stagesixenglish.files.wordpress.com file · web view1.a student demonstrates understanding of how...

ngTitle: Distinctively Visual

Concept: How are images we see and visualise in texts created? Language Modes: speaking, reading, writing, listening, viewing, ICT

Outcomes: 1. A student demonstrates understanding of

how relationships between composer, responder, text and context shape meaning.

2. A student demonstrates understanding of the relationships among texts.

5. A student analyses the effect of technology and medium on meaning.

6. A student engages with the details of text in order to respond critically and personally.

Key Question: How do different composers use imagery and images to provoke responses? Texts: Core Text: Maestro Additional: Wide Open Road Beneath CloudsKey Learning Ideas:

Forms and language of different texts create these images, How these forms and language affect interpretation and shape meaning.

Assessment:Essay – prepared prior to lesson, reproduced under exam conditions.

Software or Web 2.0 application:- www.notsostandard.edublogs.org

Rationale:

In their responding and composing students explore the ways the images we see and/or visualise in texts are created. Students consider how the forms and language of different texts create these images, affect interpretation and shape meaning. Students examine one prescribed text, in addition to other texts providing examples of the distinctively visual.

Students will choose one of the following texts as the basis for their further exploration of the elective, Distinctively Visual.Maestro – Peter GoldsworthyBeneath Clouds – Iven SenWide Open Road – Triple JJJ/ABC

Outcomes Learning and teaching

1. A student demonstrates understanding of how relationships between composer, responder, text and context shape meaning.





Introduction:

Task: Distinctively Visual podcasts: with iconic images from the late 19th century through to today.

Distinctively Visual: mind map/brainstorm.

What makes something distinctive? Synonyms: Vocab list:

Distinctively word bank: Unique, one off, specific, focused, deliberate, particularly, exclusive, mainly, essentially, centrally, characteristics, individual, typical, idiosyncratic, distinguishing.

Visual word bank: Sense of sight, provokes visually, images: words, font, graphics, the how, emotion.

Every lesson starts with students using three synonyms of distinct, distinctive and visual.

‘Imagery’ entry from Edible English. What

The picture or image created in our imagination by a writer’s choice of words. Can appear to our intelligence by being witty, clever or original or our emotional through our five senses: taste, smell, sound, sight and

touchWhy

Composers use language to connect with us. If they can’t make the connection and engage us, they can’t get their message across to us and this is what it is all about – communication. It may be to persuade us, entertain us, inform us of a different time, place or feeling; but if they can’t grab our imagination and souls, for just a little minute, they will not be able to convey their message. Language is an exceedingly powerful tool to use because it is so rich with nuance and meaning.

Task: Extended writing task: ‘The power of the image’, discuss the power of images to provoke audience reactions. Essay revision with scaffold, teacher model with phrases and concepts from this essay can be transferred into any essay/exposition response for distinctively visual

Visual elements of texts: Graph how different texts engage with visual elements:




2. A student demonstrates

Narrative/Film/Visual/Media/Spoken

Narrative Film Visual-Media Spoken

Imagery

Figurative language

Simile

Metaphor

Extended metaphor

Juxtaposition

Hyperbole

Camera angles

Camera shot size

Music

Costumes

Positioning

Font

Colour

Type of image

Figurative language

Imagery

Narrative

Every lesson begins with reading the novel.The Composer’s Context: Peter Goldsworthy grew up in various Australian country towns, finishing his schooling in Darwin. After graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1974, he worked for many years in alcohol and drug rehabilitation. Since then, he has divided his time equally between writing and general practice. He has won major literary awards across a range of genres: poetry, short story, the novel in opera and most recently in theatre.

His novels have been translated into many European and Asian languages. He wrote the libretti for the Richard Mills operas Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and Batavia. Three Dog Night and Honk if you are Jesus have been adapted forth stage. Five of his novels are currently in development as movies, and two more for the stage. http://www.petergoldsworthy.com/

Born in Minlaton, South Australia, in 1951, Peter Goldsworthy grew up in various country towns, and finished his schooling in Darwin, the setting for his first novel Maestro. He graduated in medicine at the University of Adelaide, the city in which he still lives, dividing his time between medicine and writing. He writes in all genres, including the opera libretto; his novels make their way onto stage and screen; and he has won too many prizes to be listed here. But he pays the usual price for media prominence and multiple glory: all too often, his poetry is thought of as a sideline. On the contrary, it is at the centre of his achievement. No poet who so resolutely avoids the set forms gets quite so much in. His precise wit operates on every level, from the sonic (a concealed dove really does say hidden here, hidden here) to the conceptual (the human body really is

understanding of the relationships among texts.





