Welcome to Atonement

What we'll try to do (the order might vary, at first based on the first part, then the whole novel):

1) Background search on different contexts (share sources and info):

* Ian McEwan as the author

* Britain in 1935

* the class system in Britain between World Wars

2) Finding non-literary texts that would allow us to revise different text types and enlighten us about something related to this novel at the same time (ongoing work)

3) Putting together a detailed timeline

4) Compiling character profiles

6) Describing how the Tallis household functions (social class and power issues)

+ Briony reads The Waves by Virginia Woolf --> read (fragments) here if interested (6 different viewpoints interspersed with detailed descriptions of the sea, which function as means of moving from one consciousness into another):

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201091h.html

After reading the whole novel:

Ongoing work on the timeline, character profiles (with quotes, and events that bring about changes in the characters), finding non-literary texts, and discussing important issues.

+ Discussion questions

(See this, too, for one opinion: https://jacquemoreau.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/the-tallis-household/)

+ Brian Finney essay: http://web.csulb.edu/~bhfinney/mcewan.html

+ Convince me to like or hate Briony

+ Object descriptions

+ Fiction and metafiction

+ Metonymy and class

+ Watching the film

+ Some creative writing (if you'd like to have some)

Some useful resources for the background search:

Ian McEwan homepage: http://www.ianmcewan.com/

Britain 1930s timeline (if you google this phrase, you'll get a lot more, maybe some even better):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/worldwars_timeline_noflash.shtml

1935 in the UK: 

Everyday life in Britain in the 1930s: http://www.localhistories.org/1930slife.html

Thirties Britain (The National Archives):

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/thirties-britain/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2641959/British-Council-film-archive-reveals-life-1930s-40s-Britain.html

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/7483/economics/the-uk-economy-in-the-1930s/

http://www.capx.co/what-did-britain-really-look-like-in-the-1930s/

Some on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqpNcHTG4uM (poverty, 12:25)

A short video on the stately house in which part 1 of Atonement was filmed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LFB6EdlR08 (Stokesay Court, 6:16)

Google for pictures: British manor houses 1930s

You can listen to a bit of Minding the Manor: the Memoir of a 1930 English Kitchen Maid by Mollie Moran here: http://www.amazon.com/Minding-Manor-Memoir-English-Kitchen/dp/0762796839

The fate of Britain's historic homes. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2101933/Englands-lost-Downtons-Or-endless-homes-ended-bypasses-office-blocks-golf-courses.html

Task: When reading, if you notice anything mentioned that might have existed in real life (people, places, politics, etc.), google them and find out more, e.g. Bernini's Triton in the Piazza Barberini in Rome (p18 in the 2002 Vintage publication I own, first page of Chapter 2)

Read for background and a video-related task:

https://g20languageandliterature.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/atonement-background-context/

https://youtu.be/CvuVfgZ9wcI (26:41)

Violence

1) Trace Papa's abuse: What causes it and how do family members respond?

Possible introductory paragraph:

There are numerous issues that many societies tend to share across time and place. One of such is violence, be it on personal or societal level. Nigerian-American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has investigated this theme in her 2004 novel "Purple Hibiscus" through the Achike family dynamics, especially the father of the protagonist, who presents himself to the community as a kind, benevolent man but inside the family compound is overly strict and controlling and abusive of both his spouse and children.

2) Main types of violence in Purple Hibiscus:

• domestic

• gender

• psychological

• colonial

Discussion:

1. What has made Papa such a violent father? 

2. What kinds of things trigger his violence? 

3. Why don’t his wife and children actively resist his violence earlier? 

4. What do you think of Amaka’s statement “Some people can’t handle stress”? 

5. Do you think Mama’s action was justified? 

6. Why do you think Jaja wanted to take the blame for her crime? 

7. What kind of message does the novel as a whole give us about domestic violence?

(https://www.cram.com/essay/Violence-In-Purple-Hibiscus/FKJJ7T8K5J)

8. How would you behave in a similar situation?

9) What advice would you give each character?

3) Make a 3-4-minute oral essay on the topic you drew in class (based on Purple Hibiscus):

* An exploration of the connections between differing forms of violence in Nigeria after colonialism.

* Gender-based violence manifests in the form of domestic violence.

* Papa uses violence to enforce his own kind of oppression on his family.

