Emily Bosco • Anthony BoscoEmily Bosco • Anthony Bosco

HSC ENGLISH ADVANCEDADVANCED:

NINETEEN

EIGHTY-FOUR

METROPOLIS

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CONTENTS

PREFACE vACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viCHARACTER SUMMARIES 1Metropolis 1Nineteen Eighty-Four 2GET REVISING 4Revising for your exams 4

About the papers 4Paper 1: Area of Study 4Paper 2: Modules 5

Practise, practise, practise 5Revision advice 6

Elective 2: Intertextual perspectives 6What are the features of strong essays? 7Frequently asked questions 7Nineteen Eighty-Four and Metropolis: Essential context 8

Top 10 tips for exam success 11A note of advice 12Now you’re prepared … 13

MARK IT! 14Planning a response 15

MODEL ESSAY 1 16Deconstruct the question 16‘A comparative study of perspectives reveals the ways in which context influences the ideas and values communicated by different composers.’ Explore how your comparative study supports this view.Mark it! 17Marker’s comments 24

MODEL ESSAY 2 26Deconstruct the question 26‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’ (paraphrased from Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr’s novel Les Guêpes, 1849). Consider how this statement applies to your comparative study of the texts and contexts of Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927) and George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).Mark it! 27Marker’s comments 34

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Preface

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PREFACE

The two texts which have been set for study in Module A exist in an intertextual relationship with each other. As such, they connect, interrelate and correlate in a myriad of ways. However, each text is drawn from and reflects the values of a unique social, cultural and historical context. Through a comparative study of these two texts and their respective contexts, you will come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of how context shapes the audience, purpose and meaning of a text. Additionally, understanding how context impacts upon, shapes and affects composers, as well as responders, will allow you to explore questions of value. For example, why were these texts valued or not valued within their original context of composition? What value or relevance do these texts have to your own context? These and many other questions will give you a greater insight into the issues, problems and tensions that continue to affect and fascinate different people in vastly different spatial and temporal locations.

This book has been written to help you better understand and prepare for the demands of Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Context. Within these pages, you will find lots of great advice about this module and how to best prepare and revise. You will also find three annotated model essays comparing George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty- Four and Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis in relation to three distinct points of comparison. By reading each essay and progressing through the activities, you will experience what it is like to ‘be the marker’, which will help you to arrive at a much better understanding of what your teachers and examiners are looking for when they mark your essays. This will assist you enormously in improving your own essay-writing skills!

We wish you the very best of luck in your HSC English exams!

Emily Bosco and Anthony Bosco

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Character summaries

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CHARACTER

SUMMARIES

METROPOLIS

JOH FREDERSEN

Regarded as the patriarch or ‘father’ of Metropolis, Joh Fredersen presides over both the city and the underground ‘Workers’ City’. Joh uses a combination of surveillance, coercion and enforced uniformity in order to ensure stability and, most importantly, productivity. Fritz Lang’s characterisation of Joh Fredersen is intended as a hyperbolic archetypal representation of the corrupt and greedy industrial capitalists that sought to profiteer during the years of Weimar Germany’s economic prosperity.

FREDER FREDERSEN

Freder is the film’s protagonist and hero. He is the only son and heir apparent of Joh Fredersen. When the film commences, Freder is blissfully naive about the economic and political situation in Metropolis or below in the ‘Workers’ City’. He whiles away his days in a utopia, participating in athletics at the ‘Club of the Sons’ and chasing courtesans in the ‘Eternal Gardens’, activities designed to keep him ignorant and pliant. The intrusion of Maria, along with many children from the underground that she refers to as Freder’s ‘brothers’, acts as the impetus for Freder to venture outside his Edenic surrounds and to understand how the world truly works. His quest to attain the love of Maria prompts him to realise his unique position as the ‘Heart’ who can act as the ‘Mediator’ between his father Joh Fredersen, who is the ‘Head’, and Grot, the operator of the ‘Heart Machine’ and the overseer of the ‘Hands’ (the workers). Along with Maria, Freder becomes a Messianic figure who strives to deliver his world from tyranny and establish a more cohesive society defined by solidarity and compassion.SAMPLE

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HSC English: Nineteen Eighty-Four and Metropolis

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GET REVISING

REVISING FOR YOUR EXAMS

Your HSC in English will introduce you to a wealth of excellent, exciting literature, and will open your eyes to new ways of viewing the world around you. However, preparing for any exam can be stressful, whether you like the subject or find it difficult, especially with so many demands on your time. You need to be sure that you’re using your time wisely and being as effective as you can in your revision. Preparation is key, and there are a few things you can do to make sure you feel confident when it’s time for the exam, and to help you to achieve your full potential.

One of the first things you should do is to familiarise yourself with the structure of the HSC English examination papers. Knowing what to expect in the exam is the best way to know how to prepare.

