my teacher says to give context when introducing a text in an essay, she explained to me about what context is but I still don't understand? like do you talk about the history of the novel or author? or do you talk about the location of the set scene in the text???
and also in an essay, my teacher tells us to talk about what happens before a quote and the scene for example in Away, my teacher tells us to write something like 'In Away, Act 3, Scene 2, Coral goes up to Tom and says, "quote", but isn't this retelling? should I use this or not
I agree with Coffee here, you don't want to get too caught up in the minutia of the background of your text, however you want to breifly set up the context for further discussion — this is especially important if the context is an important feature of the text you are studying. For instance, a previous English text was
Ransom by David Malouf, which was derived from Homer's
Iliad, this had a lot of bearing on further discussion of the novel and that's why it would be resourceful to include references in the introduction touching on this. To see this in action, have a read of the shortened introduction and body paragraphs below:
"David Malouf has explored many concepts concerning courage in order to fully encapsulate its meaning within his poetic retell of Homer’s Iliad , Ransom. To Malouf, courage is determined through acts of valour and bravery; it also involves the notion of humility, a recurring motif within Ransom. Juxtaposing the classical mythology of the Iliad, Malouf’s understanding of courage is not centred on feats of military prowess but rather explores courage as an expression of humanity. This contrast is a central focus throughout the text as we witness those who would once be considered to possess courage portrayed as the most flawed individuals within Ransom ..." And then you can use these references as touchstones throughout your essay, for example:
"Achilles, hero of the Iliad and quintessential embodiment of power and the ‘warrior spirit’ is introduced to readers within Ransom ‘hunker[ing] down… shoulders hunched’. Initially he is presented as a man who is ‘listening for the voice of his mother tasting the sharp salt’ of his reality without her on ‘his lip’. Hardly an impenetrable hero he is ‘darkly divided’. In the aftermath of the loss of his ‘soul mate’, Patroclus, Achilles is inconsolable, indeed we witness ‘his soul change colour’ ... Similarly, Heracles, a figure from Priam’s early history and renowned as “the labourer of the gods” in other texts, too is a “traditional” hero. Yet ‘the whole terrible machinery of the man’ is just ‘rank meatiness’ and is unable to comprehend Hesione’s act of compassion – rather he thought she would ‘choose some gaudy trinket’ than save her brother. He is made to look both ‘brutish’ and ‘foolish’ before Hesione and her great act of courage. It is through this exchange that Malouf, unlike his predecessor, suggests that acts of bravery do not always belong to the physically commanding and powerful but also reside with the meek and uncelebrated."So I think the main takeaway is that context can be a useful tool, as long as it is done subtly and you never stray too far from your contention. Examiners are on the lookout for pre-prepared responses. So be careful of this, they want originality, and I think this will occur if you always keep the prompt in the forefront of your mind when including context. For instance, in the above example, the prompt is clearly about courage, and therefore context can be used to illustrate how courage is perceived in our society, as compared to what it was when the
Iliad was first written.
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