* Just as colonialism resulted in a corrupt independent government, so papa's violence compels Mama to poison and murder him.

* Papa is a "colonial product", a man who has bought into the colonial mindset. 

* Women of different status are shown to use different means of resisting patriarchy and violence in the quest for liberating relationships.

* Exploration of the intersectionality of gender, class, race, religion, postcoloniality and power.

* Exploration of violence sprung from cultural conflict.

4) Reflection on Violence (1969) by Hannah Arendt

A pair-writing task for your portfolio

Choose one page of the essay on violence that you believe is most representative of her writing style and the main issues in this essay.

Treat it like a Paper 1 text. Come up with your own guiding question, and write.

This will help you recall how to tackle Paper 1: https://philpot.education/mod/page/view.php?id=19

Have another pair read your essay and suggest improvements / additions / alternative approaches.

Hannah Arendt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt

5) Exam preparation:

Find a page-long extract from Purple Hibiscus that you believe best reflects abuse and violence in the novel. Compare this to a text provided in class.

HLE again

 What has been done before:

1) 24 May 2022 double lesson (hopefully you have your notes)

2) PhilpotNew U7 pp 300-304-319 (including two examples with assessors' comments)

3) PhilpotNew p xix + marking scale for HLE: pp xxvii-xxviii

4) 18 May 2022 blog post

5) Tera HLE folder: this is what is there at the moment, most of it since the year 2020 (some more might be added)

6) Today:

https://ibenglishguys.com/higher-level-essay/

(HLE from start to finish)

Paper 2 again

NB! See also my 21 Feb 2022 blog post.
Generally, Paper 2 exam essay questions seem to be concentrating on the following:
* Form and Structure
* Personal judgement, often can ask about a “lens” - cultural - feminist - etc.
* Themes or characterization - maybe conflict
* Broad Concept - beliefs - home - etc.

NB! See my 16 May 2022 blog post on assessment of essays.

What makes a text timeless and literary???
timeless = not affected by the passage of time or changes in fashion.
literary = having a marked style intended to create a particular emotional effect
Some sample Paper 2 questions:
1) Literature is often said to be timeless. To what extent is this true of two works you have studied?
2) How can we explain the continued interest in a particular work in different contexts and at different times?

The following could all be significant. Put them in the order of importance for you:
* an original, interesting plot
* well-rounded characters that are not perfect but easy to relate to
* a good conflict to build the story around, a good climax and resolution
* a well-done ending
* interesting use of language
* good use of literary devices and techniques
* being set in an interesting world
* themes of major importance and universal interest discussed
* aesthetic value

Possible reasons brought out by some earlier students (not a definitive list):
* reader being able to relate to the themes (real-life history, human struggle, epic fight good vs evil, existential questions)
* the characters have distinctive voices (characteristic of the time and place)
* life-like characters develop throughout the story (round and dynamic vs flat and static, see: https://prezi.com/c7kkzijg2-fa/characters-round-and-flat-static-vs-dynamic/)
* different elements work together (plot, character development, writing technique, etc)
* the text
               includes several different viewpoints
               is easily readable but not simplistic
               allows multiple interpretations
               gives a good overview of the world the story is set in
               caters for the reader's intellectual, emotional, ethical, and
                                                                       spiritual development
               makes the reader question sth, ask questions
                                                                  and search for answers
               makes the reader think about themselves, their times,
                                                                          their society, etc (familiarity)

Literary criticism

15 types: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/literary-theory-explained

Feminist criticism:  https://www.thoughtco.com/feminist-literary-criticism-3528960#:~:text

Marxist criticism: https://writingcommons.org/section/research/research-methods/textual-methods/literary-criticism/marxist-criticism/#:~:text

Queer theory: https://literariness.org/2019/03/04/queer-theory/

Gay/lesbian studieshttps://literariness.org/2018/11/15/gay-lesbian-studies/

NB! See Literary criticism generic questions (on Tera)

The Higher Level Essay (=HLE)

The Higher Level Essay is a 1200-1500 word essay completed internally but externally assessed by an examiner.  It is a processed piece of writing that is completed over time and with guidance from the teacher.

You may write about a non-literary text or texts studied as part of the course. Alternatively, you may write about a literary work studied as part of the course.  You may select any texts or works already studied as part of the course, but texts and works used for the internal assessment (IO) are not acceptable choices. Neither may you use texts intended for Paper 2.