6. A student engages with the details of text in order

packed tight like an attempt on the record of filling a Mini). The general impression is of a fastidious insistence that the particular comes first, and any general comment that follows had better be particular too.

http://www.clivejames.com/poetry/goldsworthy

Task: Read an interview with Peter Goldsworthy:

You Tube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTNs4dn2WqIMusic is a big part of Peter Goldsworthy’s life. It featured strongly in his first novel Maestro and his daughter, Anna is a multi-prize winning classical pianist. So, writing libretti for opera, songs and choral works seems a natural progression. Goldsworthy passionately believes that, ‘it’s lovely to have your words sung. I enjoy it every time it happens, it has happened with Matthew Hindson and Graeme Koehne who have set my poems. I love it. Recently, I have been writing some hip-hops and look forward to hearing them performed.’ http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news.asp?sId=53707

What historical events have helped create the character of Eduard Keller? Background Context: to gain greater understanding of the context of Maestro, we must consider the context of Goldsworthy, but also the context of post World War II, information about the historical context that helped create the character of Keller. Without the influence of living in Europe and experiencing the rise of Nazism, the character of Keller may have been vastly different. Students view a series of images (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bI1ucr_Y3U) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps64xxJq0mg&feature=fvw) from pre-war Europe, Europe at the height and post-war period. A collection of images showing Darwin before and after will be contrasted.

Some central questions for the students for during the novel? Why wouldn’t Keller leave Austria? How did his wife and child die? What was occurring in Europe in the 1930’s? What was the Holocaust? Where did the number on Keller’s arm mean? Does Keller feel guilty that he survived?

Each of the texts we study within the Distinctively Visual elective will be approached as three different approaches to creating visual texts. The focus will be on how each of these texts provokes visions and images of memories. The main contextual features: The Holocaust, World War II, Darwin, Cyclone Tracey, the 1960’s Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll. Also, compare a map of Europe and Australia, tracing a line between Wein and Darwin.If Paul’s teacher, Keller, had not experienced the lead up to WWII he would not have been the same character. It is within the context of Europe in the 1930’s that the seeds for Keller’s wisdom and philosophy were planted. In many ways the dictatorships of Europe have also come with Keller. His autocratic style of teaching mirrors the great- yes evil, but also great- leaders of Europe. It is this commitment, drive and vision of Keller’s background that was shaped by his European experience that engages Paul. Also, the continual theme of beauty in life, wether music or women is directly related to Keller’s context. To Keller being beautiful, as the music he created for Hitler was, could not save him or his family. In Keller’s act of defiance, identifying as Jewish we have Keller’s act of beauty and human kindness. If Europe was killing ‘it’s musicians’ beauty would not save him, as it didn’t save his wife or son.

http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news.asp?sId=53707

to respond critically and personally.






Task: Keller’s philosophy: Students work on matching his theories to stages of Paul’s development and to page numbers. Keller’s philosophy: Values/messages Paul’s development Page numbersA little discomfort is necessary to maintain alertness.

Pain can teach you about yourself.

First stages of his growth.

I have heard hands like this before. I know how they sound.

Everything has been done before. Breaking down Paul’s confidence

Is water at fifty degrees half boiling?

Nothing is ever complete, perfection is never found.

Questioning Paul’s focus.

What is the difference between a good and great pianist? Not much. Just a little.

Little things do matter. Trying to inspire Paul.

Always the most difficult part of a race is the last step.

Never give up, never think everything is finished.

Preparing Paul to meet competition hurdles.

Perhaps there can be no perfection, only levels of imperfection, only difference each time we move closer and closer

Strive for personal perfection, acknowledge imperfection.

Developing Paul’s critical sense of self.

Here’s to a technical hurdle safely negotiated.

Safety cannot bring passion. Trying to build Paul’s resilience.

The self-satisfied go no further. Self importance/worth. Attempting to push Paul’s playing.An excellent forgery. Reality v Imagined Paul’s playing is an act.We must be on our guard against beauty always. Never trust beauty.

The power of the beautiful. Paul’s growing lust for beauty.

Beauty simplifies. The best music is neither beautiful nor ugly. Like the world, it is infinitely complex. Full of nuance. Rich beyond any reduction. We must not make the mistakes of confusing music with emotion.

Music is life. Paul’s growing up, ready to leave.

Music is a kind of arithmetic. Music can be void of emotion. Paul’s competitive drive.If you want people to believe your lies, set them to music.

Music can hide lies. Paul’s confidence is high.

Versuehstation fur die weltuntergang.

The experimental laboratory for the end of the earth.

Paul dreams for what Keller missed.

If only at your age I’d had such textbooks.

People can learn from mistakes. Keller is opening Europe to Paul.

I was too insensitive. Pain still haunts Keller. Keller attempting to teacher Paul




his mistakes.Parody is a form of homage, yes. And a form of immunisation. But also fun.

Learn from others. Keller is sharing his knowledge.

I loathe all newspapers, the goitre of the world.

First hand learning is much more powerful than from the media.

Paul is fast becoming Keller’s student.

We never lose. We only learn. The result doesn’t matter, learning does.

Paul is moving beyond competitions.

There were many camps. Their name is always the same.

War, death haunts all humans. Paul is becoming more than a student.

Europe has come to you. Europe has nothing more than this to offer.

