Text 15 from Hard Times, Charles Dickens Written 1854, London Coketown is a fictional industrial town in England. Note the name. Coke is The solid residue of impure carbon obtained from bituminous coal and other carbonaceous materials after removal of volatile material by destructive distillation. It is used as a fuel and in making steel. (Definition from www.answers.com). Dickens was often critical of the effects of the Industrial Revolution. Description of Coketown is possibly based on Preston, a town which Dickens had visited prior to writing Hard Times. The extract is from Chapter 5 of this text. Look at the description of the town as the two men walk through. Is it a pleasant place to be, or otherwise? What makes you say this? Look at the use of simile like the painted face of a savage. What does this make you think? What is the canal like? (Canals today have been reclaimed for leisure, how does Dickens description differ?) What does Dickens have to say about the way people in towns worship? Is religion important, do you think? What do people really seem to worship in Coketown? How do you think it would be different in the country? What are all the buildings like? How do they reflect and represent the life of the workers? Look at the repetition of Fact, fact, fact. Why does Dickens do this? What effect might he intend it to have? Why does it say Amen at the end of line 39? At line 40 the tone of the writing changes. Can you describe what happens. Look at the way Dickens addresses the reader directly. What criticisms is he making of life in Coketown? What are Dickens feelings about Gradgrind and Bounderby (and people like them)? What is the significance of their names? (Consider connotations) Consider the names of other characters you meet as well. Nomenclature is important: we might call these aptonyms as they give some suggestion about the personality they are naming. What is the significance of the nursery rhyme at the end of the text? 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 1 of 11
Text 16 from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Tobias Smollett Published 1771, in epistolary from. Fictional travel writing. Matthew Bramble and his family travel to Bath, London, Edinburgh, and the Scottish Highlands. Along the way, they meet Humphry Clinker, a dull but loyal man who becomes devoted to Matthew Bramble, even saving his life. The letters which make up the novel are written by a variety of characters, but none of them are written by the eponymous Clinker. The extract is from Chapter 16 of this text. Who is writing this particular letter? Who is it written to? Which town is it about? What is the main reason for the writer s disappointment? Make a list of words which you consider to be archaic. Is there anything else about this piece of writing which makes it seem old fashioned? (Look at sentence length and structure, for example) Comment on the attitudes and values reflected by the writer of the letter in this extract: Instead of that peace, tranquillity, and case, so necessary to those who labour under bad health, weak nerves, and irregular spirits; here we have nothing but noise, tumult, and hurry; with the fatigue and slavery of maintaining a ceremonial, more stiff, formal, and oppressive, than the etiquette of a German elector. What effect does the letter s writer seem to think this town will have on him? What attitudes and values do you think are reflected here? (You could, for example, comment on the prejudices towards and treatment of the mentally ill.) What features of the town are pleasant, according to this extract? The writer of the letter criticises even these. Why? What judgement of women is made in this letter? How does the letter make the reader aware of distinctions between classes? Comment on the use of figurative language (metaphor, simile etc) in this piece. What impressions do you gain in this letter of the writer (Smollett) and his attitudes and values? 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 2 of 11
Text 17 from Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry From a modern novel, set in Bombay/Mumbai. Published in 2002. Find out a little about life in Bombay/Mumbai and how it has changed in the last 100 years. Also, find out about Rohinton Mistry. How has the context in which the piece was written affected it, do you think? Can you identify non-english words in the piece? Why didn t the writer translate them into English? How are the following conflicts presented in the extract: Old and Young Past and Present East and West Muslim and Sikh How typical of modern narrative writing is this piece, would you say? Comment on the attitudes and values reflected in the extract. 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 3 of 11
Text 18 from Our Town, Thornton Wilder American writer Thornton Wilder gently mocks the theatrical conventions of his time in this play. What theatrical conventions are broken here? What is the Stage Manager s role here? How is this different form the usual role of a Stage Manager? How would you describe the community and lifestyle of the town? Comment on the way the characters, including the Stage Manager, speak. How does the writer present accent and dialect? Identify an example of use of flashback in the extract. What is the effect of this? Comment on the attitudes and values reflected in the extract. How has the context in which the piece was written affected it, do you think? 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 4 of 11
Text 19 Request Stop, Harold Pinter Pinter remains to his credit, a permanent public nuisance, a questioner of accepted truths, both in life and art. In fact the two persistently inter-act. The Life and Work of Harold Pinter, Michael Billington (Faber and Faber, London 1996) After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Harold Pinter worked as an actor, mostly in repertory under the stage name David Baron, supporting himself as a waiter in the National Liberal Club, as a dance-hall doorman, as a dishwasher, and as a door-to-door bookseller. Following his success as a playwright, he continued to act, though far less frequently, on stage and screen. He continues to perform in the theatre and in films. http://www.haroldpinter.org/acting/index.shtml Read the play carefully, and make notes to summarize what happens. Who are the characters in the play? Why does only one character have a speaking part of any significance? What attitudes and values does this character display? What can you tell about the attitudes and values of the other characters? Do you think the playwright shares any of these attitudes? Explain your answer. How does the main character s attitude change in the last line of the play? Why do you think this is the case? 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 5 of 11