ABOUT THE PAPERS

As an Advanced English student, you will complete two exam papers that are organised as follows:

PAPER 1: AREA OF STUDY

This paper is common to both English (Standard) and English (Advanced). Everyone sits the same exam. You will be given 2 hours’ writing time, plus 10 minutes’ reading time.

This paper is designed to assess your understanding of the Area of Study: Discovery, and how you respond to questions about it. There are three sections:

• Section I—short answers (15 marks). This is the section where you will read a collection of unseen texts and answer a series of short-answer questions.

• Section II—creative writing (15 marks). This is the section where you will compose a piece of creative writing on the topic of discovery in response to a specific stimulus.

Practise writing essays under timed conditions to get your planning

and drafting down to a fi ne art. You’ll fi nd some practice questions later

in this book.

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Get revising

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• power and control

• resistance and rebellion

• freedom and oppression

• individuality and conformity

• exploitation and indoctrination

• utopia and dystopia.

Having a good working knowledge of the context and purpose of each text is essential to understanding the similarities and differences in the perspectives offered by Orwell and Lang on these issues.

WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF

STRONG ESSAYS?

Essays that score well in this module have the following characteristics:

• an introduction that directly addresses the question and establishes a clear thesis (line of argument)

• a series of logically structured body paragraphs that each focus on a relevant point of comparison

• a consideration of the similarities and differences in perspective between the two texts

• well-integrated and accurate references to relevant context for each of the texts that has been used to support the arguments made

• discerning use of textual examples and sophisticated analysis of textual form and features for both texts

• a sustained essay thesis

• confident and articulate use of language.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

DOES MY ESSAY ALWAYS NEED TO INCLUDE ‘PERSPECTIVES’?

Yes, all essays written in response to the elective ‘Intertextual perspectives’ need to include a comparison of perspectives. This means that you need to be comfortable comparing the perspective of each composer in relation to particular ideas, values and attitudes.

WHAT DOES THE TERM ‘VALUES’ MEAN?

When an essay question uses the term ‘values’ it means the deeply held beliefs, ideals, principles or morals of the composer. These are what the composer emphasises in their text and seeks to

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HSC English: Nineteen Eighty-Four and Metropolis

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communicate the importance of to their audience. For example, in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Metropolis, Orwell and Lang both show the value of individual freedom. To do this, they have created fictional worlds where individual freedom is the price paid for social order and stability.

DO I NEED TO KNOW AND INCORPORATE CONTEXT INTO

MY ESSAY?

Yes, you do need to know the context of each text and your contextual knowledge needs to be accurate. When you accurately reference dates, prominent historical figures, social movements, historical events and political ideologies and systems, you demonstrate to the marker that you have engaged in a thorough investigation of the factors that have influenced the texts.

DO I NEED TO INCORPORATE THE EFFECT OF CONTEXT INTO

MY ESSAY?

Yes, you do need to incorporate the effect of context on the perspective offered by each composer. The unique historical, social and cultural climate of each composer has influenced the way they have represented ideas and issues in their text, resulting in a particular perspective of the concerns of their time. Moreover, through considering the relationship between context and perspective in two texts composed at different times, you will arrive at a greater understanding of the impact changes in context have on meaning.

NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR AND

METROPOLIS: ESSENTIAL CONTEXT

Use the list of contextual points below to make sure you have a good working knowledge of the context for both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Metropolis before heading into your exam.

If any of these contextual influences are unfamiliar to you, be sure to research their relevance and think critically about how the composer has used that particular element of context in their text.SAMPLE

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Elements of context Metropolis Nineteen Eighty-Four

Historical/Political/Economic

The revolutionary wave across Europe toward the end of World War I:• Russian Revolution 1917• German Revolution 1918–19

The Weimar Republic and the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles:• reparations and the hyperinflation of 1923• the humiliation of defeat and occupation• emerging German nationalism

The Golden Age of Weimar 1924–29:• Gustav Stresemann• the Dawes Plan• industrial growth

Hugo Stinnes:• industrial power• introduction of the eight-hour working day• acquisition of German newspapers and influence over the press

The rise of totalitarianism in 1930s Europe:• Joseph Stalin (USSR)• Adolf Hitler (Germany)• Francisco Franco (Spain)• Benito Mussolini (Italy)

The Great Depression of 1929–39

World War II and the plans put in place by Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin at the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences toward the end of the war

The end of the War in the Pacific (1945) and the beginning of the Cold War (1945–47)

The transformation of the USSR from wartime ally to peacetime foe

The post-war economic slump in Britain

Social/Cultural/Religious

Impact of modern capitalism and industrial growth:• the rise of labour movements and trade unions in the 1920s• tensions between labour and capital (workers’ strikes, social unrest etc.)

