Lesson 1
Aspects of Narrative
Lesson Objectives: To know the format of the exam and revise the assessment objectives.
To become familiar with the poem 'Maude Clare' and how you could answer an exam question on it.
- What the exam involves:
- Your LITB1 AS Examination is 2 hours.
- You must answer on one text from Section A (both questions) and one question from Section B.
- In your response to this paper you must write about four different texts: two prose and two poetry texts. At least one of the prose texts you write about must have been written after 1990.
- The maximum mark for this paper is 84.
- The texts prescribed for this paper may be taken into the examination room. Texts taken into the examination must be clean: that is, free from annotation.
- You can take your copy of the Literature B Poetry Anthology into the examination room. Copies taken into the examination room must be clean: that is, free from annotation.
- You will be marked on your ability to:
- – use good English
- – organise information clearly
- – use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Questions to ask yourself to ensure you are analysing AND evaluating:
- What narrative technique is the writer using and where?
- How is the writer using that technique?
- Why are they using it?
- Why are they using it in this way?
Exam Questions - You should spend about 1 hour on each section
Section A
(from January 2013):
Selected Poems – Christina Rossetti
1. Write about the ways Rossetti tells the story in ‘Maude Clare’. (21 marks)
AND 2. “Far from being repressed, women in Rossetti’s poems are defiant.” How far do you agree with this view? (21 marks)
TASK: Read 'Maude Clare' on p88 of your Poetry Anthology. Discuss the way the story is told. You should focus on:
a. Who is the narrator?
b. Who are the characters?
c. What order is the story told in?
d. What form has Rossetti chosen?
Now read the analysis here and discuss the questions.
Finally, read the example essay here and discuss how you might have written the essay yourself. You can even mark the example using the mark scheme link here.
Section B
Selected Poems – Christina Rossetti
1. Write about the ways Rossetti tells the story in ‘Maude Clare’. (21 marks)
AND 2. “Far from being repressed, women in Rossetti’s poems are defiant.” How far do you agree with this view? (21 marks)
TASK: Read 'Maude Clare' on p88 of your Poetry Anthology. Discuss the way the story is told. You should focus on:
a. Who is the narrator?
b. Who are the characters?
c. What order is the story told in?
d. What form has Rossetti chosen?
Now read the analysis here and discuss the questions.
Finally, read the example essay here and discuss how you might have written the essay yourself. You can even mark the example using the mark scheme link here.
Section B
EITHER 1 “In a narrative, there is usually a hero or heroine, a protagonist on whose fate the readers’ interest in the story principally rests.” Write about the significance of protagonists in the narratives of the three writers you have studied. (42 marks)
OR 2 Write about the significance of the ways the three writers you have studied create and use suspense in their narratives. (42 marks)
TASK 1: Look up the Scheme of Work and some past examination papers.
TASK 2: Read Chapter 1 'Introducing Narrative' in your textbook (pp 5-9). Make notes.
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Point 2: Scenes and PlacesLesson Objective: To consider the significance of places in stories.
To study how 'place' is used in the first 80 lines of 'Goblin Market'
TASK: Read Chapter 2 of your textbook, 'Scenes and Places' pp 10-18, making notes.
TASK: Watch the 1-minute video and read the brief biography of Rossetti here.
TASK: Read the brief Schmoop Study Guide analysis of the setting of 'Goblin Market'.
Examination Questions (June 2012)
Section A
1 1 Write about the ways Rossetti tells the story in the first eighty lines of ‘Goblin Market’.
(21 marks)
AND
1 2 How far do you agree with the view that ‘Goblin Market’ is a story for children?
(21 marks)
Section B
EITHER
3 7 Write about the significance of climaxes and /or anticlimaxes in the narratives of the
three writers you have studied. (42 marks)
OR
3 8 Write about the significance of the ways speech is used in the work of the three writers
you have studied. (42 marks)
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Point 3: Time and Sequence
In The Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857
In The Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857
Some interesting paragraphs about the poem: http://fhsenglishmediaalevel.weebly.com/miss-ahluwalias-blog/write-about-the-ways-in-which-rossetti-tells-the-story-in-in-the-round-tower-at-jhansi-june-8-1857
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Round Tower Original Letter
June 2014 Question:
1 Write about the ways Rossetti tells the story in ‘In the Round Tower of Jhansi, June 8, 1857’. [21 marks]
Possible content:
• narrative perspective/voices: third person omniscient narrator, dark and solemn tone, voices of Skene and his wife, etc
• setting: specific setting in India, Jhansi and the round tower/ a specific date when the massacre took place and when Skene took his and his wife’s lives, the last moments of their lives etc
• five quatrains with questions and answers, historical story and personal romance etc
• linear chronology, direct authorial opening to quickly establish the hopelessness of the situation, shift of focus to Skene and his preparing his wife for her necessary death and to be resigned, ending with the dual voices of husband and wife saying goodbye, no final comment from the omniscient narrator, etc • simple language, use of repetition, contrast of the speech of the characters and the words of the narrator (no adjectives in the speech, for example), patterns of language use, use of the imperative, use of personal pronouns, etc.
and
2 Skene tells his wife to accept death and face it with courage. How far do you think the characters in Rossetti’s poems face death with courage and acceptance? [21 marks]
Some will agree and focus on:
• Skene and his ‘not being loth’ to die
• his wife who kisses her husband and says goodbye perhaps with quiet acceptance
• the Royal Princess who debates her life and death and resigns herself to death: ‘in the name of God I go’
• perhaps Jessie Cameron who is defiant in the face of death, etc.
Some will disagree and focus on:
• the scream in ‘Jessie Cameron’ that might signal fear for either Jessie or her suitor
• the local people and rebels in ‘A Royal Princess’ who are angry, starving and violent
• the princess’s father who calls on his soldiers to ‘Smite and spare not’
• the lover of the speaker in ‘Sister Maude’ who was seemingly murdered
• the implication that Sister Maude will not be resigned to death because her sin will not allow her in to heaven, etc.
Accept any valid argument in relation to the task. Some will deal with courage and acceptance separately. If students only deal with one of the concepts they are unlikely to be above Band 4
Further points to consider in your essay on how a narrative is constructed:
Point 4: Characters and Characterisation
June 2014 Question:
1 Write about the ways Rossetti tells the story in ‘In the Round Tower of Jhansi, June 8, 1857’. [21 marks]
Mark Scheme Notes:
Authorial methods need to be related to the story being told in this section of the poem.Possible content:
• narrative perspective/voices: third person omniscient narrator, dark and solemn tone, voices of Skene and his wife, etc
• setting: specific setting in India, Jhansi and the round tower/ a specific date when the massacre took place and when Skene took his and his wife’s lives, the last moments of their lives etc
• five quatrains with questions and answers, historical story and personal romance etc
• linear chronology, direct authorial opening to quickly establish the hopelessness of the situation, shift of focus to Skene and his preparing his wife for her necessary death and to be resigned, ending with the dual voices of husband and wife saying goodbye, no final comment from the omniscient narrator, etc • simple language, use of repetition, contrast of the speech of the characters and the words of the narrator (no adjectives in the speech, for example), patterns of language use, use of the imperative, use of personal pronouns, etc.
and
2 Skene tells his wife to accept death and face it with courage. How far do you think the characters in Rossetti’s poems face death with courage and acceptance? [21 marks]
Mark Scheme Notes:
Possible content:Some will agree and focus on:
• Skene and his ‘not being loth’ to die
• his wife who kisses her husband and says goodbye perhaps with quiet acceptance
• the Royal Princess who debates her life and death and resigns herself to death: ‘in the name of God I go’
• perhaps Jessie Cameron who is defiant in the face of death, etc.
Some will disagree and focus on:
• the scream in ‘Jessie Cameron’ that might signal fear for either Jessie or her suitor
• the local people and rebels in ‘A Royal Princess’ who are angry, starving and violent
• the princess’s father who calls on his soldiers to ‘Smite and spare not’
• the lover of the speaker in ‘Sister Maude’ who was seemingly murdered
• the implication that Sister Maude will not be resigned to death because her sin will not allow her in to heaven, etc.
Accept any valid argument in relation to the task. Some will deal with courage and acceptance separately. If students only deal with one of the concepts they are unlikely to be above Band 4
Further points to consider in your essay on how a narrative is constructed:
Point 4: Characters and Characterisation
The Convent Threshold
http://crossref-it.info/textguide/christina-rossetti-selected-poems/28/1867
Question: January 2012: Write about the ways Christina Rossetti tells the story from line 85 to the end of 'The Convent Threshold'. (21 marks)
Question: January 2012: Write about the ways Christina Rossetti tells the story from line 85 to the end of 'The Convent Threshold'. (21 marks)
AND
To what extent do you think that 'The Convent Threshold' is an assertion of love? (21 marks)
From the mark scheme: what you could include:
- narrative perspective/voices: first person narrator - anonymous, female, passionate, regretful, resigned, religious tone, clear addressee - a former lover
- setting: convent, vision of heaven
- the inal section of a longer poem in verse paragraphs, uneven rhyming patterns, significance of where the rhymes fall, last word 'love'
- generally linear chronology for the recounting of the dream, various sections of the dream sequence, projection into the future, link between this section and the first part of the poem, assertive ending
- formal poetic diction, use of repetition, speech rhythms, use of contrasts, religious language, significance of the title, use of questions, imperatives, use of detail, natural imagery, contrast, use of personal pronouns, use of similes, sinister imagery in places, sensual description.
and for the second question:
FOR the motion:
- the love of the speaker for the addressee
- the love of God for man
- the way the speaker affirms love while denying it
- the passionate language
- the poem's opening and conclusion
AGAINST:
- the lack of conviction perhaps in the speaker's love for either the lover or God
- the guilt that underpins the poem
- the fact that she is saying goodbye
- the weakness of the argument that their love can continue in heaven
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Point 5: Voices in texts
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Point 6: Points of view
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Point 7: Destination
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Point 8: Preparing for the examination
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