English Literature at A level –well Literature , really.

1. English Literature at A level –well Literature, really. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

2. Why are you here? A few major questions I want you to bear in mind: • What makes you choose to study Literature A level? • How do you feel about reading? • What do you read? • Is it important to like what you study? • What role can dislike play in study? • What do you want to learn from your study of literature? @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

3. Context of Reception @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

4. 1: Your own contexts: Students need to feel permitted to use their own immediate contexts – a huge change at A Level. Using the following as a starting point, set out as many factors as you can that you believe might shape the ways a reader might interpret a text. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

5. I often share mine at this point. Background Boarding school (co-ed) University: degree Classics. Former Opera Singer. Has lived abroad and struggled to integrate -language Experience Well-travelled, lived in Europe and USA for work. Grew up in 1960s and 1970s, Uni in 1980s - perspective Male Wife highly successful ‘glass ceiling’ breaker Straight, married with adult children - adopted. Gay sister. Open minded Now: Atheist, brought up CofE, free to think for self? Or ‘amoral’ @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

6. ISBN-10: 0826480373 • ISBN-13: 978-0826480378 @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

7. Don’t Panic • We will have different ideas. • This is natural • Your own context will lead to you responding differently not just to me but to each other depending on your formative background, especially when facing issues of Race and Religion. • Students of Literature develop empathy and need tolerance and respect for others’ views. • Most texts- Race, Gender Politics, Justice – our imbedded views affect our initial response @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

8. Engagement @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

9. 2 Is it important to like what you study?What role can dislike play in study? • We need to face these ideas up front: Will they like the books we choose? • How can we challenge them from the outset – dislike is fine, but there needs to be an attempt to rationalise the response @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

10. Openings: What can we tell from an opening? Which of these openings would make you wish never to read on… why? • ‘In my younger and more vulnerable days, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since’. • ‘Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony of afternoon tea’. • ‘You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter’. • ‘I first heard of Antonia on what seemed to me an interminable journey across the great midland plain of North America’. • ‘On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York’. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

11. ISBN-10: 9781406300918 ISBN-13: 978-1406300918 @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

12. Interpretation and meaning @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

13. What are you seeing? @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

14. Looking and seeing • How many possible interpretations did you see? • How did your evaluation of these interpretations change as new possible interpretations emerged? • How do the interpretations function alone? • How do they function in conjunction? • What is the value of the individual interpretation? • What is the value of the overlaid interpretations? @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

15. Assumptions @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

16. Take a look at the following covers… • Ask yourself: • What is this book going to be about? • Why have those colours been used? • What is significant about the gendering of the images? • Why has the editor chosen that cover? • We do this for every book we read – our subconscious has begun to prepare us for what lies within just by our seeing the cover… • ‘never judge a book??’ @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

17. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

18. Intertextuality and allusion. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

19. The use of a well known text within a text to shed light on the meaning of the second text. • Of Mice and Men: Burns, ‘to a mouse’ • ‘… gang aft agley’ • We know any plans made in the novel will go wrong and fail. This includes references to the American Dream… @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

20. Today: MUSIC • Many writers use music as their background for a scene. • We must notice if a SPECIFIC piece of music is cited, because it must have been chosen for a reason. • But Music can be as much a context as socio-historical ideas or literature. • I have a context playlist on Spotify: American Literature Soundtrack • You can read more here: • article on music as context.... @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

21. Edna did not know when the Impromptu began or ended. She sat in the sofa corner reading Robert’s letter by the fading light. Mademoiselle had glided from the Chopin into the quivering love notes of Isolde’s song, and back again to the Impromptu with its soulful and poignant longing. The shadows deepened in the little room. The music grew strange and fantastic—turbulent, insistent, plaintive and soft with entreaty. The shadows grew deeper. The music filled the room. It floated out upon the night, over the housetops, the crescent of the river, losing itself in the silence of the upper air. Edna was sobbing, just as she had wept one midnight at Grand Isle when strange, new voices awoke in her. She arose in some agitation to take her departure. “May I come again, Mademoiselle?” she asked at the threshold. “Come whenever you feel like it. Be careful; the stairs and landings are dark; don’t stumble.” Mademoiselle re-entered and lit a candle. Robert’s letter was on the floor. She stooped and picked it up. It was crumpled and damp with tears. Mademoiselle smoothed the letter out, restored it to the envelope, and replaced it in the table drawer. Chopin, the Awakening, ch XXI @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

22. ‘The Chopin’ • Chopin • A later work, played at the moment of her great decision about marriage. • impromptu in c# minor • https://open.spotify.com/playlist/51EIRctRSoXMV27ltagpWY @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

23. Isolde’s Song • Wagner. • isolde • Isolde’s Liebestod is a song of a woman welcoming death and realising the emptiness of life. It concludes an opera which concerns itself with love, fidelity and Schopenhauer’s philosophies of love and death. • From this point, it is not possible to imagine Edna Pontellier doing anything other than embracing death. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

24. Time…. • The slides which follow give more ideas for discussion and consideration and can be used throughout the teaching to focus and to engage… feel free to use them. • All my material, including this Slide deck can be found on my blog: www.jwpblog.com and I infest twitter as @MrPeel. • Thank you for your time and good luck! @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

25. Why study literature? It’s important to think about this: • why study literature in the classroom if that’s not what it’s intended for? • what is it intended for? • who is it intended for? • what is the point of studying literature we may not like? Spend a few minutes. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

26. Developing thinking The history and development of literature. The craft of the writer. The response of the reader. The idea of literature. The nature of literary study. • Here are five areas of knowledge you might approach in your studies. • What do you already know about each? • What more would you like to know? • Why do you think such knowledge might be important? @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

27. The history and development of English Literature Key concepts include: • History of English and England. • History of literature. • Narrative. • Genre: poetry, drama, the novel. • Oral and print culture. • The relation of these to broader social and cultural movements. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

28. The idea of literature Key concepts include: • The definition of literature. • The purpose of literature. • Literary value and the canon. • Literary education. • Literary language. • National literatures and world literature. • Literature and the media. • Media as literature? • Cultural and political values. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

29. The craft of the writer Key concepts include: • Creativity and creative writing (including reader/student as writer). • Contexts of production. • The role of narrative. • Genre. • Convention. • How meanings are shaped in literary texts. • Changing modes of textual production and perception. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

30. The response of the reader Key concepts include: • Reading. • Appreciation. • Contexts of reception. • Consumption. • Interpretation (and alternative interpretations) and evaluation. • Representation. • Personal response and attitudes. • Literary theory. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

31. The nature of literary study Key concepts include: • Literary criticism. • Literary theory. • Critical and personal response. • Wide reading. • The essay as a form. • Attributing and assimilating ideas. • Referencing. • Plagiarism and collusion. @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.

32. In other words… • Where does literature ‘come from’ and where is it ‘going to’? • What is literature for? • How do literary works emerge from their societies, and what is the role of the author? • How do literary works return to their societies, and what is the role of the reader? • What does all of this mean for me as a student? @MrPeel JLS 2019 for @TeamEnglishNC19.