Europe has come to you Paul. Paul is branching out.

Perhaps. I wished only to save him time. A small hurt now to avoid a wasted life.

Learn from me, save yourself. Keller can feel he is losing Paul.

I have taught you everything you were able to learn.

Learning matters, and who you learn from matters.

Paul is leaving.

But a small word containing many small things.

Small things matter. Paul is becoming his own person.

Only the second rate never makes mistakes.

Mistakes are learning opportunities.

Paul needs to learn from Keller’s mistakes and his own.

Only those capable of ugliness can be beautiful.

All humans contain hate, pain, therefore they have the opposite.

Paul has everything everyone else does.

Furthermore, the contrast with his horrific past still lingers in the north. Keller’s Darwin is as far removed from Europe and the European Australia of the south. Darwin was at the forefront of the war in the south west Pacific, however, on a totally different scale to the European war. Mrs Crabbe naively suggests that people suffered in Australia too, Keller’s heartless, but honest reply clearly shows the importance of Keller’s firsthand knowledge of the European genocide and Mrs Crabbe’s own context. His reply: ‘I presume no one was gassed’, paints an image of a man torn between grief, pain and suffering, but also a picture of the Mrs Crabbe as a naive bystander. Keller’s Darwin is also about escape. His ability to escape the images he holds of Europe allows for the great divide between memory of Europe- both the good and the bad, and the newly rebuilt Darwin. Darwin was all but destroyed by the Japanese and again, in Keller’s time, by Cyclone Tracey. Yet, again, Keller survives, an important value within the historical context of Keller: he survives, it causes his furthermost pain and it is his utmost achievement. The picture, Paul’s picture of Keller, of the Europe Keller brings to Darwin, is faded around the edges. The Europe Keller brings to the hot house of Darwin has not survived. The representation of Europe has been tinged by the years, the historical events that have left their fingerprints on Keller also leave their mark on Paul. To understand Keller’s past is to understand the generational gap experienced between Keller and Paul. By understanding what Keller survived to bring to Paul is to understand the images created by Paul’s narration.





Task: First page test: Maestro. Your first impression of the first page of Maestro. You can write about techniques, the themes, the ideas, the characters, the setting: anything: simply write about your first thoughts about the first page. Teacher Model of My First Page Test: The opening is built on a number of simple sentences that create a contrast between the rustic physical characteristics of the Maestro and the studious material characteristics of his clothes. The absurdity of the illusion, the climate being no factor in his clothing, yet his physical being of a ‘boozer’s incandescent glow’, is established in the opening paragraphs. The age of the character, the place and context are established with emphasis on the sense, on the sight, the smells, the noises of the surroundings.

The naive nature of the first impression, only years later can the narrator suggest that the judgements were ‘misleading’, conversely, to add, ‘of course’ suggests the naive vain of the opening scene does pass. ‘Herr Keller’, the subject of the opening page is linked to Mrs Crabbe’s formal and European greeting. The greeting, the suit and accent all for a part of his father’s view of Keller, therefore, the narrators first impression has been tainted by his father’s vision of the man.

Further, ‘the warren’ of the hotel, the noises, classically aligned with the wolf whistles are beyond the reach of the formal attire and purpose of the visit: piano lessons. The clever use of onomatopoeia ‘the voice hissed’, while mocking the Australian setting, in which the bbqing of snags is a summer ritual often revered. The use of alliteration further enlightens the reader, the first impression is as much the narrators as the fathers.

Importantly, the colloquial – wolf whistles, the boozers, the recount of the temptation to parody- is offset by the formal suit, the formal greeting and the philosophy of the final paragraph. The last paragraph also directs the reader, as it comes with a sense of time having passed. This opening is being written after many years have passed, with the memory altered and naivety of youth dispersed. The rhetorical ‘how to capture that accent here?’ turns to instructional, via complex sentences, thus highlighting the narrators growth, with the first paragraph engulfed by simple sentences, while the last is built upon a combination of compound and complex sentence structure. Further, the use of italics signals the change from observational to instructional, with extensive use of first person pronoun, it is ‘how’ Goldsworthy’s shapes his narrator’s first impression that matters, rather than what he has his narrator re-create. The final paragraph also entices he reader into a melody of words, with emphasis on the narrator’s desires to ‘capture it’, yet with the narrator’s own inability to draw the picture on the page ending with the reflective and honest observation: ‘But that looks too much like hard work.’

Task: First Page Comprehending and Responding:

Identify all the techniques I describe in the opening page. First person pronoun, simple sentences, naive tone, onomatopoeia, alliteration, colloquialism, complex sentences, italics.Identify one simple sentence from the opening page. First impressions?What effect does the use of ... have on the tone and pace of the opening? That the idea/memory/image is incomplete, left lingering. It makes the reader fill in the gaps and suggests that the gap may be filled later. What four characters are mentioned? Paul, Keller, Mother and Father. What is a warren? What is the narrator trying to do when describing the hotel as the warren? A rabbit warren the tunnels, twists and turns of a rabbit’s home, dark, damp and dirty. To create a picture, building up the contrast between the neat and tidy Keller and the Swan.







