Hey, so through constructing an essay for Module C (my elective is people and landscapes and text is Art of Travel), I think I am overthinking the concept of 'representation' and I'm worried about just throwing the word into an argument with no context or evidence to support what I'm a saying.
So I was wondering if anyone has any clear ways of distinguishing what becomes a 'representation' within a text to help me through my overthinking of the concept.
Thanks!
Hey! Disclaimer: I’m also doing people and landscapes for Module C, but not Art of Travel (I’m doing Wright). I think the easiest way I can explain how I write about ‘representation’ is below:
1. you have to know the context of your author, and how that relates to your poem. Is your author Indigenous? An environmentalist? Someone who couldn’t care less about the environment. This doesn’t have to be extensive – literally just a sentence will do – but you have to include it. For example, ‘___ stance as ___ is evident in their text’ and you’d introduce the text and identify your thesis/response to the question for that text
2. you have to identify WHAT the text is saying about landscapes. If it’s different to what is being ‘done’ in the text, that’s okay. Not everything is every text is literal – writers use literary devices to construct a piece of work to talk about bigger ideas. In this case, it’s people and landscapes.
3. mix steps one and two together and you have a basic method for talking about representation.
For example, Wright was a passionate environmentalist who dedicated her life towards getting people to connect with the Australian landscape (context). This is evident in one of her poems, ‘The Hawthorne Hedge’, where Wright uses a narrative of people secluding themselves from the natural world to stress the need for connecting with the landscape. Of course, you’d use analysis to back up the thesis, but that’s basically what you do.
(shortcut: ‘representation’ is really just talking about people and the land, and including a sentence about the author’s context that justifies their stance on this)
I hope this makes sense! I can attach a paragraph on Wright’s poetry if you want an example ‘in action’.