Urban expansion and the rise of modern American cities and culture during the 1920s:• New York and Chicago

The experience of a cultural renaissance in Weimar Germany:• the growth of German cinema during the Weimar period• the Expressionist genre• science fiction and dystopian genres• the Futurist movement

Technological advances post-World War I and World War II

Decline in Christian religious belief post-World War II

Science fiction and dystopian genres

Continued

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In this section you’ll find model essays answering Paper 2 Section I exam-style questions on the comparative study of Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis and George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. For each essay, you will:

1. See how to deconstruct the question, and read the tips on getting started with a response.

2. Read the model essay and answer questions based around the marking criteria. Essentially you are being the examiner! Mark the essay by writing in the spaces provided or highlighting/underlining the essay as required.

3. Read the examiner’s comments and compare them with your own marking.

When you’ve finished you could try your hand at your own response to the questions, or there are more questions for you to try at the end of the book.

The MARK IT! exercise will help you get to grips with what your examiners are looking for, see what makes a strong essay response, and most importantly understand how to really make your mark when it comes to your exam!

MARK IT!

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Mark it!

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PLANNING A RESPONSE

Before you start writing, it is important to spend a few minutes planning out your essay response. This is because the purpose of your essay is to answer the question you have been given, so it makes sense to consider the question carefully so that you can work out how to best answer it.

1. The first step is to develop an insightful thesis which directly addresses the question you have been given. Your thesis is your overall ‘big’ answer to the question. It is a statement of your position or line of argument and must reveal your conceptual understanding of Module A and Elective 2: Intertextual perspectives. Remember: this is both a comparative and a conceptual essay. This means that you must show your understanding of the concept of ‘intertextual perspectives’ through your comparison of the ideas, values and attitudes in Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis and George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, whilst also factoring in the role of context.

2. Once you have decided on a thesis, you need to perform a quick mental check to test it to make sure you can sustain it throughout your essay. To do this, think about how your thesis applies to a comparative study of the two texts and the evidence you can use from each text to support it.

3. After you have checked your thesis, it is a good idea to generate a list of relevant connections or points of comparison between Metropolis and Nineteen Eighty-Four. When generating these points of comparison, always remember to select relevant aspects of context from each text that you can use to explain the influences that have shaped the composer’s perspective and their artistic representation of perspective.

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HSC English: Nineteen Eighty-Four and Metropolis

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MODEL ESSAY 1

DECONSTRUCT THE

QUESTION

‘A comparative study of perspectives reveals

the ways in which context influences the ideas

and values communicated by different composers.’

Explore how your comparative study supports

this view.

y ff py ff p

rative study supports y ppy

ti t d f ti

This phrase relates to both the purpose of Module A—to compare two texts composed in different time periods—and to Elective 2: Intertextual perspectives, which requires you to consider the concept of point-of-view specifically. When deconstructing any essay question for Module A, you should always locate the terms that relate to the requirements of both the module and the elective.

Values are the deeply held beliefs or ideals of the composer. One of the main aspects of a composer’s purpose is to convey the values they believe it is important for society to recognise and uphold.

Explore: this type of question is asking you to consider the relationship between the concepts of ‘perspective’ and ‘context’ by examining their impact on the ideas and beliefs conveyed by Fritz Lang and George Orwell. How: this means that you must evidence your argument through close textual referencing and an analysis of the textual forms and features used by the composer to influence meaning.

yy contex

and values communicated

Explore p

t

how your compay p

his view.

y

.

Context: the historical, social and cultural climate in which your texts were composed. The context of a text impacts upon the ideas and issues of a text and the way the composer has represented those ideas and issues. Recognising this will help you to link ‘context’ to ‘perspective’. SAMPLE

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Model essay 1

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1. This student has successfully established a thesis that shows a conceptual understanding of Elective 2: Intertextual perspectives. How have they achieved this?

GETTING STARTED

Once you have deconstructed the question and understand what it is asking of you, you can begin to plan a response. Make sure you read through the section ‘Planning a response’ on page 15.

For this question, you need to ask yourself:

• What ideas relevant to this comparative study will my essay include?

• What is the perspective or position offered by each text on these ideas?

• What values do Fritz Lang and George Orwell communicate, given how they have represented these ideas?

• In relation to the ideas I have chosen to explore, what elements of context should I include to support my arguments?

• How has the context of each text affected the communication of these ideas and values?

Let’s see how the model essay tackles the question. As you read, make notes or highlight/underline elements of the essay that demonstrate strong writing technique or salient points. The questions alongside the essay should get you thinking about how the essay addresses the question and follows the rubric.

MARK IT!

‘A comparative study of perspectives reveals the ways in which context influences the ideas and values communicated by different composers.’ Explore how your comparative study supports this view.

‘The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed.’Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

A study of the intertextual perspectives communicated by different composers reveals that the ‘universe … we’ perceive within a text is a ‘joint product[ion] of the observer and the observed’. The words of the early 20th-century philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin affirm that perspectives revealed in texts rely upon the context of both ‘the observer and the observed’. The comparative study of Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent German expressionist film Metropolis and George Orwell’s 1949 social science-fiction novel Nineteen

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