Inner journeys: choosing related material

Q: I’m doing inner journeys and my prescribed text is the Empire of the Sun, just wondering if you could suggest any texts that could be a suitable related material?

A: Empire of the Sun is essentially a survival story focusing on a boy during the Second World War. It doesn’t have to be a direct link but the issues of hardship and survival can be your linking thread – the inner strength people find in challenging circumstances such as war as well as the friendships. The following three have war themes.

• This is about some Vietnam vets from Australian Story ABC. It’s a two part program. You can access the transcript: http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/behindenemylines/default.htm

• This is a link to a soldier and his life changing experiences in Timor: http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/thepeacemaker/default.htm

• This is about a group of students who went to Gallipoli http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/gallipoli/default.htm

If you are into anime, there’s “Grave of the Fireflies”. Brother and sister in the period after Hiroshima. Probably a good text for similarities and differences. The Japanese perspective makes it an interesting choice as well.

Q: Andrew Denton interviews are great to analyse but I am having trouble finding other texts that I could draw more links to my prescribed text.

I was thinking of doing a poem and a picture book. For a film, i’m considering About Schmidt- directed by Alexander Payne or Schindler’s List directed by Spilberg, do you think they are appropriate supplementary texts?  I was thinking of doing a poem and a picture book. For a film, i’m considering About Schmidt- directed by Alexander Payne or Schindler’s List directed by Spilberg, do you think they are appropriate supplementary texts?

A:  About Schmidt is about a search for self. A rumpled Jack Nicholson. I don’t remember Schindler’s List being so strong, unless you’re looking at the persecution question and solutions to it. I like Nowhere In Africa, a film that has three people find different solutions to the problems of the WW2 and being forced to leave Germany: mother, father and daughter. It is German with subtitles. And there is Motorcycles Diaries about the revolutionary, Che Guevara, before he became a revolutionary and the events that changed his life.
A picture book? Mao’s Last Dancer has just come out as a picture book for children:Chinese boy escapes Mao’s China to fulfill his ambitions as a dancer. True story. Lives in Melbourne. In his 40s. The autobiography was on the bestseller lists for 12 months. It would be suitable. I think it’s called the Peasant Prince. There’s Shaun Tan’s The Red Leaf in which a girl searches for a solution to her sadness. It’s a beautiful book. Aussie too.

Journeys: Little Miss Sunshine

This is also a film about Belonging: 2009 – 2012 . More on that later.

This film has as its basis a physical journey ( road from home across the United States to a beauty contest which Olive has entered, trained by her grandfather. On the journey everyone goes on an inner journey:

• Olive lives out her fathers principle of success
• Richard finds what he really values after career failures
• Dwayne comes to terms with his family and his ambitions
• Sheryl has re-established her family by making her family take this journey
• Frank finds meaning to his life after his abortive suicide attempt.

It’s also an imaginative journey in it’s conception:

• the bus that slowly falls apart but brings the family together
• the training of Olive, not fully revealed until the end
• the mishandling of the grandfather’s body that occurs because of the need to respect a father by a son
• the satire on beauty contest: Olive is the real beauty in pageant of plastic Barbi dolls
• the humour that permeates the film.

Cosi: Inner Journeys

Q: Your site has some great stuff on it – thnxs!
We are starting the play Cosi and I was trying to find some notes on it. I searched and found two sites online, but thats it! Do you have any ideas?

A: Cosi is a text for Inner Journeys so that the material in this resource list I’ve sent may not be a huge help. I’ve broken the resources into groups. Some of the material deals with the script as a text in performance which is not what you really have to study. There is a bibliography your school librarian could track down but I suspect it will be more on the script as theatrical performance and not too relevant to your needs.

With this text, focus on the personal (inner) journey of the principal characters. That is what you will be writing about; this is not a close study of a single text:

• what does Lewis take away from his experience with the patients? (How is he personally challenged? How does he change/grow?)
• examine what the experience mounting the opera gives to say three patients – you don’t have to do everyone
• why has Nowra chosen this particular opera?
• what connection is there between Nowra and the contents of his play?
• Can you identify (sympathise/empathise) in any way – the your understanding required by some HSC questions.

You will need to look at how Nowra expressed his message: structural features of the text and the language features he used. Remember, this is a play. It has structural divisions in terms of Acts/Scenes and the language features will become evident in the dialogue between characters.

Don’t  try to substitute the film for the play script. It will have been altered for a filming script. Examiners will want your personal response/understanding of the text.

You will need to make connections then to your Stimulus Booklet, probably one text (‘The Road Not Taken’ or ‘Journey to the Interior’), and related material of your own choosing. When choosing related material, it’s a good idea to choose something connected in some way to the prescribed text and the Stimulus Booklet. The film, Girl Interrupted jumps to my mind although there are other things to choose – this is a bit grim as a choice. But anything that requires introspection, the examination of self and a consequent growth in understanding.

Check for the resouces for Cosi: http://www.e-rudite.net/cosi

Check http://www.e-rudite.net/aosresources.htm for suggested related material for some texts to think about.

Area of Study and related material – Q & A

Q: I have a quick question, I have only one additional text which I have prepared for the Area of Study critical response. Will this limit my ability to reach higher order marks? Last year’s exam only requested one related text of own choosing.

A: I think it’s a good idea to have a text up your sleeve because there is the chance the one text you prepared won’t suit the question. I’ve worked with my students on the last 6 years HSC questions and there has been for most of them that one question where something else would be better.
I’ve always recommended two to my students.

“The Arrival” – some notes

I’ve put material on The Arrival on the website attached to the blog: www.e-rudite.net. On the left hand side of the Home Page is a list of texts you can access. Scroll to Skryznecki. I hope it’s useful. If not let me know.

Choosing Area of Study related material

They should be readily accessible. They aren’t too long when you have lots of other things to read. They will also offer you the chance to make a more thoughtful and individual response to an Area of Studies question.

Avoid choosing the same text types, especially two films.

When you think about choosing a text as related material, consider:

• the nature of the journey

• the challenges the journey throws up

• the rewards of undertaking the journey

• the changes in the person(s) who undertake the journey

• the relationship to your Prescribed Text, and

• the relationship to the Stimulus Booklet texts.

You need to make notes under the following headings:

· Structures of texts

· Language forms and features

· Meaning created by the composer and how it has been made (or shaped) by choices about:

Structures of texts

Language forms and features

· An understanding of your response to each text because of

Meaning created by the composer and how it has been made (or shaped) by choices about:

Structures of texts

Language forms and features

· The connections between the texts studied. In relation to meaning and how meaning has been made.

Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival” – a pictorial journey

This picture book has just won The Premier’s Award for Literature, the first picture book to do so. It is beautiful rendition of the migrant experience in sepia tones pencil drawings. Great for physical and inner journeys. Great if you’re doing Skryznecki.