Casehistory: Alison (head injury)

U.A.Fanthorpe

Learning Objectives

AO1 – respond to texts critically and imaginatively, select and evaluate textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations.

AO2 – explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings.

Casehistory: Alison (head injury)(She looks at her photograph)

I would like to have knownMy husband’s wife, my mother’s only daughter.A bright girl she was.

Enmeshed in comfortingFat, I wonder at her delicate angles.Her autocratic knee

Like a Degas dancer’sAdjusts to the observer with airy poise,That now lugs me upstairs

Hardly. Her face, brokenBy nothing sharper than smiles, holds in its smilesWhat I have forgotten.

Imagine looking from an older age at a photograph of your younger self. What things might you comment on?

?

Casehistory: Alison (head injury) (She looks at her photograph)

I would like to have known My husband’s wife, my mother’s only

daughter. A bright girl she was.

Who is she looking at?

Who is this person?

What does ‘was’ suggest?

Enmeshed in comforting Fat, I wonder at her delicate angles. Her autocratic knee

What is the effectof using enjambment?

What do we learn about Alisonbefore and after her accident?Domineering,

high and mighty

Like a Degas dancer’s Adjusts to the observer with airy poise, That now lugs me upstairs

French artist famous for painting ballet dancers.

Contrast between before and after the accident.

Hardly. Her face, broken By nothing sharper than smiles, holds in its

smiles What I have forgotten. Why is ‘smiles’ repeated?

She knows my father’s dead, And grieves for it, and smiles. She has

digested Mourning. Her smile shows it.

The two identities are shownby the use of two different pronouns.

Why is the poet emphasisingthe smiling?

Caesura – break in linemade by punctuation.

I, who need reminding Every morning, shall never get over what I do not remember.

What emotion is portrayed here?

Why does she need reminding?

Consistency matters. I should like to keep faith with her lack of faith, But forget her reasons.

What is the effect of the short sentence?

Proud of this younger self, I assert her achievements, her A levels, Her job with a future.

Refer to stanza 1 – how isthe girl described?

Poor clever girl! I know, For all my damaged brain, something she

doesn’t: I am her future.

A bright girl she was.

Why does Alison feel pity for the girlin the photograph?