Importance of historical/cultural values in Text Response

[xjeans]

In the SAC's for text response this year, my teacher had drilled in the need to include historical/cultural values and the styles/conventions/features the author used in the discussion of a text response.

For example, in Shakespeare's '1 Henry IV' we were encouraged to use sentences such as its setting in15th century Britain, the Tudor Myth, how it was written for an Elizabethan audience, etc. Similarly, we were also told to speak about the linguistic features of his writing (ie the use of prose in the tavern scenes and iambic pentameter/verse in others).

The descriptor for a 9-10 on the VCAA website says
-  Demonstrates a close and perceptive reading of the text, exploring complexities of its concepts
and construction.
-  Demonstrates an understanding of the implications of the topic, using an appropriate strategy for
dealing with it, and exploring its complexity from the basis of the text.
 -  Develops a cogent, controlled and well-substantiated discussion using precise and expressive
language.

I'm assuming this may come under "exploring complexities of its concepts and construction", but I'm unsure.

My question is, how important are these sentences in an essay and how often should they be used?

[werdna]

Excellent to see that your teacher has been drilling this in class - you MUST refer to the social/historical/context and should definitely chuck in a few language features in there, as well as all the play-specific features in the text. Try to refer to context in the introduction, eg. 'Set against a backdrop of the...' and also refer back to the views and values etc throughout the essay. In terms of the structures/features/conventions - all your examples (or at least most of them) should be based on metalanguage. That means your examples should be things like symbols, characterisation, setting, linguistics etc. NOT plot events.

And obviously your focus in a text response is on the thematic ideas, characters and ideas, so you need to explain how Shakespeare has used all these different play elements to build a thematic idea, a character and an idea (in relation to the topic and key idea). Just remember, when you choose and assign your examples, ask yourself 'What is the metalanguage I can use for this?' - and it is as simple as saying '..character name... is characterised as a ____ and ____ person' instead of saying '...character name... is ___ and ___'. Characterised is your metalanguage!

[xjeans]

Yeah I've always opened my introductions with a strong contextual sentence, but I was curious to how much attention the examiners gave to sentences throughout the essay as whole. I try to pepper it throughout all my paragraphs but I wasn't sure if I had been over-doing it, because many '10' essays I've read have gotten high marks without much reference to historical/cultural (although lots on linguistic/etc).

Thanks for the advice though, much appreciated. That last point is a really good way to look it actually.

[werdna]

Yeah obviously you don't wanna overload the context in there, but definitely allude to it a few times. It's better to be safe than sorry, and it does add to the depth of your essay anyway!

Also you want to use a variety of examples, examiners don't want to read about everything you know about the play, BUT they do want to get a taste of everything you do know. So use a variety of metalanguage based examples, explain how these link back to the key idea, how they link back to the play's views and values etc...

By the way, refer to the PLAYWRIGHT not the author for Shakespeare, or any play for that matter!

[EvangelionZeta]

As a contrasting perspective, I think you really shouldn't refer to historical/cultural values at all.  As far as I've seen, the VCE English course assumes the New Criticism school of interpretation wherein your reading/analysis of a text is based entirely on the text in itself, as opposed to any socio-historical factors surrounding the text's development.  You CAN refer to the culture of England presented within the text itself, but explicitly drawing it to the world Shakespeare lived in is a bit unnecessary and will probably convolute rather than make clearer your argument.

My two cents, anyway.

[werdna]

As a contrasting perspective, I think you really shouldn't refer to historical/cultural values at all.  As far as I've seen, the VCE English course assumes the New Criticism school of interpretation wherein your reading/analysis of a text is based entirely on the text in itself, as opposed to any socio-historical factors surrounding the text's development.  You CAN refer to the culture of England presented within the text itself, but explicitly drawing it to the world Shakespeare lived in is a bit unnecessary and will probably convolute rather than make clearer your argument.

My two cents, anyway.

That's a fair point, but the values and context are in the study design so it's definitely something examiners look out for.

[xjeans]

Thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated.

Well my teacher is an assessor, but the reason I asked is because I noticed in our trial exams that were marked externally that hey didn't seem to be looking for it much.

But yeah I think I will mainly stick with the stuff present through the period the play was written, rather than the Elizabethan audience, etc unless a prompt comes up that allows for a clear reference to it.

Cheers

[EvangelionZeta]

As a contrasting perspective, I think you really shouldn't refer to historical/cultural values at all.  As far as I've seen, the VCE English course assumes the New Criticism school of interpretation wherein your reading/analysis of a text is based entirely on the text in itself, as opposed to any socio-historical factors surrounding the text's development.  You CAN refer to the culture of England presented within the text itself, but explicitly drawing it to the world Shakespeare lived in is a bit unnecessary and will probably convolute rather than make clearer your argument.

My two cents, anyway.

That's a fair point, but the values and context are in the study design so it's definitely something examiners look out for.

"methods of analysing complex texts and the social, historical and/or cultural values embodied in
texts;"

That was basically the only thing I could find which suggested anything close to this in the Study Design (http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/english/English-ESL-SD-2007.pdf), and I don't think it's still quite what you're implicitly suggesting.  Values can just be the "ideologies" embedded within a text, and I think it's telling that it says these values are the ones "embodied in texts" - for instance, the historical perspective spouted by Richard III of the historical King, etc.

Above that though, even IF examiners are looking for historical stuff (and I'm willing to accept this if you can find some convincing proof :p), I don't think it's feasibly something they prioritise as significant.  Even in the real world of literary analysis (lol real world), historical context is usually very very subordinate to the actual interpretation (if not irrelevant), and what makes a good essay above all else is a solid, well-analysed reading of a text.  The VCE English text response essay is usually going to be 1000-1500 - that's barely enough time to develop the well-analysed reading on its own.  In this light, I think it's just a waste of what actually makes a good essay to get bogged down in the historical stuff.

Some other random points:
1. Examiners tend to look for "vibes" more than anything - having spoken to a few examiners, they tend to just mark more based on how an essay "feels" in terms of how well it's written, how well-developed the argument is, how complex the ideas are, how closely the text has been worked with, etc.  The criteria is more a guide than anything else and not the gospel truth.
2. I got two 10s in my year 12 in text response with absolutely zero historical reference, and most of my students last year were successful having done none of it as well. 

But yeah I think I will mainly stick with the stuff present through the period the play was written, rather than the Elizabethan audience, etc unless a prompt comes up that allows for a clear reference to it.

Do you mean period the play depicts, rather than the Elizabethan audience?  Because the play was written in Elizabethan England...=/

[werdna]

Definitely agree with you on the vibes thing, a high-scoring essay has a vibe and you know it will score well pretty early on in the essay.

I think in regards to the whole historical/social/cultural values, I don't think I made myself clear enough before - there's really no need to look into the actual history of the time period or anything like that, and I'm not familiar with Shakespeare texts so I can't comment on them. But for the text Interpreter of Maladies, what I referred to in terms of 'context' were things like Indian culture, cultural diaspora, emotional exile, migration experiences and so on; basically general things about the context and nothing too extensive or out there about the actual history.

[EvangelionZeta]

Definitely agree with you on the vibes thing, a high-scoring essay has a vibe and you know it will score well pretty early on in the essay.

I think in regards to the whole historical/social/cultural values, I don't think I made myself clear enough before - there's really no need to look into the actual history of the time period or anything like that, and I'm not familiar with Shakespeare texts so I can't comment on them. But for the text Interpreter of Maladies, what I referred to in terms of 'context' were things like Indian culture, cultural diaspora, emotional exile, migration experiences and so on; basically general things about the context and nothing too extensive or out there about the actual history.

Yeah ok, that makes sense.  Fair enough then - glad we both cleared this up!

[werdna]

Haha yep! Lol EZ you are the god of english.

[EvangelionZeta]

Haha yep! Lol EZ you are the god of english.

Thanks werdna, although I'm really not - people should stop treating me as such :p