Your experience of 3/4 literature

[Lolly]

Hi there to all of you Lit kids,

School broke up on Friday and I have had nothing to do except read Hamlet from back to front, take notes on Persepolis with ardent zeal, bury myself in the pages of Mrs Dalloway and peruse the ATAR literature forum!! In 2012 I’ll be in year 11  and also taking Literature as my ¾. I’ve read quite a lot about your own experiences, the SAC, essay structures and the final exam. I am beginning to feel both elated and terrified!!

I’d like to know your overall impression of the course. What should I expect? Do you have any advice, perhaps something you wished you had known in hindsight? Do you think I’m mad or stupid for not waiting until year 12? (Admittedly this year was quite a learning curve. However, after putting my A into G I ended up with 37/40 for the end of year exam.)  Is there anything in particular I should be doing in the summer break, apart from reading the texts (perhaps background research, writing a few practice essays)? I’d also like to meet anybody who is in the same position as me, either in year 11 or 12 and anticipating the year to come.  Also, did anyone do ½ Lit in year ten and how well did that go for you? I know that including myself, there were five year ten students in our class.

[zombiesatemybrain]

I did Lit as a 3/4 this year, and I was also in Year 11. I loved it a lot! I think that most people who do Lit end up really loving it. 

It sounds like you did very well this year, so I think you won't have much trouble getting into the subject next year. As for what to do during the holidays, I guess reading the texts is a priority. Read them multiple times if you get the chance. Also, if you can get your hands on some expert criticisms of your texts, they are really helpful for developing an interpretation. Oh, and also get started on writing in the style of the exam as soon as possible, as that will probably give you a head start. And don't forget to have a great holiday.

Hope that helped! 

[Lolly]

Hello there to the very kind person whose brain has been eaten by zombies, thank you so much for your advice!

Yes, literature is absolutely brilliant!! Our teacher has said in the past that it’s an “esoteric” subject, and I think you’re right in saying that the kind of people who do Lit like it very, very much.

 Do you have recommendations for any expert criticisms of say, Hamlet? Should I get a study guide? I bought one when we were doing Macbeth but didn’t really use it at all.

Oh, and I do wish you all the best for year 12!! Good luck!

[zombiesatemybrain]

Since I did not study Hamlet this year, I don't know too much about specific criticisms.

But I would suggest in general, use study guides not published in Australia or Victoria, since they tend to conform to the English style for text responses etc. I personally really like the York Notes that are published for the GCSE and there is a broad range of those study guides.

Thanks.

[chrisjb]

hello lozmatron, I'm chrisjb.

Here is my experience of literature:

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5

This book was fucking amazing and if you study it you will like it and it will be the best piece of literature you will ever read.

E.M. Forster's A Passage to India

This book is beautifully written literature and a great book. On the same level as Vonnegut's book... But it's fucking dense as and it takes FOREVER to read. I never got past the first section, but I'm reading it now and I'm almost finished and it's as good as I remember it being.

D.H. Lawrence's novellas

These are alright, I didn't read much of them, just part of 'The Fox', but I'm sure they're fairly good.

Gwen Harwood's Poems

This lady is a total moron. She refuses to write good poetry and instead she writes absolute garbage that we've seen a million times before about feminism, the Australian landscape, education and all that other crap that women care about. If you're a woman you'll fkn love her poetry, you'll think she's the cat's pyjama's, and I will never understand why because I am a man. However, I will say that I have not yet met a STRAIGHT man who likes this woman's poetry. Namely because it's utter shite and all men are able to see that, while women have somehow had their eyes shielded.

Why the hell did she even choose to write this crap? Really? Gwen, if you're reading, we don't give a toss about your primary school memories, or your failed life that you choose to blame men for. I get it, your a miserable twat who is stuck looking back on your life and thinking 'oh, what could have been'. Well, Harwood, judging by Estruary and the other crap we had to read this year, you spent the last 40 years of your life pretending you were fkn dead or wanting with all your heart to be dead and taking writing your retropsective anus grade memories about your life as a child and your life as a wife and your life in general. Perhaps if you had've lived for the moment a little more, enjoyed what the fuck was going on in life and what was real then you wouldn't have looked back and seen only bullcrap dance before you. Maybe if you stopped feeling so sorry for yourself and writing B-Grade poetry about how depressing your life is because you're a woman and because you're coming to terms with death and because you were forced to live a life of education that any 3rd world child would beg for when all you wanted to do was be an artist (or should I say autist) THEN YOU WOULD'VE HAD SOMETHING GOOD TO LOOK BACK ON WHEN YOU ENTERED YOUR FATHER'S HOUSE!

If you are made to do Gwen Harwood, I advise you to not do Gwen Harwood.

