Lit101 Ass2- Reading responses PDF

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Madatory assesment two of 8 weeks of reading responses worth 30% of the subject. Contains summary of in class activities. ...

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Assessment 2 LIT101 Reading Responses Kate Millett 11623962

LIT101 Language and Text Assignment Two: Reading Responses Criteria Understanding of primary texts.

Produces a critical reading of the way meaning is shaped in relation to each weekly topic. Describes and analyses language forms and features with proper use of literary concepts and terminology. Supports critical reading with appropriate evidence.

Composes clearly, accurately and imaginatively.

Demonstrates a detailed and nuanced understand of texts. Responses are insightful and original in relation to the weekly topic.

Demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of texts.

Performance Demonstrates Demonstrates adequate good understanding of understandin texts. g of texts.

Demonstrates limited understanding of texts.

Responses are insightful in relation to the weekly topic.

Responses show how the text is related to the weekly topic.

Responses attempt to relate the text to the weekly topic.

Responses fail to address the weekly topic.

Responses include thoughtful and reflective use of literary concepts.

Responses include thoughtful use of literary concepts.

Responses use appropriate literary concepts.

Responses use literary concepts or terminology incorrectly at times.

Responses do not attempt to use literary concepts or terminology.

Provides consistently well chosen evidence with perfect referencing practices. Writes with excellent grammar, imagination and flair.

Provides well chosen evidence with good referencing practices.

Provides textual evidence with good referencing practices.

Attempts to provides textual evidence without adequate referencing practices.

Fails to provides textual evidence to support critical reading.

Writes clearly and imaginatively.

Writing is always clear.

Writing is mostly clear.

Writing is ungrammatical and difficult to comprehend.

Comments:

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Genre:

Posing the question what makes a genre a genre, opens up a critical discourse, which could metaphorically be viewed as a game of Trivial Pursuit. It requires us to seek a necessary definition of genre in terms of writing structures and is steeped in historical understanding of how language is used and applied for a certain purpose. And yet in today’s society of multiple literacies, genre can be viewed as intertwined, crossing and changing within a text, like the ocean changing tides. In primary and secondary school we were explicitly taught how to write a specific genre, how the text should be structured. We were giving headings, sentence starters and sometimes a writing plan with little boxes to be neatly filled in.

Helen Garner’s writing has been viewed as very controversial when it comes to the topic of fiction or non-fiction. Her first text Monkey Grip (1977) has been catergorised as fiction despite it being ‘also’ nonfiction and autobiographical. Originally I protested, taught the ‘correct way’ throughout my schooling I too had thought you could not mix. Garner’s writing stirs up some confusion and hostility in regard to genre as the controversy is centered on the fact that Garner had written about sex and women’s desires but she had based her novel on her diaries. The question asked was, ‘has she quite simply copied out her diaries or has she created a novel in what is seen in literary circles as correct?’ Quite clearly Garner has dismantled the theory of what a narrative genre should entail, what a structure is, and what a beginning, middle (complication) and ending should read like. Garner writes about characters going for a bike ride to the baths (pg14), using true descriptions of street names and roads that they take to get there. These directions being correct indicates, non-fictional writing; however, metaphors and similes are used in the descriptions of things they ride past, which is fictional. She portrays images that are real and how I see my world, ‘my bike tyre’s pumped up, whirred on the glossy bitumen, Autumn air, air, air moving in dry warm blusters’ reminded me of my childhood, riding to school past the cane harvesters. I don’t believe that Garner never intended an argument between fiction and nonfiction to be developed. In her fiction “I” (2002), Garner admits there is a lot of truth to Kate Millett

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her ‘non-fiction’ Monkey Grip. “But I’m too old to bother with that crap any more. I might as well come clean. I did publish my diary. That’s exactly what I did.” Of course she added and took away information of her choosing however Monkey Grip is Garner’s daily life embellished. A defining factor of non-fiction is that it can be easily summarised. Garner’s nonfiction ‘Against Embarrassment’ is a book about her experience of travelling to Vanuatu and learning to play the Ukulele. It is a recollection of true events from her holiday however she jumps back and forth in time and uses poetic language throughout. She often shows her inner thoughts revealing more about who she really is; for example: “You’re too old. You’ve already failed at the piano. You have no musical talent. And ukuleles are not serious. You will make a fool of yourself and everyone will laugh at you. Pull yourself together, woman, and slog on.” As a reader, I appreciate the way Garner reveals her consciousness and that she does not bend easily into traditional writing trajectories. Her writing is very detailed, very real, she looks around and shows us what she sees and I respect her for her courage and honesty to break away from the traditional. The only certainty about fiction and non-fiction is that there is no accurate and definitive line that can be drawn between the two. It is almost impossible to have one without the other. Garner is a perfect example of how this is possible through her literary fiction. Which arises the question; should literature really be defined as either non-fiction or fiction? Garner, H. (1977). Acqua Profunda. In Monkey grip (pp. 1-10). Melbourne : McPhee Gribble. Garner, H. (2002). “I”. Meanjin, 61(1), 40-43, 217. Garner, H. (2003). Against embarrassment. In P. Craven (Ed.), The best Australian essays 2003 (pp. 212-216). Melbourne : Black Inc.

