Text-response - social/historical values

[Jason12]

around how much detail in social/historical context is needed for a good text response essay?

My text is 12 angry men which was written in the 1950's in a time when Americans were suspicious of communists inside america.

[brenden]

There's no definitive answer.

Some might discuss the historical context a lot and get a shitty mark. Some might have minimal discussion of historical context and get a really good mark. It also depends on the prompt. For example, I found it very relevant to discuss the historical context in and amongst my discussion of power for the 2012 prompt, but if the prompt asked me something like... "How does Rose utilise structural elements of the play to convey his message" then I would certainly have less historical discussion in it that I did in 2012.

In general, I mentioned it in the first line of my introduction, and some other stuff implicitly related to it (discussion 12AM as a social commentary), and I'd discuss is implicitly around discussion of 10th Juror in particular.

Honestly, research it really well because even if you don't write on it, it will help inform your interpretation. And you might get a lucky gem of a prompt that lets you show off a little bit.