado About English | UCL Academy English A Level ...



Approaching the AQA English Literature B Exam (AS Level)The UCL Academy English DepartmentMastering LITB1This paper makes very specific demands of you. If you tackle it as intended, it is relatively easy to score very highly. There is a formula. You do need to use it. Remember that the two key ideas are: write about narrative and answer the question.Section A unevenA 30-minute short answer. It is NOT an essay. Do not try to write an essay. Do not write an introduction. Do not write a conclusion.Look at the question and think about how you could answer it in as many ways as possible. Make sure you consider: narrative perspective/voice, setting, genre, chronology, descriptive detail, links to chapters/verses before and after.Don’t worry about extensive analysis. Make a point that clearly answers the question (reference the terms of the question as often as possible) then move on and make another point.Wherever possible try to use critical terminology associated with narrative. As part of your revision make sure you have as wide a vocabulary about narrative as possible.Section A evenAnother 30-minute short answer. The trick here is to set up a debate, making it clear in your brief introduction. The word the examiners keep using is ‘challenge’. You need to put forward a viewpoint (in response to the question) and then challenge it. You might think of an ideal answer as making 5 points in response to the question and then challenging each of them. Using constructions like “On the one hand ... on the other” will help you to approach the question in the best way. Do you need to quote named critics? No, but it might look impressive if you do (although only if you engage with the view – i.e. say whether or not you agree with it and why.) You must recognize that there can be a range of interpretations of any given text and that these are worthy of evaluation (feminist, Marxist, contemporary readers etc). Phrases that will help you considering and evaluating different interpretations are on the next page.Section BDO NOT WRITE ABOUT THE TEXT YOU HAVE CHOSEN FOR SECTION A (except in Mocks)A 1-hour answer. Again, this is not an essay. Write a brief introduction setting out the general significance of the aspect of narrative in the question. Don’t write a conclusion. Don’t compare the texts. You would be best served to think of this as three short (20 minute) answers. Make sure you think and plan before you start writing.Answer the question with reference to the first text for 20 minutes. Aim to write about 3 paragraphs. Leave two lines. Answer the question with reference to the second text for 20 minutes. Aim to write about three paragraphs. Leave two lines. Answer the question with reference to the third text for 20 minutes. Aim to write about three paragraphs. Explain the significance of the aspect of narrative in the questionExplain how it is presentedExplain what meanings can be found or how effectively these aspects are presentedVery often you will choose to write about one or two scenes or episodes from each text that work well as evidence to answer the question.Discourse markers for interpretations:Discourse markers for conclusions:It could be argued that, arguably, this gives the impression that, it is possible that, plausibly, it is plausible that, however, on the other hand, it could also be viewed as . . . etcIn conclusion, ultimately, to conclude . . . etcHow is the examination marked?The examination board’s advice is that you do not have to worry too much about the ‘assessment objectives’. You need to answer the question. If you do this, then you will give yourself the best chance of achieving the highest marks.However, you might find it helpful to know that: Section A Part (a) is assessed for AO2 ONLY and Part (b) is assessed for AOs 1,3 and 4. Likewise, Section B is assessed for AOs 1, 2 and 3 and 3 is the dominant assessment objective.There are 6 Bands but you should be interested only in Bands 5 and 6, the top bands. This is the level you should be aiming to achieve.The generic descriptors for Bands 5 and 6 for the examination are shown below. Band 6 is the very top.Band 5AO1use of appropriate critical vocabulary and well structured argument expressed accurately/relevant with sharp focus on task/ detailed knowledge and understanding of textsAO2exploration of several aspects of form, structure and language with evaluation of how they shape meaningAO3detailed and evaluative discussion of connections between texts /clear consideration of different interpretations of texts with evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses / significant supportive referencesAO4detailed exploration of a range of contextual factors with specific, detailed links between context/texts/taskBand 6AO1use of appropriate critical vocabulary and technically fluent style/ well structured and coherent argument/ always relevant with very sharp focus on task/confidently ranges around textsAO2exploration and analysis of key aspects of form, structure and language with perceptive evaluation of how they shape meaningsAO3detailed and perceptive understanding of issues raised through connections between texts /perceptive consideration of different