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Speculative Fiction:

Speculative Fiction is the fiction of ‘what if…?’ At heart, it usually involves a vision of the future or an alternate world which is used by an author to comment on and explore ideas about their own society. It commonly focuses on the future of humanity after a catastrophic event. Catherine Edwards described speculative fiction as ‘a place beyond reality, a place that could have been, or might have been, if the rules of the universe were altered just a bit.’ Margo Lanagan’s, Singing my sister down from Black Juice is certainly not bound by realism. It is set in an alternate world where they have gone back to a tribal way of life indicated by the introduction of Chief Barnarndra as well as the unusual names of the other characters.

The tropes ‘crime and punishment ‘ and ‘an eye for an eye’ are obvious to the reader, yet Lanagan has molded these into abstract speculative fiction. Ikky committed the crime of murdering her new husband with an axe. The typical punishment in our society would be life in prison, however, not in the universe that has been created. In this new world punishment for murder is death, not a lethal injection or short drop with a sudden stop but sinking into a pit of tar. In this era it is a completely unimaginable punishment that is painfully disturbing to read about and would never be used due to basic human rights. This is the beauty of speculative fiction, it has unlimited possibilities with no bounds or rules.

Singing my sister down is written from a young person’s perspective giving the reader only a small snippet of the reality of what is really happening. ‘We went after her- only us, Ik’s family, which was like us being punished too, everyone watching us walk out to that girl who was our shame.’ The child feels embarrassed following his sister out into the tar, but still hasn’t grasped the reality of what is happening to his sister. Her death is being watched by everyone in their community, they are almost having a celebration while she is sinking down into the tar. The mother has brought out all Ikky’s favourite foods to eat before she dies, bringing in another trope of ‘the last meal.’ Crab, a delicacy, has been brought out onto the tar in an ice basket. The book doesn’t say this, however, it can be assumed that the mother is actually using the ice to cool Ikky down rather than to keep the food fresh.

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When reading this short story, filling in the gaps requires the reader to utilise their imagination. The child describes her sinking down, however doesn’t articulate what his sister would be feeling. She would be suffering as the pressure of the tar compresses in on her body and the temperature burns her flesh. In actuality Ikky would only be just clinging to life by the time she had sunk down to her shoulders, as the tar would be crushing her insides. This would be an absolutely horrible way to die and I cannot imagine the horrific pain and suffering endured. I can’t imagine witnessing such a cruel and inhumane event. I cannot imagine celebrating such a tragedy. That is speculative fiction, the unimaginable!

Margo Lanagan, Singing My Sister Down. Black Juice. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, pp. 1-17.

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Poetry:

Poetry is a form of literature that expresses feelings and ideas using a distinctive style and rhythm. Across all styles of poetry there is always a rhythm formed by the expression of stressed and accented syllables, creating a beat within the text. The total amount of beats stressed in a line, allude to the type of poetry that the text adopts. Ballads, sonnets and limericks are some of the common types of poems used by famous Australian Poets. Judith Wright, a young woman who wrote her first famous poems in Brisbane including “Bullocky” and “The Moving Image” utilises different types of poetry to display her feelings and emotions. After marrying, Judith Wright moved to Mt Tambourine, Queensland, where she wrote authentic poems. Many can be found in her collection “In Birds” (2003). Wright’s poem Black Cockatoos (2003) sets the scene perfectly, inviting the reader to imagine changes in the weather and what happens to the wildlife, either they hide away or become bold. Similar to a sonnet, the poem has five beats to a line creating a bold rhythm building up intensity as the black cockatoos are introduced. As the poem is read aloud the rhythm mimics the sounds the black cockatoos would make as they become embodied in the storm. The storm is feared by some, ‘the other birds were quiet in prayer or fear’. As a reader I am enticed to think about what I would do when something formidable approaches; do I run and hide, or face it and be bold?

Thornbills (2003), another poem from Wright’s collection is a 4-4 ballad. It has a quick rhythm which links directly to the small flighty bird that must move quickly to avoid their predator. Wright again brings in prayer for the birds, ‘I hear in the blowing trees the sudden tune of their song. Pray that the hawk not sees, who has scanned the wind so long …’ It is clear that Wright feels compassion for these birds and wishes that no harm comes upon them; I believe it is because of their size as Wright compares them to bees. Their death from a hawk is cleverly described; referring to their blood as wine,

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suggesting that it is like a drug to the hawk.

