ENGLISH CONTEXT SUMMARY NOTES The imaginative landscape

Transcription

1 The imaginative landscape 1 ENGLISH CONTEXT SUMMARY NOTES The imaginative landscape Includes: A Passage to India Night Street The View from Castle Rock Peripheral Light - Selected and New Poems Context guide by: Peter Cram, Jean Garcia, Anna Purcell & Paul Donovan

2 The imaginative landscape 2 Copyright TSSM 2015 TSSM ACN ABN A: Level 14, 474 Flinders Street Melbourne VIC 3000 T: F: W: tssm.com.au E: info@tssm.com.au

3 The imaginative landscape 3 Contents Understanding the context... 5 Background Themes and Issues related to the context TEXT 1: A PASSAGE TO INDIA THEMES Structure Chronology Exposition Continuity Chronology Style Orientation (Point of View, Voice) Impartiality Dialogue Tone Characters Major Characters Minor Characters Important Quotations TEXT 2: NIGHT STREET Historical Issues Author Notes Themes and Issues Title Genre Structure Continuity Chronology Setting [the world of the stories] Characters Important Quotations TEXT 3: THE VIEW FROM CASTLE ROCK Themes and Issues Style Title Genre Background Notes Story Summaries Structure Continuity Chronology Setting [the world of the stories] Geographic locations: Historical context: Economic context: Political context: Social status of the characters: Significance of the setting: Historical Issues Characters Aspects of characterization Author s attitude Munro s Characterization Character Profile Important Quotations TEXT 4: PERIPHERAL LIGHT SELECTED AND NEW POEMS Themes Structure Style... 81

4 The imaginative landscape 4 Characters Important Quotations Sample Essay Prompts Responding to the Context section of the exam Supplementary Texts Final Examination Tips... 92

5 The imaginative landscape 5 Understanding the context What we mean by landscape This Context invites us to consider both landscape and imagination. So there are two elements to this, being the landscape, the imagination, and how they interact with each other. What can one imagine in or about a landscape? Can a landscape move one to imaginative thinking? Is a landscape unchanging? Does it have only a single meaning for the individual or for everyone? Can different people see a landscape in different ways? Are these ways imaginative or interpretive or even both? If a landscape is imagined then is it real? Or does it need to be imagined in order to give reality to it? How do people interact with and in a landscape? To what extent is this a living relationship? Be careful to give a proper interpretation to the meaning of this context. It may be a good idea to see it as the complete fictional world of the text that is presented to us by the author and not just as the immediate setting of geographical location. The landscape, or setting, is not just a passive backdrop so that the characters have a place to act and speak. The setting impacts on the characters and their society, politics, economics, culture, customs, world view [attitudes and values], emotional reactions, behaviour, and all the circumstances of the society of its time. It can be a dynamic force that influences the ways that the characters and their actions interact with both each other and the setting itself. Consider how the setting of the text is presented and how it interacts with the characters, how it influences their actions, and how it is also influenced by them. Also consider how the author describes the setting the way that he uses language to do so as it may be factual or creative, positive or negative, realistic or fantastic, and so on. A fictional text is one where information is created from the imagination. Fictional works of any kind may be partly based on factual occurrences, that is, based directly or indirectly on the real world, but they always contain some imaginary content. If we decide that we can in fact imagine a landscape, then we are looking for ideas from it and for ideas to give to it. These ideas will give meaning to its physical form. In a text, the landscape is a real and living place which has a direct impact on the characters' thoughts, words and actions. There will be interaction between characters and landscape, and it will flow each way. Consider the settings of your set texts as a living part of the action of the narrative itself. There are essentially two kinds of landscape: the natural landscape and the built landscape. The first is what nature has formed itself mountains, forests, lakes, beaches, deserts, rivers, rain, snow, ice, wind, sunsets and so on. The second is what people have created towns and cities, and also other forms of physical impact. Within this, however, there are many different ways of utilizing the landscape: economic to be actively used for material gain farming (food); logging (fuel, paper, furniture); mining (minerals, construction materials) etc. social what we inhabit work, leisure. aesthetic natural beauty; architectural enhancement.