interpretations of texts with sharp evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses/ excellent selection of supportive referencesAO4excellent understanding of a range of contextual factors with specific, detailed links between context/texts/taskFebruary RevisionSECTION AJanuary 2012 paperExaminer’s report paper about some of the ways Fitzgerald tells the story in Chapter 2.How do you respond to the view that it is very difficult for readers to feel anything other than contempt for Tom Buchanan?For answers see appendix 1Examiner’s feedbackQuestion 29 The candidate begins very well by giving an overview of the story in Chapter 2. This is done succinctly and at the same time the candidate is showing an understanding of structure. Relevant discussion and evaluation is made of significant methods that Fitzgerald uses, including Nick as first person narrator and self-conscious story teller, a point which is well supported as is expected in an Open Book examination. Other relevant comments are made about Fitzgerald’s use of symbolism, here related to characterisation, the settings where the story takes place and the use of dialogue. The answer is focused and apt. It is a clear Band 6 answer. Question 30 Although the first paragraph is a little wooden, there is a sharp focus and the candidate sets up the argument very well. A number of points are considered about why readers might feel contempt for Tom Buchanan, points which are developed and supported. The candidate is well aware that opinions might be shaped by the bias in Nick Carraway’s narration and there is sophistication in the argument. Textual support is very well chosen; for example when the candidate writes about Nick’s projecting his own contempt for Tom onto the narrative, the candidate says: ‘In Tom’s clash with Gatsby, Nick describes his “transformation from a libertine to a prig”, whereas for Gatsby he feels “a complete renewal in faith”.’ Marxist and feminist readings are carefully woven into the argument and when contextual factors are included they are always relevant, for example: ‘In fact, the Buchanan – Wilson relationship symbolises the great class divide that 1920s American consumerism cultivated, as Tom exploits Wilson’s labour (and of course his wife)’. Having argued why readers might feel contempt for Tom, the candidate then suggests that there are alternative ways of responding to him. Here the candidate offers a personal perspective and argues that Tom is more a victim of ‘social shifts’, a product of a racist, sexist and class-sensitive society. Evaluation is excellent and AO1 is impressive. This is easily a Band 6 answer.SECTION BJune 2011 paperGaps in the Narrative(1).pdfQuestion 37“In narratives, what we are not told is just as important as what we are told.”Write about the significance of the gaps or of the untold stories in the narratives of the three writers you have studied.(42 marks)It is true to say that for most narratives, the untold aspects are no less important than those mentioned explicitly. The context of writing and of reading are often essential to shape our understanding, and the deeper meanings and interpretations are often implied; in addition, the unreliability of a narrator may push as to a conclusion completely at odds with the stated message.This is most noticeable in ?The Great Gatsby?. We cannot rely on any characters for any great length of time, not least because of their questionable moral values (with extra-marital affairs and sexual promiscuity at the heart of the novel). Gatsby lies about his past, ridiculously claiming in chapter IV to have “lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe”, and Nick explicitly states as a Narrator that the “very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image”, yet soon afterwards, Nick is made to believe him, an effect so preposterous that Fitzgerald couches it in mock poetic terms: “I saw him opening a chest of rubies to ease, with their crimson-lighted depths, the gnawings of his broken heart”. (It should be noted that Fitzgerald?s own interpretations was that his work was a mixture of poetry and prose, and so the mocking result may be unintentional; I do not find him to have been successful.) Yet, however we feel about Nick?s reliability, the story of Gatsby?s past remains sketchy – a gap – as it is not convincingly told. But rather than being a fault, this heightens the enigma that Gatsby is. A further gap, linked to Nick?s unreliability, occurs in chapter II, when Nick admits, “I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon”. This ensures a gap in his recollection, and some ambiguity over the ending of the chapter which has led some readers to draw the conclusion that Nick may be hiding his homosexuality, having found himself in Mr McKee?s bedroom: “he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands”. Like Gatsby?s hidden past, in which he built up his fortune through bootlegging, this leads to the interpretation that Nick, like the rest of America, and particularly the East Coast, has become corrupt in its decadence. (Such gaps help to dismantle the supposed American dream, showing how the way in which money is made comes from immorality and illegality but the gaps also show that love