[ShortBlackChick]

@chris
You forgot to say 'End rant' at the end

[sunintherain]

Hi,
I'll also be in year 11 next year completing 3/4 Literature and like you I'll be stalking this forum
Studying Hamlet?, my teacher gave us the choice of what we get to study and nobody wanted Hamlet however almost everyone apart from me wanted to do The tempest. You're also so lucky do be studying Persepolis I wanted to do that but my teacher said we had to do an Australian film and opted for Mary & Max, also my entire class was made up of year 10's there was about 20 of us however for units 3/4 there is only 10, half the class dropped it...
As for my marks I didn't put a massive amount of effort into Literature this year but I still managed an overall 17/20 for the exam. As for the rest of year I averaged 87% which okay but with more effort I think I can do better... Anyway good luck with Lit!

[emilyamanda]

I did Literature 3/4 in Year Eleven. It was the best thing I've ever done. Literature is a fantastic subject and I know you will enjoy it immensely. Given that you put a decent amount of hard work in, you will reap the most wonderful rewards. Good luck, guys!

[Lolly]

@ chrisjb:  HEEEY WE'RE NOT DOING GWEN HARWOOD!!!!!! Your rant amused me nonetheless.  ( We're doing Moral Disorder though, which is kind of femocentric. I really enjoyed it. Heh. Heh. )

 @ sunintherain Oh my goodness I adore Mary + Max!  I'm guessing that will be for View + Values.  I hope you have lots and lots of fun studying that film! 87% is sublime!! I had to work my butt off to get my mark. I'm sure next year you will fare excellently. Good luck!

@ emilyamanda: Thankyou so much!

Oh and I managed to find some expert criticism of Hamlet! I was exploring the treasure trove of junk in my (late) great Aunt's billiard room and found an essay written yonks ago by some professor of English at Monash. What was even more exciting was that it was sitting on top of copies of Women's Weekly and Home Beautiful published in the '50s and '60s!!  I was little creeped out by how "Barbie and Ken"-esque they were. Not to mention that I discovered these the day after I watched Stepford wives... Not the best movie IMO.)
 Oh dear now I'm OT.... Yes, the essay was very helpful.

[meli001]

Literature is great to do in Year 11. I made the mistake of doing it in Year 12 so I didn't get to focus on it as much as I would've liked to but here are some pointers:

KNOW YOUR TEXT: I cannot emphasise how important it is to know your text like the back of your hand.

Do lots and lots of research: Seeing as you're doing Hamlet, I doubt you'd have any issues with finding resources on the net but try your library too. I went off to state library and went through some magazine articles. I know some people are like 'no literature is about your interpretation' well it really doesn't hurt to broaden your horizon a little. These articles and books often read texts from a different view point eg. Feminist, Post Modern etc. Maybe wiki some different schools of thoughts like absurdity, existentialism or nihilism. I find they'll add some complexity to your essays. In other words, expand your resources. If you have access to the information on the internet, so do the other Lit students.

Throughout the year, focus on close analysis. I know you'll get different types of literature SACs and stuff but in the end, the one thing that'll count is your exam which comprises of two close analysis. Don't just get your teacher to mark them, send them around to other teachers from other schools. This is probably one thing I regret not doing, I was very focused on the SACs and found myself rushing and cramming for the exams. 
 
Hope this helped and good luck! You'll love literature

[Lyxo]

I also did Unit 3&4 as a year 11 student this year. From your excitement and early preparation, I think you will do fine.
I think that it is good to prepare early as I finished Unit 3 & 4, sort of wishing that I had begun to prepare earlier.
The best thing you  could do is to love your texts and simply enjoy what you're doing; it'll be a great motivator for when the stress starts piling. 

We were given three texts to study: Hamlet, D.H.Lawrence's Three Novellas and Jane Austen's Emma.
I loved Hamlet but wasn't really into D.H.Lawrence or Jane Austen. Still, D.H. Lawrence was fairly easy to write about; simply because the themes throughout his novellas are repetitive and similar.

Insight guides are really useful. I had both the guides for Macbeth and Hamlet this year and found them both pretty useful. You don't really need to read through the plot summaries but the discussion of concepts is detailed.

Do you have recommendations for any expert criticisms of say, Hamlet? Should I get a study guide? I bought one when we were doing Macbeth but didn’t really use it at all.

I would advise you to read up on literary criticism for not only Hamlet, but also the other texts that you are studying. For Hamlet, I would recommend A.C. Bradley's Shakesperean Tragedy and Harold Bloom's books on Hamlet (Both his own, and his compilation of other authors' criticism). This will help you to develop your own interpretation on the text through acknowledging or arguing other views.

As stated above, you should begin to practice close analysis as soon as possible to get the hang of it. It's pretty complicated at first so it's important that you start doing it early in the year. Our class only started it after the winter holidays so it took a while for some students to get used to the style of writing. I found the insight guide for literature especially useful when I first started close analysis.

Apart from that, don't neglect your SACs, tell yourself that you'll be fine and you'll do great.