6 The imaginative landscape 6 habitat living space for creatures other than humans. And there are also many ways of regarding it: positive, negative, safe, hostile, realistic, fantastic, romantic, idealistic, attractive, threatening, home, alien, bright, dull, brooding, and so on. There are many ways that authors may present the world of the text to the reader/viewer. Firstly, the author may adopt a persona to tell the story, meaning that s/he will effectively tell the story from the point of view of a narrator. First Person narration: The narrative is told from the point of view of a particular character in the novel [from the point of view of 'I']. This narrator may be either a part of the action of the text, or may be an observer from outside the action. First Person narration offers the advantage of presenting a precise focus, especially on the opinions, perceptions and feelings of this character on how s/he sees the world and the views and actions of the other characters. However, the reader/viewer cannot know or witness anything that the narrator does not tell, and therefore shares all of the narrator s limitations in this regard. Third Person narration: The narrative is told from the point of view of a narrator who is observing from outside the action and who takes no part in it. There are various forms of Third Person narration. The Omniscient Narrator appears to know everything about the characters and events, and narrates from many points of view in which the views and actions of the many characters are important. This narrative observes from a distance, so giving a panoramic view of the world of the novel, looking into the many characters and relating the broader background. This narrator may occasionally interrupt the narrative to relate additional information not offered by the characters. This narrator may offer evaluations about the characters' opinions and actions. The Limited Narrator narrates from the point of view of one character. This enables him to focus tightly on one of the central characters by limiting observations to only what this character could possibly feel, witness or recall [however, this still retains the principle of Third Person narration and so is still different from First Person]. A narrator, either First or Third Person may be unreliable. This means that s/he does not necessarily have all the facts about characters or events, allows personal biases to distort his observations, or does not tell the audience everything s/he knows. Therefore, the narrator may say one thing is true, yet the reader may be better informed than the narrator, and so know, or be able to deduce, that something different is actually true. It is in these various ways that authors present their texts and the issues that they wish to address in

7 The imaginative landscape 7 the textual worlds that they create. Authors are not impartial. They will attempt to influence the reader/viewer in many ways, both favourably and unfavourably. They may make assertions that are positive and/or negative, and may assert ideas or challenge them. They may make assumptions about the characters, events and ideas of the novel, and also about the reader/viewer. They tell only what they want to tell or address, in the way and to the extent that they want to tell or address it, and they ignore what they do not want to tell or address. Conversely, the reader/viewer does not necessarily need to accept the perspectives of the author. S/he may choose to accept or reject them in any way that s/he decides, either on anything that is included in the text or anything that s/he feels has been excluded from it. An individual reader/viewer interpretation of a text may be similar or dissimilar, to any extent, to the author's own, and also to those of all other reader/viewers. Of course, this Context not only studies landscape, but also the impact that imagination can have on it. Authors will recast landscape as they see fit to tell their narratives. Landscape is not simply a passive setting to provide some background colour to the actions of the characters in a text; it is an active participant in the narrative, influencing the world views, decisions and actions of the characters, and for better or worse. Landscape may be benevolent, and assist characters in their actions, or it may be malevolent, and stand in their way. Authors will draw upon landscapes to the extent that they need, to address the issues they want to raise, in the ways they wish to raise them. And of course, there is a further dimension to this in the reader/viewer s own reactions to descriptions of landscape. For a city-dweller may be more easily drawn into the idealism of descriptions of the rural environment than a country-dweller, who may be more experienced in the vagaries of the rural environment of droughts, floods and bushfires. And conversely, a reader may be curiously attracted to descriptions of the remoteness and harshness of coastal environments and the restricted and challenging lifestyle that they offer. Readers/viewers may react to landscapes and general settings just as they do to characters. Gathering ideas You will need to put a file together over time that addresses the issues in this context. Remember that this is relevant to the end of year exam as well as your SACs. start a file. keep notes from class discussions and brainstorm sessions. take notes from wider reading, viewing and listening, wherever that may be: other texts, newspapers, magazines, websites, images, films, documentaries, television programs, radio programs etc. note particular words and phrases used by others that may be useful to your understanding of the topic and that you may use in your writing. also keep key quotes from texts that you may be able to use. Make comprehensive notes to begin with. You never know what may be useful in time as you consider and develop your understanding of the issues. It is important to consider the many

8 The imaginative landscape 8 different issues that are related to the context, and not only those that are presented to you in the associated text. Landscape Record your observations, thoughts, feelings and reactions to the following landscape images: The Gibson Desert, Australia. [Source: Wikipedia]