has its own darkness especially when we remember that homosexuality was regarded as immoral at the start of the twentieth century).There are numerous, other untold stories in ?The Great Gatsby?, some due to Nick?s hazy narration: a notable example is that of the eyes of Dr Eckleberg, which George Wilson takes for the eyes of God, despite the assurance of Michaelis that “That?s just an advertisement”. The advertisement seems to have its own story which is not told. It seems to represent the hollow nature of America: like the original settlers who imbued the “fresh, green breast of the new world” with “the last and greatest of all human dreams”. Like Gatsby with regards to Daisy and the “orgastic future” of the green light, Wilson also builds his dreams higher than they can go and fails to acknowledge the reality (killing the wrong person). Yet because Wilson?s story is told from Nick? s viewpoint, the reader is never certain what Wilson actually might have believed. Thus the gaps and untold stories in ?The Great Gatsby? serve to demonstrate the falsity of wealth, class and status in America as well as that of love and of the American dream.A sharp contrast to this is found in ?The Kite Runner?. Here the gaps are about unimportant things: there is a gap of several years between chapters 9 and 10, after Hassan leaves Kabul and before Amir does; there are also several gaps coming later in the story to speed events along and to skip the normal, non-traumatic years spent in America. The effect of this is twofold. First, it shows that the story is about certain elements: Amir?s relationship with Hassan and with Baba are more important than his teenage years without Hassan or his mid-life years after Baba?s death, so these years are missed out. Secondly, it enables Hosseini to adjust the timing so that events within the narrative match up to the real events in Afghanistan: the close link between politics and private lives is very important in this book, with Assef joining the Taliban and so being in a position to seize Sohrab and be found by Amir on his return. The gaps of untold stories push the ?told? stories along faster, ensuring that the pace in quick enough to maintain interest without losing any integrity.However, there is another type of untold story in ?The Kite Runner?: the stories which are hidden at first but of which characters later become aware. When these stories come out, they increase and realise the feelings of guilt. For example, Soraya?s confession of her past is difficult for her, shown by halting phrases such as “there was a long pause at the other end” and “a silence followed”, but it is more difficult for Amir because he cannot tell his story yet. His feelings do not remain untold, as he provides first person narrative that fully shows his emotions: in this case, Hosseini switches between emotional, fragmented shorter sentences (“I envied her. Her secret was out spoken”.) and longer confessional sentences to show the range of emotions he feels. He is similarly shown to be emotionally vulnerable when he finally finds out the truth about Baba and Hassan: “all I could manage was to whisper “No No No” all over and over again”. The untold stories are here used as the driving force behind the integral theme of guilt and redemption, with the build up of emotions caused by hiding these stories serving to heighten the tragedy (and our emotive response to it).Tennyson uses narrative gaps in a very different, but no less effective, way. In ?the Lotos- eaters and the Choric song?, because the narrator focuses on the drug induced state of the mariners, the potential sinister purposes of the ?mild eyed melancholy lotos eaters? who bring ?confusion worse than death? is untold. Thus Tennyson places criticism entirely at the hands of the mariners who reject their homes in favour of the pleasure of drugs, turns us against them. Their culpability is perhaps shown by the corruption on the initial Spenserian stanza (which continues for five stanzas until the choric song begins) and the lengthening of stanzas and lines which combine with the over- embellished description to demonstrate the way that the sailors languish in their drugged state: this lengthening turns the reader against the sailors, as it begins to irritate. This is as much due to the way in which it is told as to what is actually told to us: rather than being told, we are shown, and thus feel the effect more strongly.In another of his poems, ?The Lady of Shalott?, Tennyson only hints at the curse which “is on her if she stay/To look down on Camelot”. Although the narrator is omniscient he neither confirms or denies the existence of this curse, and it could be seen that the Lady?s tragic death comes about because she believes in the curse and thus takes no action to prevent her death (in as much as “her blood was frozen slowly because she took to the river” at the closing of the day). In the poem Tennyson criticises the way in which people, and particularly artists, often choose to ignore reality: the Lady of Shalott accepts her impotence, perhaps representing the behaviour of women at the time, and is ignorant of the coldness of the shallow Lancelot who is barely affected by her death. The untold story is the reality