What is the narrator’s name? Paul.Which character has the most power in the opening scene? Both Paul and Keller are powerful elements of the opening scene. Paul as the narrator is relaying the picture and Keller is the centre of that picture. This is Paul’s vision, recollection of a Keller who is able and willing to give orders. How does Paul’s father describe Keller? “Continental”.Who are the musicians? Keller and Paul. Identify one example of alliteration. “Spitting of sibilants”.What is Paul trying to capture in the last paragraph? Suggest some reasons why he can’t capture it. Paul is trying to recapture Keller’s voice. There are many reasons for Paul’s inability, time, pain and fading memory. In this opening scene Paul is young, naive and over confident, it is only years later that he looks back upon this time with affection and caring. Do you find the narrator reliable; can you trust the narrator’s description of the situation? The narration is very observational, the use of first person narration can make the pictures and visions clouded in perspective. We only gain one view- even Paul’s father’s view is relayed by Paul- of the situation. The tone suggests years have passed, affecting the picture provided by the narrator. We are the first generations who are distinctively visual, immersed in a visual world with symbols and meaning created via traditional literary devices, but augmented with the influence of graphics, font, positioning and colour. The essence of any story is created via the images created for the reader or viewer. The ability of any composer- an artist with paint brushes, a musician with keys and chords or the writer with words- to entice and evoke is at the centre of narrative. While the form may restrict or expose a creation to an audience, the ability to a story to be heard, seen or read is based on the way a composer captures imagination, the real or unreal. The images of Peter Goldsworthy move within these diameters, the voice created is a voice that creates pictures with words. The importance of the narrator’s voice in the visual shouldn’t be underestimated. In many ways, the visions of Iven Sen linger in that same way. The characters are painted with care and memory, as Goldsworthy’s voice inhabits a world beyond words on a page. Instead, Sen’s revolve around the visualisation of things that matter now, but may not have previously. In the most heightened form, icons of culture are at the centre of the idea that landscape and environment create the human element of all narrative. The version of music and landscape in Wide Open Road are also drawn together to entice and teach us that our stories matter, and at the heart of all images are stories that matter.

Task: First scene test: View the opening to ‘Beneath Clouds’. Screen caption and blank annotation spaces with match ups.

Task: Screen test: Wide Open Road website, homepage caption with blank annotation spaces with match ups.

Tasks: Pairs Passage: Students are allocated a passage from Maestro. Students will identify the techniques, enlarge the passage to A3 to annotate the techniques, compose three comprehension questions for the other class members. The pairs will write a paragraph on how the writer creates the vivid image then turn into a close passage, max. 4-5 lines. Scenes to be compared: The Swan, Darwin, the School, Adelaide and Europe with the opening,

Task: Students compose an introduction to the essay question: How are images used to explore the ways in which we view the world? Provide introduction sample.




Task: In detail: Paul, is Paul an unreliable narrator? Mind map/deconstructing the external influences on Paul and his influence on other characters. Teacher revises synonyms for narrator: protagonist, antagonist, persona, voice.

Task Venn Diagram of Characters.Characterisation: the contrast and comparison of the characters is an effective technique/ploy/element used to engage the audience, creating a vivid image of different generations and different cultures. The personality traits and visions described by Paul are only his memories; we value them, as he values them, his disrespect becomes ours, as readers when Paul shapes his family- and really Keller is his family. His images of those characters are clouded by time. The characters are essential to the picture Paul creates, each of them are forged and shaped by the environment. The tension and drive of the novel comes from the three main characters, the effective use of characterisation is a ploy by the writer to show the influence of the environment on characters, but also on memories. Like the death of a parent, Keller’s death forces Paul to reassess himself (quote 148). Keller is particularly enigmatic. What Paul eventually learns about Keller leads him to think of Keller in two ways, a pre-war Keller and post-war Keller, or a Europe Keller and Darwin Keller: ‘were not the same man in a sense’, (p.140)

Beneath Clouds – the characters. View scenes from the first meeting, in the middle and towards the end. Vaughn V Lena. Task: Key questions: Who has the power in this friendship? What camera angles and shot sizes does Sen use to show their differences and their similarities? How does the music help create emotional scenes between the two?

View the last scene. Prediction: Will Lena and Vaughn meet again? What does Lena learn from Vaughn? What has Vaughn learnt from Lena? How effective are Sen’s sequencing of close up, medium and long shot? The costumes used to recreate Lena and Vaughn are also significant in Sen’s attempt to influence the visual response. Lena is dressed in school uniform, highlighting her age, identity and connection to her home town. Vaughn begins wearing detention centre greens, let discards these, instead wearing clothes of the everyday, as if he could be from anywhere, any town. Sen creates two distinct individuals, just as all humans are unique and this reinforces the central message of Sen’s film this situation could be about anyone from any culture or society.