Text 20 London Z to A, U. A. Fanthorpe Ursula Fanthorpe started writing poetry full time in 1974. Since that time she has been awarded the CBE, won various literary prizes and received the accolade of being the first woman in 315 years to be nominated for the post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In this poem, she writes about the City of London. Why does the poet refer to London as her in the first line? What technique is this? Find out what is meant by Ziggurats. What is the significance of the word in this context? Comment on the ways people and places are described, focusing on the poetic techniques used. Look at the name of the businesses listed in lines 11 14. What do these suggest to you? What image is created in the last couple of lines? What do you think is meant by The Kentish Drovers, and why do you think these words are in italics? Comment on the attitudes and values reflected in the extract. 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 6 of 11
Text 21 from The Book of Revelation, King James Bible The Book of Revelation is the last and only prophetic book in the New Testament of The Holy Bible. The revelation (or apocalypse) was recorded by John the Evangelist, somewhere between 68AD and 96AD. This version of The Bible is written in early Modern English. It is considered to be the most important English translation of the Bible and appeared in 1611, towards the end of Shakespeare s career.) Read the first few lines of the extract. Would you have recognised this as an extract from The Bible? Why? Identify words which are similar to modern words and have the same meaning, but have archaic inflections (verb endings). Find examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile etc). What is the effect of this? Why is the word lamb given a capital letter? Comment on use of masculine and feminine pronouns. Comment on the attitudes and values reflected in the extract. What do you think is revealed in the extract? 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 7 of 11
Text 22 from The Diary of Samuel Pepys Pepys was born in 1633, and was a well-educated and important man. He kept a diary from 1660 and 1669, which tells us a lot about life in London in the seventeenth century. Before you read, jot down anything you know about Pepys already. Identify words which are similar to modern words and have the same meaning, but have archaic inflections (verb endings). How easy (or difficult) is it to read and follow this text? Try to explain why. Pepys wrote with himself as the intended audience. Is there anything in this extract which you think shows this? Describe the scenes Pepys witnesses when he and Moone walk through the city. How does what he sees affect Pepys? Comment on the attitudes and values reflected in the extract. How has the context in which the piece was written affected it, do you think? Find a copy of the poem, The Fire of London, by poet John Dryden. What similarities can you find between the two accounts of the fire? 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 8 of 11
Text 23 from A Bolton Childhood, Alice Foley A Bolton Childhood is the title given to the memoirs of Alice Foley, a trade unionist from Lancashire. Make brief notes about the people and routines described in this extract. How would you describe this way of life? Identify any dialect words used. Comment in particular on phrases in inverted commas, where the writer is quoting sayings she heard. Much of the description is written in sophisticated, well crafted Standard English. What does this suggest about the writer, perhaps? Select one paragraph which you think is particularly vivid and interesting. Explain why you think it is effective. How does Alice Foley feel about her childhood in Bolton? Comment on the attitudes and values reflected in the extract. 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 9 of 11
Text 24 Speech to the Labour Party Conference, 2002 This is an extract from a speech by John Prescott. He made this speech as Deputy Prime Minister in 2002. Be aware that although this piece was created for a listening audience, it has been carefully crafted, it is not a piece of spontaneous talk. What is the main topic of this speech? What has the topic to do with the theme of the anthology? Identify the topic sentence in each paragraph. What is Prescott arguing for and against? What devices is Prescott using? Look for: Use of questions Use of repetition Use of commands Use of short sentences and long sentences Use of groups of twos and threes Use of statistics and data Use of blame Use of eye witness comment and other anecdotal evidence etc Comment on the attitudes and values reflected in the speech. How has the context in which the piece was written affected it, do you think? How has it been tailored for a specific audience and purpose? 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 10 of 11
Text 25 Transcripts 1 & 2 In this context, a transcript is a written record of a spoken text. It is important to remember, when looking at these transcripts, that they are versions of spontaneous speech. Both transcripts feature people talking about their home towns. Look for features such as: Incomplete words and phrases Dialect features, grammatically incorrect sentences, demotic lexis and idioms. Fillers Repetition Self-correction Comment on the length of utterance, and look for variation in these. Comment on the attitudes and values reflected in the transcripts. How do these spoken texts compare with the written texts you have been looking at? In the first transcript, there is no evidence of an interviewer; it takes the form of a spontaneous monologue. This is markedly different from the second piece. What do you consider to be the advantages and disadvantages of collecting data in these ways? Record someone speaking about their memories of the town in which they grew up, and transcribe what they say. 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4266.doc Page 11 of 11