which she chooses to ignore, leading to her wasting her life.Examiner’s feedback to Gaps questionIn this question, the candidate tackles ?gaps? and ?untold stories? in a variety of ways always tailoring the analysis to each particular text. So, for example, the candidate suggests that Fitzgerald?s using Nick Carraway as an unreliable narrator in The Great Gatsby necessarily means that there will be gaps. Indeed the candidate goes further by saying that all the characters have questionable moral values and therefore gaps in stories are inevitable since none can be trusted. This may seem an unusual way to approach the question but it works. The discussion about Gatsby?s claim that he lived like a young rajah along with Nick?s recording of it, having seemingly been drawn in, is most sophisticated.The candidate?s second point about the gap in Nick?s recollection as a result of his drunkenness is also relevant and ambitiously developed. The candidate explores the possibility of Nick?s homosexuality by focusing on the incident where Nick finds himself half dressed in Mr McKee?s bedroom. The discussion which follows is certainly interesting if not entirely convincing. Nick?s possible homosexuality is linked to Gatsby?s – and America?s – decadence and immorality which shows that the candidate is grappling with the significance of the untold story. The same can be said of the paragraph about George Wilson. The point about the advertisement is not exactly a ?narrative gap? but the candidate does sustain an argument and extends it into the discussion about Wilson. The Section on The Kite Runner is clearer and stronger. Here the candidate discusses the compression of time in terms of gaps ad this point is excellently supported. There is sophisticated evaluation of Hosseini?s and Amir?s choices of omitting stories because they are unimportant compared to those of Hassan and Baba. The candidate here is operating at a very high level seeing the gaps as narrative choices enabling Hosseini to ?adjust the timing so that events within the narrative match up to the real events in Afghanistan?.The range in the candidate?s thinking is apparent in the second paragraph of The Kite Runner where the candidate sees untold stories in terms of the withheld stories of Soraya and Amir. This point is superbly developed in terms of significance, incorporating comments on narrative structure and the themes of guilt and redemption.The section on Tennyson is also focused and interesting. The untold story of the purposes of the lotos eaters is the centre of the discussion in the first paragraph and again linked to structure. The discussion of The Lady of Shalott, though brief, is sharp with particularly telling points about the narrator?s refusal to confirm or deny the curse. Overall this is a very perceptive answer. There is integrated evaluation of writers? methods in relation to the gaps and a real confidence in the candidate?s voice. Three texts are covered very well and, in spite of one or two instances where the argument is not quite convincing, this is an excellent B6 response.Explore the significance of speech in the three texts you have studied;In a story such as The Great Gatsby, told by an intradiagetic and perhaps unreliable narrator, reported or direct speech can be seen to be the moment when the characters’ true selves are revealed. Daisy Buchanan’s speech is often affected: "I'm p-paralyzed with happiness," or childishly repetitive: "Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it", which could give the impression that she is both spoilt and na?ve. However, when Tom is present, there is a clear sense that this affectation and breezy na?vety is her way of dealing with a “hulking, brute of a man”. She is unable to finish any of her sentences before Tom interrupts and changes the subject; this is particularly noticeable when she tries to tell Nick about her daughter and Tom intervenes with a question about Nick’s job. Although it could also be argued that the fact that she says: “You ought to see [the baby]” suggests that she doesn’t much care whether Nick does or not. Daisy’s speech is also often surreally humorous, as in the engaging banter with Nick and her story about the “butler’s nose”, and perhaps this is her way of dealing with her domineering and brutal husband. Plausibly, it is through this reporting of her speech that a more complex, less “careless” Daisy emerges, making her almost final words at the Plaza Hotel: "Even alone I can't say I never loved Tom," particularly poignant.Annotate this paragraph to show the points at which the writer does the following:Explains the significance of speechShows how it is significant in The Great GatsbyShows how it is usedExplores its meaning Offers an interpretationExam papers and Mark Schemes for February RevisionJan 2012 Question Paper 2012 Mark scheme 2012 Question paper 2012 Mark scheme 2010 Mark Scheme RevisionMay 2014Exam paper and mark scheme1st sep, AM pt 1, KR Ch 17, GG Ch1(2)%20A-level%20English%20Literature%20B1%20AS%20-%20Assessment%20Materials%20Booklet%20(2).pdfExemplars and feedback(3)%20A-level%20English%20Literature%20B1%20AS%20-%20Resources%20Booklet%20(1).pdf ................
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