Literature Exam Discussion Thread 2016

[HopefulLawStudent]

In the past two months alone, Literature has made me scream, question my life choices and kicked me when I was down. You've broken my heart, shattered my dreams and made my cry until I couldn't breathe.

it's all over now though... GOODBYE LITERATURE!!! YOU WON'T BE MISSED!!!

[Glasses]

How does everyone feel they went? And how were your passages/poems?

I found the Heart of Darkness ones were awesome (I can't believe they had "the horror" passage), and I thought the A Doll's House passages were pretty good too.
I'm pretty happy with how I went - although I was pushed for time with my second piece.

[michael leahcim]

How does everyone feel they went? And how were your passages/poems?

I found the Heart of Darkness ones were awesome (I can't believe they had "the horror" passage), and I thought the A Doll's House passages were pretty good too.
I'm pretty happy with how I went - although I was pushed for time with my second piece.

I went really well I think for Heart of Darkness. But the poems I got for Heaney were really strange -- but I managed somehow  \_(ツ)_/¯
Loved literature, it's been such an incredible subject.

In the past two months alone, Literature has made me scream, question my life choices and kicked me when I was down. You've broken my heart, shattered my dreams and made my cry until I couldn't breathe.

it's all over now though... GOODBYE LITERATURE!!! YOU WON'T BE MISSED!!!

Lit tends to do that But look on the bright side! You've done an amazing subject -- while you may not be expecting a great score or whatever ( I can't really say for you because I don't know you!) it's still nice to have under your belt, I reckon. Good job for making it this far and don't stress -- it is a very challenging subject by far, in comparison to many other subjects out there. All the best!

[Elleeen]

I think HLS summed up my thoughts perfectly.

I was very happy with the poems chosen for Robert Browning, I had the biggest smile on my face when I saw Porphyria's Lover on the page because I absolutely adore writing about that poem. It's very easy to talk about.
Persuasion was a bit more challenging for me to make a connection to, but in end I worked something out, and it was (at least in my opinion) a very complex connection/discussion, so I hope I did well.

Congrats to all of us for finishing Literature 2016!

[Windaura]

I found the exam to be not too difficult, the texts I chose were 'Arcadia' and Poetry (Rosemary Dobson: The Collected)

Arcadia's passages were fairly straight forward, with many links able to be made (maybe except the 2nd one regarding Lady Croom).

Overall, Literature has been a great subject with many nice treats in store through learning different texts and understanding hidden ideas.
The only downside was not having the greatest teacher, but I can definitely say that I personally, thoroughly enjoyed it! =)

[gurungi]

I went really well I think for Heart of Darkness. But the poems I got for Heaney were really strange -- but I managed somehow  \_(ツ)_/¯
Loved literature, it's been such an incredible subject.

Lit tends to do that But look on the bright side! You've done an amazing subject -- while you may not be expecting a great score or whatever ( I can't really say for you because I don't know you!) it's still nice to have under your belt, I reckon. Good job for making it this far and don't stress -- it is a very challenging subject by far, in comparison to many other subjects out there. All the best!

What did you do for Heaney? I liked the poems!

[michael leahcim]

What did you do for Heaney? I liked the poems!

"

haha no way! I would have preferred The Swing or maybe something like Punishment and talk about suffering, restriction, and change. But, from the poems we got, it was impossible not to talk about 'Opened Ground' as a whole collection. My contention just looked at how Heaney moved from different ideas as his poems got older -- something like that. I talked a lot about how he returns to his past poetries, which the poem Funeral Rites tried to transcend (digging deeper into the past and trying to find meaning behind suffering etc), and finds a deeper connection with earthly possessions. This was where I talked about The Otter and Poem for Marie. Funeral Rites was like my second bitch and Poem was my third. The Otter was what formed most of what I talked about. I would've liked it if The Strand at Lough Beg was there like I predicted -- but vcaa decided against it for Heaney's last year on the exam   I'm sure Heaney deserved better but nothing can be helped.

[Coffee]

How does everyone feel they went? And how were your passages/poems?

I feel like things weren't going well in the beginning but I think I really managed to turn things around in the end. Fingers crossed!

I wrote on Jane Eyre and Seamus Heaney and the former definitely threw me off a little bit. Took me a few read throughs to even work out where and who passage two was referring to. Heaney was alright, though I was hoping for Punishment or Limbo, so I was a bit disappointed.

In the past two months alone, Literature has made me scream, question my life choices and kicked me when I was down. You've broken my heart, shattered my dreams and made my cry until I couldn't breathe.

it's all over now though... GOODBYE LITERATURE!!! YOU WON'T BE MISSED!!!

Surprised to hear you say that Is Literature really that much a disliked subject? I loved, loved Literature and will be looking forward to continuing it next year at university!

[gurungi]

"

haha no way! I would have preferred The Swing or maybe something like Punishment and talk about suffering, restriction, and change. But, from the poems we got, it was impossible not to talk about 'Opened Ground' as a whole collection. My contention just looked at how Heaney moved from different ideas as his poems got older -- something like that. I talked a lot about how he returns to his past poetries, which the poem Funeral Rites tried to transcend (digging deeper into the past and trying to find meaning behind suffering etc), and finds a deeper connection with earthly possessions. This was where I talked about The Otter and Poem for Marie. Funeral Rites was like my second bitch and Poem was my third. The Otter was what formed most of what I talked about. I would've liked it if The Strand at Lough Beg was there like I predicted -- but vcaa decided against it for Heaney's last year on the exam   I'm sure Heaney deserved better but nothing can be helped.

Doesn't Heaney have one year to go? Was expecting Strand as well! It's strange, we both talked about the same sort of ideas (I think). I just took the line that Heaney depicts time as ineffable, malleable thing which is shown through Poem and The Otter, and then talked about how he applied it to Ireland's situation beyond his own personal existence, in mixing the past and the present as he does, so Funeral Rites was my central focus. Sounds like you coped well with it, even though it's not what you were expecting - congrats!

[MightyBeh]

Agreed that the Conrad passages were excellent. Thought the second one was a bit odd but I'm glad it included the beetle bit, otherwise it would have made a very minor part of my essay. I was disappointed that the other passages were so obvious tbh, but I guess since HoD is a denser text, picking passages like those make it more manageable to write on. In any case my essay was either excellent or horrific, not sure which yet.

Antony and Cleopatra was good too, thought it was strange that there wasn't any Caesar. Definitely lent themselves more toward a discussion on A/C's relationship/evils of the outside/what makes a great man, etc; more personal topics than I would've liked. I'm much more a fan of the kinds of passages that you can draw broad conclusions about humanity from, but I think I managed anyway. I liked that there was a lot of Eros, underrated character imo.

Had a look at the Heaney stuff because it was my back up and let's just say I'm glad it was my back up. Must have been my three least favourite of the selection, although the emotional and personal voice was very obvious. All three had a very reminiscent tone imo which probably would've been interesting to write about if I didn't love my other two texts so much though.

As much as I was dreading the exam, I'm a little disappointed its over. Now I'm gonna have to find a new crew to talk about non-plot elements of books I read. On the other hand now I have time to read some books for fun

Doesn't Heaney have one year to go? Was expecting Strand as well! It's strange, we both talked about the same sort of ideas (I think). I just took the line that Heaney depicts time as ineffable, malleable thing which is shown through Poem and The Otter, and then talked about how he applied it to Ireland's situation beyond his own personal existence, in mixing the past and the present as he does, so Funeral Rites was my central focus. Sounds like you coped well with it, even though it's not what you were expecting - congrats!

Yeah this was his third year. Excellent poetry, I wonder what will take his place when he's out. Hopefully something just as good.

[msxcbvc]

The My Brilliant Career passages were fantastic, so much to talk about. The Browning poems were the same ones as the VATE practice exam for this year, which was a plus. Overall, I think it was a good year.

[Glasses]

Agreed that the Conrad passages were excellent. Thought the second one was a bit odd but I'm glad it included the beetle bit, otherwise it would have made a very minor part of my essay. I was disappointed that the other passages were so obvious tbh, but I guess since HoD is a denser text, picking passages like those make it more manageable to write on. In any case my essay was either excellent or horrific, not sure which yet.

Yeah I definitely agree with that! The 2nd passage confused me a bit, but I managed to pull some parts out of it - mainly Marlow's description of the trees and the 'ringing ivory' part
What ideas did you write about?

[MightyBeh]

Yeah I definitely agree with that! The 2nd passage confused me a bit, but I managed to pull some parts out of it - mainly Marlow's description of the trees and the 'ringing ivory' part
What ideas did you write about?

Started off slow with a page and a bit on how conrad belives the flaws of the human condition are not unique to the white men (i.e. everyone is flawed); used the 'white worsted' on the native to compare to the Accountant's silk tie to show they had the same goals (to create sense out of the mystery of the wild or whatever) and hence had the same objectives, although arguably the Europeans executed it a lot better, no pun intended. It was part analysis, part set up for the rest so I wouldn't have to clarify every time I mentioned the human condition because it was a big part of my work.

Second paragraph was a whole bunch of similar things smashed together - europeans dehumanising the natives so that they could treat them as their new found technology without guilt; even though it wasn't part of the passages I drew on Marlow's lie to Kurtz' betrothed to show that the whites were capable of sympathy and the company's behaviour was calculated in favour of increasing the materialistic wealth of an individual rather than the society, their 'flabby devils', so to speak.

