Year 9 summer homework: moving into IGCSE English Literature!

When you come back next term, you'll be doing IGCSE English Language & IGCSE Literature with Miss Liz and Mr Michael.



Over the summer they are setting you all some reading homework to help you prepare for your IGCSE English course.



As you know, for Literature there are some set texts you have to study, and you will be examined on them at the end of the 2-year course.



One topic you will cover is 'Short Stories', and there are ten short stories you need to read.


For homework, each of you will be assigned to a particular story.


You need to prepare a presentation for the rest of the class explaining what the story is about - you can do this in whatever format you like - for example: as a blog post, a Powerpoint presentation, a poster, a YouTube vlog, a diorama, a short play, a song, or any other form you like, so long as you clearly explain the following things:

• Introduce the writer (name, gender, where they're from, what other things they wrote, what they were well known for - anything you can find that is interesting.)

• Introduce the story: (where & when is it set? Is it from a particular genre like horror, mystery, scifi, romance etc?

• Is it told in the first person (as if the main character is telling you their story directly) or the third person (as if the writer is telling you a story about somebody else)?

• Introduce the main character (name, where they are, what they're doing, what they want etc)

• Summarise the key points of the story in 500 words or less.

• Identify which part of the story you think is the most exciting & memorable.

• What do you think the main THEME of the story is?

All ten stories can be found in the Cambridge IGCSE fiction anthology "Stories of Ourselves."


They are:

Sredni Vashtar (written in 1912, by Saki) - UTSAV AND OAK

The Phoenix (written in 1940, by Sylvia Townsend Warner) - ALEX  AND FARREL

The Prison (written in 1950, by Bernard Malamud) - POJ AND JAY

Billenium (written in 1961, by J.G. Ballard) - A.K. AND SAMYAK

The People Before (written in 1963, by Maurice Shadbolt) - RAY

Ming's Biggest Prey (written in 1975, by Patricia Highsmith) - KEVIN AND MARK

Games at Twilight (written in 1978, by Anita Desai) - ANSHUMAN AND TAO

To Da-duh, in Memoriam (written in 1985, by Paule Marshall) - KHUSH

Of White Hairs and Cricket (written in 1987, by Rohinton Mistry) - AKSHIT

Tyres (written in 2000, by Adam Thorpe) - NIDHI



Obviously the first thing you need to do is read your story, and try to understand it yourself! (There are bound to be words that you don't know - dictionary.com is your friend!) 


If you weren't at school (hello Kevin!) and you didn't get given a copy of the story, try to find a copy online - but if you can't do that, you can STILL research the story online and prepare a presentation to help yourself and your classmates learn about the story.


If you type the title & the writer's name into Google, you will find prezi presentations, sparknotes, blogs and other sources of information to help you understand your story and its background.



Once you've finished creating your presentation, it would be A VERY GOOD IDEA to read the rest of the stories (or as many as you can!) over the summer holiday, if you have the time.



(If you find your story super hard, and you are completely stuck, it would be better to pick one of the other stories to read and research - if you show up at the start of term having done nothing I WILL COME BACK FROM UGANDA AND GO HULK SMASH RAAAAH.)

Seeing 'Blurred Lines' clearly...

IB English Language & Literature

A text, as defined by IB, is

anything  that carries meaning

 

Objectives include:

 

• Analyse how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts;
• Analyse the impact of language changes;
• Demonstrate an awareness of how language and meaning are shaped by culture and context;
• Examine different forms of communication within the media;
• Show an awareness of the potential for educational, political or ideaological influence of the media;
• Show the way mass media use language to inform, persuade or entertain.

 

Here's an example of the kind of work you'll be doing next year with Miss Liz & Mr Michael:

 

EXPLORING POWER, PRIVILEGE, OBJECTIFICATION & EXPLOITATION IN THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR 'BLURRED LINES' & ITS PARODIES.

 

A music video comprises two interwoven texts: song lyrics and visual imagery. The lyrics may contrast with the visuals, or mirror them, or create an interesting juxtaposition from which entirely new meaning is drawn.

The music video for Robin Thicke's song 'Blurred Lines' was originally removed from YouTube, as a result of the controversy it caused, but has since been restored.

We're going to analyse both the lyrics and the visuals for the 'Blurred Lines' video and consider the layers of meaning it contains & communicates. We're also going to look at some of the parody videos created in response to the original; these parodies work in dialogue with the source text.

So what's the controversy over 'Blurred Lines'?

A frame from the original video

 

 

A frame from one of the parodies

 

'We tried to do everything that was taboo. Bestiality, drug injections, and everything that is completely derogatory towards women. Because all three of us are happily married with children, we were like, "We're the perfect guys to make fun of this." People say, "Hey, do you think this is degrading to women?" I'm like, "Of course it is. What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I've never gotten to do that before. I've always respected women." So we just wanted to turn it over on its head and make people go, "Women and their bodies are beautiful. Men are always gonna want to follow them around."' -  Robin Thicke, interviewed in GQ magazine

 

"With the exception of that time when I got The Great Brooklyn Stomach Bug of 2013 and spent three straight days watching Downton Abbey on my bathroom floor, I have not gone a single day in New York without a man yelling at me, rubbing up against me, making lewd gestures in my direction, providing unsolicited commentary on my body, or badgering me for my contact information.

"But that sounds crazy!" the dudes protest. And it is! Until you talk to literally any woman ever and they tell you the exact same thing.Maggie Carr, writing about everyday street harrassment in New York City

"I wanted to deal with the misogynist, funny lyrics in a way where the girls were going to overpower the men. Look at Emily Ratajkowski’s performance; it’s very, very funny and subtly ridiculing. That’s what is fresh to me. It also forces the men to feel playful and not at all like predators. I directed the girls to look into the camera, this is very intentional and they do it most of the time; they are in the power position. I don’t think the video is sexist. The lyrics are ridiculous, the guys are silly as fuck. That said, I respect women who are watching out for negative images in pop culture and who find the nudity offensive, but I find [the video] meta and playful."
  Diane Martel, director of the video, defends it against the charge of misogyny

"Here’s a sure-fire way to get the No. 1 record in the country: engineer a fake controversy by making an unrated version of your video featuring strutting, mostly naked supermodels. That’s the route blue-eyed crooner Robin Thicke took with his single “Blurred Lines,” which sits atop the Billboard charts this week, ending Macklemore’s long reign" Tricia Romano, writing for The Daily Beast - 'BLURRED LINES IS KIND OF RAPEY'

 

Project Unbreakable argues that The lyrics echo the language used by real life rapists towards their victims

http://project-unbreakable.org/

 

"There are no “blurred lines.” There is only one line: consent. And the absence of consent is a crime." - Sezin Koehler, ethnographer & novelist

Pharrell defends the song's lyrics

Pharrell points out that Diane Martel (the director) was inspired by the kind of High Fashion photoshoots that feature half-naked women. However, behind the surface of glamour the modelling industry has a pretty sordid reputation in its own right when it comes to wealthy older adults in positions of power - like photographer Terry Richardson  taking advantage of young models and pressurising them into doing things they really don't want to do.  Supermodel Kate Moss says "I see a 16-year-old now, and to ask her to take her clothes off would feel really weird. But they were like, If you don’t do it, then we’re not going to book you again. So I’d lock myself in the toilet and cry and then come out and do it. I never felt very comfortable about it."

The original 'Blurred Lines' video, directed by Diane Martel, is available in 2 versions - one in which the models wear nothing but flesh-coloured thongs & shoes, and one where they mostly wear underwear & crop tops with just occasional careful frames from the uncensored version.

This video spawned a lot of parodies, including Melinda Hughes' version  Lame Lines  and a version called  Defined Lines  by some New Zealand Law students, and a stack of others. We're going to look at three of them & consider how/why they work as parodies & what they say about the original text.

The BBC's 'Goodness Gracious Me' sketch team didn't quite dare risk copyright infringement, so their parody 'No Blurred Lines' steers carefully clear of copying the exact tune. Their parody responds to both the visuals and the lyrics:

Here's another response to the original video - a cover by Seattle-based male "boylesque" performance troupe 'Mod Carousel' - which concentrates more upon subverting the mostly-naked visuals from the unrated version of the video rather than the words; however, simply by swapping the genders of the singers & dancers they've already given a different impact to the lyrics:

Mod Carousel said: "It's our opinion that most attempts to show female objectification in the media by swapping the genders serve more to ridicule the male body than to highlight the extent to which women get objectified and do everyone a disservice. We made this video specifically to show a spectrum of sexuality as well as present both women and men in a positive light, one where objectifying men is more than alright and where women can be strong and sexy without negative repercussions."

Meanwhile this parody, by singer/songwriter Rosalind Peters, responds to the message contained in the words more than the message contained in the visuals:

 

Questions to answer:

(1) What does/could the title "Blurred Lines" refer to*?
(2) What is the purpose & intended audience of the original video?
(3) How has this shaped the structure & content of the video?
(4) What are the purposes & intended audiences of the various replies & parodies?
(5) How has that shaped the structure & content of those videos?
(6) What impact does the genderflip have in the 'Mod Carousel' version?
(7) Who seems to have the most power in the original video and the parodies below? How is this communicated?
(8) Pharrell argues that the lyrics 'I know you want it' can be taken innocently to refer to food, or buying a car, or dancing. How convincing is that argument in the context of the song? How convincing is it in the context of the video?
(9) How important are the INTENTIONS of the musicians and/or the music directors when it comes to the impact that the songs & videos make? Why?
(10) How significant is it that the director of the original "Blurred Lines" is a woman? Why?
(11) Discuss the idea of 'respect', 'consent' and 'degradation'. To what extent are the participants in each video treated with respect?

(12) Which of the parodies do you think is the best/most successful response to the original? Why?

* (A note on grammar: some English teachers will argue that you can't end a sentence with a preposition such as 'to', and thus you should structure that question: "To what does/could the title 'Blurred Lines' refer?" This is a rule invented by some dead old white dudes who thought English would sound more like a proper language if they forced it to follow the same grammar structures as Latin. It is a stupid rule, based on snobbery, which doesn't pay any attention to HOW LANGUAGE ACTUALLY WORKS, and is just there so some people can feel superior. They don't understand language nearly as well as they think they do, and are more interested in reinforcing class barriers than facilitating communication.)