How the Author Constructs Meaning

[Sanguinne]

I'm currently in yr 11 and have a sac (essay) on Macbeth coming up. Our teacher gave us the criteria and I dont really understand what this means:

"Analyse the ways in which the author constructs meaning and expresses or implies a point of view and values"

Could someone explain how I would do this?

[uprising]

I haven't studied Macbeth, but I will help where possible. The question is asking you to think outside the box, and consider alternate meanings to events.
For example, I read Year of Wonders. Anna's father dies, and instead of being upset, she is relieved as he once abused her. The alternate meaning to this is that she can now move on from her past, and be free.

This link may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorial_intent but if you still don't understand just let me know!

 

[meganrobyn]

I'm currently in yr 11 and have a sac (essay) on Macbeth coming up. Our teacher gave us the criteria and I dont really understand what this means:

"Analyse the ways in which the author constructs meaning and expresses or implies a point of view and values"

Could someone explain how I would do this?

What they're trying to do is get you to think about a text as something that a human being wrote, and chose to write in a particular way. The chose one word instead of another; they created a character with this personality and not another; they described a setting in this way and not another. Why did they make all of those choices, and what effect do those choices have on meaning and the impression you the reader get from the text?

What students tend to do is read a book, and put themselves into the story too much: the characters are real people, and the whole story really happens. So they forget about the author, and focus on *what* happens instead of *how* it's written.

All that criteria point means is get your head out of the storyworld a bit, and think about how the author wrote it. How have they structured the plot, and why? What metaphors have they used, and why? If any character has an important speech or says something really notable, can you the reader relate what they're saying to the real world or humans in general? Basically, try to figure out what the *author* (ie Shakespeare) is saying to you through the text.

How to do it in a practical sense in the essay? Focus your contention and your topic sentences around Shakespeare (the author) instead of a character or plot point or something. For example, off the top of my head, "Rather than building slowly and gradually to a peak, Shakespeare brings the play to an unusually early climax in order to examine the psychology of guilt through the protracted period of suspense that follows."