Lyre Birds (2003), is different to Wright’s other poems discussed, these birds she will not go and see. The description of the bird is an imagined experience rather than a true recount. Despite being ordinary looking birds, Wright evokes the reader to feel they are sacred. ‘No, I have never gone. Some things ought to be left secret, alone; some things-birds like walking fables-ought to inhabit nowhere but the reverence of the heart.’ Wright loves the mythology of the birds and doesn’t want to destroy her visual ideology of the creatures. She has an enduring interest in the richness of Australian wildlife and how to narrate it. The poem’s verses vary in their beat, indicating that she is thinking and pondering her ideas. Wright’s Australian poetry seeks to tell Australian stories and truths with a poetic significance, so that, 'they sear into the soul and can never be untold' (Porter, 2017).

Wright, J. (2003). Thornbills. In Birds: poems: by Judith Wright; introduction by Meredith McKinney; with illustrations from the Nation Library of Australia’s Pictures Collection (New Ed.), (p. 20-21). Canberra, ACT. : National Library of Australia. Wright, J. (2003). Black Cockatoos. In Birds : poems: by Judith Wright ; introduction by Meredith McKinney ; with illustrations from the Nation Library of Australia’s Pictures Collection (New Ed.), (p. 46-47). Canberra, ACT. : National Library of Australia. Wright, J. (2003). Lyrebirds. In Birds : poems: by Judith Wright ; introduction by Meredith McKinney ; with illustrations from the Nation Library of Australia’s Pictures Collection (New Ed.), (p. 54-55). Canberra, ACT. : National Library of Australia. Poetry- Oxford Dictionaries. (2017). Oxford Dictionaries | English. Retrieved 28 April 2017, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/poetry

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Arts, J. (2017). Who Was Judith Wright?. Judith Wright Centre. Retrieved 30 April 2017, from http://judithwrightcentre.com/who-was-judith-wright Porter, D. (2017). Modern Australian poetry | australia.gov.au. Australia.gov.au. Retrieved 12 May 2017, from http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australianstory/modern-austn-poetry

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Landscape:

Landscape could be considered the key element of Australian artworks including painting, film and literature, especially poetry. Body Surfers (1983) is a collection of stories by Robert Drewe. The scene is clearly set and the character knew exactly the type of beach shack he wanted for a weekend getaway. David’s ideal landscape of the “nostalgic combination of bush and water” is described on pg.110. The water in the windows, voluptuous pink branches of his own plump gum tree, and early morning bird calls are all references to the natural environment, which a reader who has ever been to the beach can connect with. Further on in the text there is a detailed description of the landscape of the beach shack David purchased for his family. ‘It was built of weather board and fibro-cement, painted the colour of pale clay, and it settled on the hillside sheltered from the southerly wind and facing north along the beach. It’s ceiling contained a possum’s nest or two, and three mature gums, and a jacaranda in bloom filtered the gleam of the sea.’

This landscape is beautiful and seen as ‘perfect’ in the view of David as he snaps up the bargain priced shack. As I continued to read the text the cracks began to show, David “instantly regretted the cute rusticity” of the some-what negative aspects of the shack. It is not the replica of his youth that he had hoped for, which is explained on pg. 116. “As a boy his happiness had been bound up in the ocean, the regular rising and curling of waves over sandbanks and reeds, the baking sun, the cronies lounging against the promenade, the bunches of girls gossiping and flirting on the sand, the violent contrasting physical pleasures of body surfing.”

The fact that this new shack didn’t have the booming surf that David so longingly craved was detrimental to his nostalgia. The childhood that he believes will bring joy back into his life is impossible to recapture. The use of landscape is essential to this story as it is the heart of this mans aspirations, creating the sense of despair to buy back his youth and be reborn. The imperfections in the landscapes described directly Kate Millett

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link to the flaws within his life. His ‘personal stretch of sea was quiescent, bland as bathwater…’ just like his life being stagnant and slow, rather than exciting and ever changing like the crashing waves on the sand banks. David also struggles to fall back to sleep when awoken throughout the night. ‘Anxieties churned in his mind until exhaustion eventually took over.’ When David did eventually fall asleep his dreams would be boring, sexless, and fact filled. He desperately longs to be the young man he once was.

I appreciate the vivid descriptions of the sun, beach and surf all combined with a shack close by as it reminds me of my life thus far. Personally this book creates for me an opportunity to consider, that you really need to make the most of the experiences of your youth, as you will never be able to replicate them. As you may then reflect back on your experiences with regret and long for a different life that was well lived aligned to your passions and values. Drewe, R. (1983). The bodysurfers. In The bodysurfers, (pp. 110-129). Sydney, NSW. : James Fraser.

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