Third was Marlow, and by extension, Conrad, being aware of this detestable behaviour but participating anyway; justifying stuff like getting the cannibals to push the steamboat with his inexorable draw to Kurtz, like he'd never joined the Company for anything else. Basically about Conrad acknowledging the flaws of the human condition that he couldn't escape and accepting that ultimately while we have an influence on our lives we cannot escape death (as even kurtz couldn't, 'kicking himself free of the earth', 'kicking the earth to pieces', etc.) so our efforts to adhere to any moral standard are meaningless.

Was going to do four paragraphs but I was 5 pages into the response booklet at that point and I thought it'd reached its natural end, hopefully . It was a very melancholy essay, but I think Conrad's writing definitely lends itself to introspection and cynical undertones.

What did you write about? A lot of my mates went for the journey into the self deal. Certainly worked well with kurtz' death being one of the passages.

[Glasses]

Started off slow with a page and a bit on how conrad belives the flaws of the human condition are not unique to the white men (i.e. everyone is flawed); used the 'white worsted' on the native to compare to the Accountant's silk tie to show they had the same goals (to create sense out of the mystery of the wild or whatever) and hence had the same objectives, although arguably the Europeans executed it a lot better, no pun intended. It was part analysis, part set up for the rest so I wouldn't have to clarify every time I mentioned the human condition because it was a big part of my work.

Second paragraph was a whole bunch of similar things smashed together - europeans dehumanising the natives so that they could treat them as their new found technology without guilt; even though it wasn't part of the passages I drew on Marlow's lie to Kurtz' betrothed to show that the whites were capable of sympathy and the company's behaviour was calculated in favour of increasing the materialistic wealth of an individual rather than the society, their 'flabby devils', so to speak.

Third was Marlow, and by extension, Conrad, being aware of this detestable behaviour but participating anyway; justifying stuff like getting the cannibals to push the steamboat with his inexorable draw to Kurtz, like he'd never joined the Company for anything else. Basically about Conrad acknowledging the flaws of the human condition that he couldn't escape and accepting that ultimately while we have an influence on our lives we cannot escape death (as even kurtz couldn't, 'kicking himself free of the earth', 'kicking the earth to pieces', etc.) so our efforts to adhere to any moral standard are meaningless.

Was going to do four paragraphs but I was 5 pages into the response booklet at that point and I thought it'd reached its natural end, hopefully . It was a very melancholy essay, but I think Conrad's writing definitely lends itself to introspection and cynical undertones.

What did you write about? A lot of my mates went for the journey into the self deal. Certainly worked well with kurtz' death being one of the passages.

That's awesome!

My essay was super depressing, but it's virtually impossible to write a piece that's 'happy' on HoD, hahaha
So my central focus was man's capacity for evil, which Conrad explores through:
- The dehumanisation of the natives (although I suggested that subconsciously they still perceived them as human [and used some quotes relevant to this to back it up], but chose to ignore this) - thus making it even more messed up.
- The exploitation and perceived superiority over nature; and with this, I discussed how nature is somewhat of an Ultimate Reality, and how their corruption and crimes against the natural world results in them being punished (which I linked to "the horror" quote).
- The emptiness of European values (i.e. - materialism and deception); and how this especially becomes apparent when exposed to the jungle and primitiveness.

[MightyBeh]

That's awesome!

My essay was super depressing, but it's virtually impossible to write a piece that's 'happy' on HoD, hahaha
So my central focus was man's capacity for evil, which Conrad explores through:
- The dehumanisation of the natives (although I suggested that subconsciously they still perceived them as human [and used some quotes relevant to this to back it up], but chose to ignore this) - thus making it even more messed up.
- The exploitation and perceived superiority over nature; and with this, I discussed how nature is somewhat of an Ultimate Reality, and how their corruption and crimes against the natural world results in them being punished (which I linked to "the horror" quote).
- The emptiness of European values (i.e. - materialism and deception); and how this especially becomes apparent when exposed to the jungle and primitiveness.

Sounds great! I imagine you drew a lot from passage 2 for the nature part? Although I guess it was in all of them, to some extent. Natives in the shade and maybe the muddy burial line? Didn't think of it during the exam but in retrospect I can see how it's a great idea to explore.

Part of the reason I love HoD is because it's so unhappy; there's no fluffy silver lining parts really and I feel it reflects humanity and Conrad himself while also being excellent prose. It gives a very tragedy-ish feel tbh, but I can't pinpoint exactly why, besides the death of kurtz being kind of the apex of the plot.