Wide Open Road – the characters. The joy of experiencing Maestro and ‘Beneath Clouds’ can be found in the realistic nature of the characters. We must also consider how important the characters featured on the Wide Open Road website/ The combination of the visual and aural on Wide Open Road is augmented by the interviews with the characters of indie music. The variety of characters, dating back over 30 years, creates a picture of how the environs of Australia shape identity. The various narratives all paint a similar picture a world of freedom and equality for individuals within the music industry, particularly music featured on Triple JJJ, the stories all focus on the personal to these memories. The stories take on life, growing over the years, creating a sense of innovation and creativity. These values take on the highest importance in the recount of their memories, above order and civilised society. These firsthand accounts are all rich with the Australian accent, further developing the central message of the importance of the land in the creation of culture. Furthermore, the unique and distinct landscapes so revered in the tales from around Australia help forge our stories, this idea that the things we see and hear help create who we are is essential to the study of the distinctively colourful characters.

Nail the characters cloze passages and diagrams for ‘Beneath Clouds’.







Task: Venn Diagram the settings.

Darwin: a city of booze, blow and blasphemy page 9.

The vivid settings are all unique, exclusive to Paul’s memories, the settings, forge, shaped by Paul’s memory of the settings. The story takes place across a wide variety of climates, all influencing the personality traits of each of the characters. The most vibrant descriptions are brilliantly contrasted by Paul. These images are versions of places that have experienced rapid social and cultural changes. Just in the time frame of the story, Paul exists within a world that is growing and evolving, and after many years he is now looking back upon a time and place that no longer exists with the same colours, smells or sounds. All of the senses are evoked by Paul’s narration.

Tasks: What are the key differences between Darwin and Adelaide? There are a number of significant points of difference in the environs of Paul’s Darwin and Paul’s Adelaide. When Paul arrives in wet season Darwin, his body and mind had been conditioned to southern, European Australia, as represented by Adelaide. The differences are immediate and confronting. The hot house of Darwin, particularly the Swan, the school yard and the sojourns with Benny Reid are polar opposites to his memory of being dragged to concerts with his parents and the picture theatres and beach duo of Adelaide. When he travels across the inland, the distance of his memories and the reality of Adelaide are provoked. Further, the library visits and the prominence of music of the cultured south is in a stark contrast to the heavy with humidity schoolyard and his parents organising visits from more southern symphony orchestras, as if the north needs enlightening. However, as his father’s southern tie and diet changes, so too does Paul’s vision of Darwin. Both the heat of the north, the culture of south impact on the characters. The eccentric of the north- even the attempt at culture, the visit of the Brisbane Symphony is disrupted, by Keller, the embodiment of European culture is held distinct from the ordered of the south evoked by Paul’s reflective prose. In some ways, Keller’s Darwin is also his act of punishment, so far from the culture of Europe or the translated version of Adelaide. The most imperative role the differences between Darwin and Adelaide play is seen in the way Keller has removed himself from all that will remind him of his past life.

What exists in the room above the Swan that is unique? Re-read the description on Page Four. The large room above the beer garden is engulfed by the ‘two planets’, yet the two pianos are expected. The bed is ‘jammed against the wall, the shelves crammed floor-to-ceiling with books and sheet music’. The planets are at the centre of the room, the universe, the most unique fact is that this all exists in the ‘deepest, darkest wet’ above the Swan, in Darwin, thousands of kilometres removed by space, time and pain from Keller’s Europe.

How important is the contrast between the school yard and the Swan? The distinguishing features of the school yard and the Swan plays a major part in the building of identity of the town. The schoolyard is a smaller, younger version of the Swan. The same people whistling and not knowing the difference between Chopin and chopping wood, between a dog’s barking and Bach are the same people breathing the humid air of the schoolyard. This is an important point to consider, as Paul retreats from the school yard, from the Swan to the music in Keller’s room.

What aspects of life does Paul relate to in each of the settings? Paul’s life in Darwin is deeply divided Between his time in the music room and in Keller’s room he is removed from the everyday of life of Darwin, an outcast by choice, by necessity. Further, Adelaide is associated with childhood, the beach, the picture theatre, an ideal and cultured world. While the cultural experience of Darwin is centred on Keller. Darwin is viewed as eccentric and climate controlled, whereas Adelaide is neat and ordered, like the libraries he visits, where of course, he spends his time




is trying to get closer to Keller.

How significant is Paul’s trip to Europe, does it bring him hope, desire, despair, passion? Paul’s trip to Europe is vital in his relationship with Keller and his parents. While Keller confesses that Paul will learn nothing from further study or Europe, as ‘Europe has come to him’. The trip is built on the hope of gaining the ‘rubato’, of opening doors to the things Keller kept closed. This desire to fulfil Keller’s potential and his parents desire for a concert pianist is a key to the scenes in Europe. Paul states he is taking the trip for his parents, but Paul’s sojourn is rather selfish. Even in his view of not taking a camera is clouded by his arrogance, his passion for discovery and to fulfil his self-perceived importance and the quality of his playing. In the end, all he can do is search for a way to get closer to Keller. The hope of the trip is tinged with despair, as he realises Keller is in Adelaide, with his parents, while he is in Europe with no one.

