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Reply 1
What does everyone think of them? Which ones do you think you'll write about? What do you think the unseens might be?
I can't decide on the exact overriding theme. Most of them are travel/ escape/ freedom, but not all of them fit into any one of those three categories. I'm probably just being really thick though...
Reply 3
I figure the main theme is travel and then you can talk about different perspectives, like travelling to escape or whatever. I thought it was bad when I first looked at it but now I'm getting into my research I quite like it, although to be fair I've only looked at two texts so far
Reply 4
just got the pre release its on the "representation of gender" this is for AQA english literature B
Fair enough, it was the Beckett text which through me on the 'travel' theme, but I've just researched it and apparently they travel to find and meet Godot. So that makes a lot more sense :smile: It also fits in with the 'travelling in search of something' sub-theme, and then there's the escape sub-theme too. I'm concentrating on German for now, but at a glance it looks like a nice set of texts to get your teeth into.
manny
just got the pre release its on the "representation of gender" this is for AQA english literature B

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=241883 :smile:
I got the feeling the theme was something along the lines of personal journeys - travelling for a reason etc.

Had a quick flick through and they seem ok.
Although the oldest piece is 1939 - do you reckon we will get a horrible old thing in the exam?
Reply 8
I just got the material. The whole class met up to discuss what we think the topic is and we all came up with travel/journeys.
I havent come up with any links yet but i havent analysed them properly. The class is meeting up again on Thursday to do some analysis together.
At least we've got a fair number of texts to go through...when i did my mock exam we got 4 texts which meant we had to talk about all of them even if we didnt understand them fully or we didnt get much out of it.

We probably will get an older text for the unseens but that's ok because we can talk about change in attitudes/perceptions over time, apparently thats a different angle on the texts that the examiners like but i dont know if thats true or not.

Do you think we'll get a transcript for one of the unseens? I hate those!
Isn't one of the unseens usually a poem? There's none in the pre-release, so this might be a sign... sadly... Also, there's only one listening text in the pre-release so you could second-guess another coming up? God knows though!
Reply 10
Wow, TSRians are on the ball! I was about to make a thread of my own and was pipped...:wink:

Anyway, at first sight I thought, oh so unjuicy but now I am realising it is quite easy to synthesize this all because the sub topics are quite clear. I think the general theme is travel/journey. Under this there seems to be:


Spiritual journeys
- Hajj text + text 2 (pilgrimages etc)
Perhaps suicide in Godot = journey into another place? Spiritual again? & as somebody mentioned they travel to meet xyz.
Freedom to travel - with "Right to Roam" (text 4)
Sightseeing travel - text 5m with "runs through some of the most beautiful historical landscapes"
Means of travel - text 6 "slave's most standard means: his feet" and Steinbeck's "Listen to the motor".

Hmm..not so bad. Hate all the journalism rubbish in it though & Encyclopaedia - how am I meant to decipher atts & vals through that?

Seems a real old poem is about to crop up and perhaps something else like a story! :eek:
According to Wiki a lot of critics read Waiting for Godot as a spiritual text- Godot being God. Beckett's refuted this, but I reckon you could probably still read it like that, personally? Helps put it into the 'spiritual journey' classification though. You could prolly put the Aborignie one there too?
Reply 12
Elusive Moose
According to Wiki a lot of critics read Waiting for Godot as a spiritual text- Godot being God. Beckett's refuted this, but I reckon you could probably still read it like that, personally? Helps put it into the 'spiritual journey' classification though. You could prolly put the Aborignie one there too?


Oh I see! Sorry, yes, Aborigine one too! :smile:
My commentary is still baffling me. I got a marked one back today and it was a bit "confused" and not "crisp" enough. Also, just to remind you, it maybe a good idea to start a diary; i.e what you have done first etc? :smile: (helps for commentary).

Waiting for Godot is strange...:biggrin:
Do you think we could get an extract from Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' in the unseens? I am so worried that I wouldn't be able to analyse that but I don't know if theyd give us something that old
So do you think its worth doing some research on the canterbury tales? Any ideas of other famous travel texts? I thought maybe the pilgrim's prgress but I think it's more likely to be a poem and also didn't some people do that at AS? I am trying to think of pre-twentieth century poems about travel!
Do you think there's religious significance in The Grapes of Wrath??
Reply 16
Hmm. I think it's more to do with humanity and selfishness etc. But could be - perhaps! I think it is quite paralelled to text 1, in the case that both sets of characters are left to fend for themselves and are perhaps "Waiting For..." God?
DaintyDuck!
Hmm. I think it's more to do with humanity and selfishness etc. But could be - perhaps! I think it is quite paralelled to text 1, in the case that both sets of characters are left to fend for themselves and are perhaps "Waiting For..." God?

There's lots about Waiting for Godot on the net, just google it! Beckett strongly denied that it was about God "If it was God, I would've written God, not Godot". Found it quite interesting looking at some of the interpretations I found by googling it.

Having a rest now :smile:
Reply 18
i think the booklet is quite hard compared to the past ones i have practiced with. I am very worried/unsure about what to write and how to look for attitudes and values in text 2 and 3!
I am also finding it quite difficult to even establish what the audience is for certian texts?!
Reply 19
smincake
i think the booklet is quite hard compared to the past ones i have practiced with. I am very worried/unsure about what to write and how to look for attitudes and values in text 2 and 3!
I am also finding it quite difficult to even establish what the audience is for certian texts?!


Ah, well, I guess you don't need to know every single one in depth because my teacher said write about 3 and then the two unseens. So you could skip them I suppose!

Well, I suppose the attitude in text 2 is positive, the fact it is in an Aboriginal Mythology means the author values culture etc and wants others to know about the meaning of walkabout. Perhaps?
Audience = quite specialised as the lexis is fairly complex (for some people I mean), for example, ancestral, aborigines, ceremonies. All spiritual etc jargon?
Audience = selective, anybody who is interested in that genre of Mythology.

As for text 3, again, positive attitutes towards religion as the fact it is even an entry in an Encyclopaedia? Quite complex lexis once again, but typically, encyclopaedia = people interested in learning new things = intelligent people?

Hope this helps, just my instincts! :smile: