Welcome back!
As we outlined to you this week, Mr Skipper will be teaching you 'The Pastoral' and I will be teaching you for the coursework element of the A2 course. The specification allows 'independent choice' for coursework, so we have (independently!) chosen to teach you two texts which you will write about. These texts are Attwood's Handmaid's Tale and Orwell's 1984. We really think that you will respond well to these novels and the ideas in them, and I'm looking forward to discussing them with you.
This week, in preparation for studying the texts, we began thinking about the genre of Utopian/Dystopian Literature. On Monday we looked at the issues which utopian writers have to deal with, and today we explored More's Utopia, one of the earliest utopian texts.
It's really important that you have a good grasp of how the genre works before we launch into studying the coursework texts. Both Attwood and Orwell were consciously working within a generic tradition, and therefore knowledge of the origins of utopian and dystopian texts will richly enhance your coursework study.
Before next lesson, you need to:
-(re)-read Utopia, making sure you are familiar with the ideas, and that you are able to answer the questions on the handout I gave you in class
-look up the Utopia study-guide (link to the right). Use it to develop your notes on what is good and what is impossible in More's Utopia
-using either Sparknotes or GradeSaver, read some analysis of More's work, and make detailed notes on his ideas, themes and language choices. These will be invaluable when it comes to placing the other two texts within their generic context.
**I will ask to see these notes on Monday.**
As we outlined to you this week, Mr Skipper will be teaching you 'The Pastoral' and I will be teaching you for the coursework element of the A2 course. The specification allows 'independent choice' for coursework, so we have (independently!) chosen to teach you two texts which you will write about. These texts are Attwood's Handmaid's Tale and Orwell's 1984. We really think that you will respond well to these novels and the ideas in them, and I'm looking forward to discussing them with you.
This week, in preparation for studying the texts, we began thinking about the genre of Utopian/Dystopian Literature. On Monday we looked at the issues which utopian writers have to deal with, and today we explored More's Utopia, one of the earliest utopian texts.It's really important that you have a good grasp of how the genre works before we launch into studying the coursework texts. Both Attwood and Orwell were consciously working within a generic tradition, and therefore knowledge of the origins of utopian and dystopian texts will richly enhance your coursework study.
Before next lesson, you need to:
-(re)-read Utopia, making sure you are familiar with the ideas, and that you are able to answer the questions on the handout I gave you in class
-look up the Utopia study-guide (link to the right). Use it to develop your notes on what is good and what is impossible in More's Utopia
-using either Sparknotes or GradeSaver, read some analysis of More's work, and make detailed notes on his ideas, themes and language choices. These will be invaluable when it comes to placing the other two texts within their generic context.
**I will ask to see these notes on Monday.**
A full copy of Utopia is available online through Sparknotes:
ReplyDeletehttp://pd.sparknotes.com/philosophy/utopia/section2.html