What snapshots of Europe are especially vivid? Re-read Pages 132-3 Some of the most vivid images come through Paul’s search for Keller, Paul’s attempt to build a tangible link to the past: ‘I had never set foot in the city before…’. The shock Paul narration are acts of ‘rediscovery…things I hadn’t known I know: he familiar features of that dream city of music.’ The most powerful images come from the bonds he finds with music: ‘Through the Staatsoper, the Rathaus, the maze of the Wiener Hofburg…’ Paul admits to himself finally: ‘(I write these placenames, casually, as if I have lived among them all my life- and in many senses I have lived among them all my life)’. This is a vivid honest reminiscence of his trip to Europe. His snapshot brings Paul to one point: what he needs is at home, in Keller.

What influences Paul’s descriptions, the events that took place or his longing to learn from the events? The settings of the novel have a significant influence on Paul’s poetic revision of the events of the novel. As Paul writes to us in adulthood he is finding the moment he learnt something about the world, about human beings. He longs to find the moment he learnt of the significance of Darwin. Yet it is only when he travels back to Darwin (after Darwin was destroyed and rebuilt) to find it not fitting his memories that he is able to fully fathom the profound influence of the wet and dry Darwin. Those extreme opposites are also the small and large piano in Keller’s room, those extremes are also his ‘tall and short’ of his parents and finally he realises that Keller and himself are also together, but alone. In some ways you can conclude that Paul’s return to Darwin could lead to his fulfilment of his potential, however, childish desires still resonate, if only briefly and if only after the tragic realisation of Keller’s death. Further, Keller’s choice not to return to Europe or even to reside in a city like Adelaide influences Paul’s longing to quantify his learning. Keller never returned to see Europe re-built, instead Keller held onto the portrait he had of Europe, one that was a time capsule of hate and pain. Whereas, Paul returns to his Darwin to hold Darwin in different light, a town destroyed and rebuilt, forever, hampering his teenage vision of the town. As age wearies Keller, so too does age Paul’s descriptions.

In so many ways, Darwin is a frontier town, a multicultural hot house of that symbolises a part of Australia so far removed, closer to Asia. The Swan is a place for the storm at the end of the day, yet Keller’s room is an oasis. The old world of Europe is in Adelaide, with childhood memories merged with European perspectives. Just as Paul’s picture of Europe is seen through the prism of Keller. While his parents vision is learnt from texts, removed from firsthand experience, whereas Keller’s is first hand, dramatic and horrid, not cultured and civilised. All that is valued is from Europe: music, Keller, culture.

Task: View opening scene, farmer scene and final scene. Beneath Clouds Settings: Where do Vaughn and Lena travel to? What influence do their changes in settings have on their relationship? How does the composer build their friendship? Scenes to focus upon: Vaughn v Lena, Lena in the




car, the final cityscape.

The wide range of panoramic views offered by Iven Sen creates a sense of isolation and extreme pressure. By employing extreme long shots with low angle shots the environment of northern NSW becomes all consuming. The hot dry heat is perfectly displayed, particularly with strong use of the black road contrasting with the two figures walking in the same direction, yet not with each other. As their jaunt builds, so too does Sen’s use of shot size and angle. The pair are also offered a number of companions, this hastens their journey and as the Great Dividing Range comes into view Sen narrows the shot size, often using close ups on Lena’s face with the greener, livelier landscape in the background. This effectively alters the power structure. In the beginning the landscape is a major character in the film, whereas later, as the pair escape from their respective pasts, the close ups place the central characters as the focal point, as if they now belong on the land. The harsh earthy colours of the opening scenes combines with the horrid lifestyle of Vaughn and Lena, whilst the greens and clouded with droplets of rain as they drive over the range brings in the ideas of hope and a future for both of the characters. The vital role the changing nature that surrounds the pair gives insight into the influence of settings on plot and character development.

Task: Annotation of three scenes: Opening, middle, Conclusion.

Wide Open Road Settings: While it is easy to draw connections between character and setting in literary texts, the website, Wide Open Road is constructed around the idea that landscape and environment of individuals creates collective identities and that groups form within the suburban, urban and coastal settings, and that these groups reflect wider values, significantly the importance of innovation, creativity, freedom and equality. The four central settings of Wide Open Road are all distinct in their symbolism, via the type of images and how the images are collages of iconic cultural items. Also the symbolism of the colours employed enhance the wide range of cultural items in each of the settings. Further, the aural features, such as the suburban lawnmower, the cockatoo and the waves rolling onto shore overlaps all the visual symbolism. Screen annotation:

All four of the environments of Wide Open Road connect openly to the identity of the people who live within them, just as Paul is consumed by Darwin, therefore consumed by his relationship with Keller, so too do the settings ‘Beneath Clouds’, while the four central settings at the heart of Wide Open Road compel individual and collective identities. Each setting is distinct in its sounds and stories creating unique forms of cultural expression and identity. Within Paul’s story Keller brings his version of Europe, just as Sen’s re-creation of the road trip extends a rapidly changing vision of Australia and Australians.