Where you to decide to focus on non-literary texts, and consult a number of texts, it is important that these texts are of the same text type, and that the texts are the work of one writer or producer. Also, at least one of the texts must have been studied in class as part of the course. You may base your essay on texts or works in translation. These should be professional translations. Texts and works in other languages that have not been translated are inappropriate.

The HLE must be your own work and thinking.  There cannot be prescribed topics or titles.   

To reiterate:

The HLE is a 1200-1500 word formal, academic essay.

The HLE is a processed essay and will take time to develop.

The HLE is based on work(s) or text(s) studied in the course.

You select your own topic, title, line of inquiry and thesis although the teacher can guide and support you.

You cannot base your essay on any work or text that was used for the Individual Oral or that will be used for Paper 2.

It is not a requirement to use or consult secondary sources.

Thesis statement

 A possible thesis statement for comparing two magazine covers.

Although these two magazine covers, one from the year xxx depicting politician 1, and the one from xxx showing politician 2 have several aspects in common, most importantly A, B and C, they do differ in several important ways, especially X, W and Z.

Exam papers

Paper 1 is an examination using unseen non-literary texts assessed externally. You are supposed to write a guided textual analysis about one (SL) or both (HL) of the texts provided.

Each text comes with with a guiding question, which will be about a technical or formal aspect of the text.  You do not have to answer the guiding question, and you can propose your own line of argument about the text, it must be focused on a particular aspect that provides focus to the analysis. 
Passages for analysis may be complete pieces of writing or extracts from larger works, or from a visual text or an extract from a longer piece (e.g. advertisements, opinion columns, brochures, extracts, etc. Check the Subject Guide for more examples.
Paper 1 counts for 35% of the final grade, out of 20 marks for SL and 40 marks for HL.

Paper 2 consists of four essay questions (the same for SL/HL, and graded externally using the same criteria), only one of which must be answered during 1 hour and 45 min. You need to use two of the literary works not used in other assessments in the course for it.  Although the questions are bound to change from exam to exam, they will be broad in nature allowing a wide and diverse set of literary works to be used. 
Some sample questions, quoted from InThinking:
1. Referring to two of the works you have studied, discuss both how and why the text invites the reader to identify with situations, characters and/or ideas.
2. Often the appeal for the reader of a literary work is the atmosphere a writer creates (for example, peaceful, menacing or ironic). Discuss some of the ways atmospheres are conveyed and to what effect in two of the works you have studied.
3. Writers often choose words, phrases and names of characters and places not only for their literal meaning, but for further meanings that they may suggest to the reader. With reference to two of the works you have studied, discuss how such words and their associations contribute to your understanding and appreciation of the works.
4. How is “home” depicted in two of the works you have studied and what is its significance?
5. How do two of the works you have studied portray the struggle to be understood?
6. Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true in two of the works you have studied?
7. Discuss how two works you have studied present concepts of good and bad, not as absolute notions, but as a matter of individual perception.
8. Referring to two works you have studied, discuss how the author has created a convincing “world”.

Looking at any text from different perspectives

Any text can be looked at from different perspectives, and analysed as is suitable towards different IB aims.

Paper 1: 

Take a careful look at assessment criteria A and B, and consider how you would approach this particular text in light of the requirements of these criteria. Identify the text type and its characteristics. (See the characteristics of the text as listed in the subject guide.) You also need to be able to analyze a text to see the extent to which it follows the characteristics of the text type, or subverts them. If an advertisement, for example, does not clearly identify the product, consider the reasons why that choice was made and think about the intended effect on the audience. 

Individual oral: 

Look at criteria A and B for the IO. There are some similarities between the criteria in the IO and those in Paper 1 but the IO also requires students to make connections between extracts from a literary work and non-literary body of work (BOW). The IO must make connections with the global issue (=GI) that the student has chosen, so it is advisable to consider how a text is linked to different global issues.

HL essay:

This is an in-depth analysis of a non-literary BOW or a literary work the student has studied in class. Imagine this text is from a non-literary body of work and consider possible approaches you could take with the 1200-1500 word HL essay. This could include evaluating connections between this text and the seven central concepts in DP Language A Language and Literature.