Task: Writing about techniques: Composers use a wide variety of techniques to create meaning...Techniques are just the technical features of a text, but they help forge ideas and messages. By highlighting how a writer or director or designer uses techniques suggests process of creation, acts of choice- deliberate use of techniques to do a number of things: Persuade, Inform, Provoke. Process of writing about techniques:

1. Graph into paragraphs2. Topic sentence3. Identify clearly4. Textual reference5. Draw some kind of conclusion linked to effectiveness, HOW the technique represents or shows a theme or message and question specific.





Graph:

Technique

Identify, name it!

Quote

Direct quote, must be accurate!

Effect

What does the technique do to the text? To your response?

Link to theme/idea

The technique will reinforce a wider issue from the text.

Beneath Clouds Extreme Long Shot Establishes setting as an influence on character

The importance of friendship, isolation brings opposites together

Maestro First person narrator Creates an observational tone, personalises the story

Importance of memory, changing views of the world

Wide Open Road Colour/symbolism Enhances the power of the four distinct settings.

Draws together the theme of environments influencing memory and life.

DON’TS: Shopping List – listing of the techniques won’t show enough detail of the text or allow you to provide strong textual knowledge, pick the strongest areas. Less is more!

Identify and no reference or link to question – my year sevens can identify a simile. No point in identifying a technique without a clear link to text, idea and to the question.

Bildungsroman – German, fittingly for Maestro, meaning Novel Of Education. It is more than a coming of age novel, but is focused on the moral and social shaping or re-shaping of a character. In Keller and Paul, the focus on their development is intertwined with each other. The term Bildungsroman was coined by Johann Carl Simon Morgenstern. The memoir is Paul’s, the meaning is the maestro’s. The retrospective narrative, Paul tries to give an accurate account: To describe the world is always to simplify its texture, to coarse the weave’ p14. Paul, as narrator attempts to respect Keller, as he didn’t in his youth or life, but he can respect him now.

Task: Technique = Quote match ups. Symbolism, characterisation, simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, figurative language.

Tasks: if Paul’s parents are ‘tall and short’, Paul and Keller are also. Do you agree that Paul and Keller have more in common with each other than

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Carl_Simon_Morgenstern




Paul’s parents?

Describe Keller’s preoccupation with beauty.

Explain Paul’s narration, what can we learn about Keller and Paul’s relationship?

Discuss the ways both Paul and Keller are self absorbed.

In what ways are Paul and Keller obsessed with the physical?

Memories are often misty, clouded by time and space, what memories of Paul’s are distinctively visual?

Who plays a greater part in Paul’s life: Keller, his father, his mother or Rosie or Music?

Aside from the distinctive visual elements of the novel, what other senses are inflamed by Goldsworthy?

What is ironic about Keller and Paul’s relationship?

What true lessons ate learnt by Paul? Does Keller learn anything about himself from Paul?

How important are Paul’s relationship with the other members of Rough Stuff?

How significant are Goldsworthy’s descriptions of Darwin? Could the story be set anywhere else?

The Music of the texts. While the visual elements of Maestro evoke images of characters and setting, the other senses are also key elements in the narration. Music is the bond between Paul and Keller, but also the ‘glue’ between and with his parents. Music is the catalyst for the enduring relationship between Paul and Rosie. Even the brief encounters with Benny Reid have a musical element. In contrast to the classical connection between Paul and Keller is Paul’s role in the band Rough Stuff. The 1960’s context is symbolised by the rock and roll band. This band through its particular genre of music symbolises the freedom of the 1960’s. Paul’s depiction of his youth is also a portrait of the generation gap between those adults who experienced World War II and the post war period and the youth now growing into musical, cultural and sexual freedom.

The love of and for music is a clear plot device and enhances each picture drawn by Paul. The music of Keller brings Europe to Darwin. The continual search for the passion of music is what consumes Paul and Keller. Keller continually offers insight, but in Paul’s account cannot capture what he doesn’t have, as described by Henisch: “More rubato”. It is the power of music to bring love, to bring emotion to life that matters most to the old Keller, the Keller of the romantics. Yet, the Darwin Keller is caught between the music that brought him close to Hitler, and the music that drew his love for his wife out.

In regards to Paul’s parents, music is the key to their relationship, yet like Paul and Keller, they too are opposites. Early in the novel, Paul’s father’s emotions are openly related to the type of music he plays and listens to. When his father is under pressure, as Paul recounts, the sound of Mozart becomes ‘a tranquil river’. As Paul’s memory builds, ‘the short, dark mother’ becomes the Haydn, while the Mozart is from ‘my tall, fair






father’. ‘Bach and Handel, Schubert and Schumann, Chopin and Liszt’. The contrasts in tastes and opinions are all led by Paul’s father’s opinions listed first. As Paul’s commentary on his parents draws a picture of tall and short, the importance of music is magnified: ‘Music was...glue. To both parents, music was their true career.’ Music is the backbone of the novel, the tides of emotion are all forged through music. Music is in Keller’s DNA and no matter how hard he tries he cannot pass this passion, this ‘rubato’ on to Paul.

While Paul’s other musical endeavours are sidelined, his part in Rough Stuff provides a closer look at the youth culture of the 1960’s and further clarifies the generation gap. In his relationship with Keller, Paul is the side kick, the second smaller piano, but in Rough Stuff he borrows Keller’s catch phrases to entice the popular members of the band towards a different type of music. The members of Rough Stuff are also employed by Goldsworthy to represent the wide variety of cultures making up cosmopolitan Darwin. The band brings together Aboriginal, Asian, Mediterranean and aboriginal Australia, a melting pot of skin colours and accents. This picture of Darwin is crucial, as the variety of characters is linked to the variety of music featured in the novel.

The novel leans itself to comparison to two other texts that rely on music to enhance images of our world, our histories and our memories. Whilst the two main characters of Iven Sen’s coming of age film are vital in the study of ‘Beneath Clouds’ the score, composed by Sen is also a sensual trip into memory and life. The atmospheric music of ‘Beneath Clouds’ is classical in style, it is contemporary in scope and its electronic base. The music, alongside the landscape is a third character in ‘Beneath Clouds’, adding to the visuals of the road a range of emotion that draws the responder into a realistic world that sometimes borders on violent passion.

Furthermore, just as Keller survives in his words and teachings, drawing Paul to Europe, so too does the music of Sen’s semi-autobiographical film. Throughout the multimedia exploration of the Triple JJJ special feature website, Wide Open Road, music is unequivocally combined with the power of landscapes and setting on memory, emotion and identity. The four elements of the site are all influenced by their environment: the road, the coast, the city and the suburbs are all distinct in their visual, but also in their aural elements. The wide open road is symbolised by musical experimentation and exploration, while the coast is conveyed with a sense of freedom and isolation. These aural features are contrasted with the chaos of the inner city venues creating a frantic and furious music, moreover, the well ordered, crowded suburbs produces music to inspire change and revolution. The popular culture of the music element of Wide Open Road can be linked to the classical European vein Keller brings to multicultural Darwin, while the band Rough Stuff relies on three bars of rock and roll portrays a series of images closer to the social and cultural changes of the 1960’s. The score of ‘Beneath Clouds’ is much closer to the European traditions of Europe Keller, while the identity of the social misfits of Rough Stuff is forged by their musical endeavours. The musical elements of all three texts are distinct, creating a sensual range of images that provoke the visual, but also the aural. The music in all three texts reflect a time, a place, a series of memories and of course, pain.

Vocab list of musical terms, music attached to moods, enhancing the entire sensual focus of the poetic prose, the music lasts and links Paul and Keller to Europe, the enduring nature of music is a soundtrack to life, emotion, character and setting.

Music of the website:

Task: Values presentation: Within any text a composer may insert messages, ideas or themes… Paul and Keller learn so much in this novel. What









do you learn from this novel? What messages do you gain?

Tragedy can lead you anywhere, Love, Passion, Lust are all found in music and life, Beauty can be hidden deep in everyone, everything, Sometimes family can be found anywhere, Time, Pain, Memories are all connection, Power of the past. Dreams v reality, memories v reality…

In groups of three you are to select ONE of the messages you gained from the novel. Our Criteria: What do we want done? How well do we want it done?

- Explain the message you gained from the novel,- Create a poster with examples of what you learnt from reading the novel,- Present the poster to the class and ‘teach’ the other groups about your message (everyone must speak in the presentation!)

Past papers.

Sample answers.

Task: Writing with related material.

Tasks: Plan, draft, edit, teacher edit, publish:

Essay: The images we create are the images we value, yet just as powerful are the images created for us. Explain how each of your three texts explore powerful human emotion with vivid images.

How do composers create images to involve you in their experiences? In your response, discuss how your prescribed text and at least two related texts have provoke you.

Essentially narrative is interwoven with images of human kind. Describe how each of your texts studied weaves images into narrative.

How we are seen is different to how we see ourselves. How true is this of the three texts studied?

All images are clouded by memory, youth, time and place. Is this true of the texts studied in this elective?

Speech: The World In Pictures Annual Presentation. What images of our world do you gain from literary and non-fiction texts? Compose a presentation in response to this question.

Feature article: Without pictures you can’t learn about our world and our place it in. Discuss this in a feature article.

Transcript: Peter Goldsworthy, Iven Sen and the web designer from Wide Open Road have been invited to describe the importance of imagery in 21st century texts, compose the transcript of their interview.

stagesixenglish.files.wordpress.com file · web view1.a student demonstrates understanding of how...

Documents