Shadowlands: Where love meets literature and life

I hope that you have been reading That Hideous Strength and are enjoying the experience! This is the last lesson of the year/term so I would like to focus further on the life of C. S. Lewis:

Shadowlands

We will watch the film about C. S. Lewis later life with Joy Davidman in E1. It is called Shadowlands and stars Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.

Homework

1. Reading That Hideous Strength, Brave New World and if you have time Nineteen Eight-Four our study texts.
2. Background research about Lewis and Huxley and the novels' contexts.
3. Gather display items about C. S. Lewis for E1 to put up next term - photos, book covers, summaries or That Hideous Strength or other Lewis works, biographical material, quotations from the novel and anything else!

"That Hideous Strength" by C. S. Lewis: Bragdon Wood and the NICE

Bragdon Wood

We will continue studying chapter 1 of the novel "That Hideous Strength" by starting with Bragdon Wood and how it is represented in chapter 1. After re-reading the description of Bragdon Wood, discuss and take notes on these questions:

1. How does Lewis create the impression of age in the description of how to get into the Wood?
2. Fine three examples of Lewis' description of the Wood itself. What do they suggest?
3. What people does Lewis associate with the Wood? Why does he do this?
4. What do we learn about Merlin and Merlin's Well from the description?
5. How could this be linked to Jane's dream earlier in the chapter?

The NICE

In the next section of chapter 1 we find Mark Studdock attending a meeting of Bracton College at which, after many other items, the "Sale of College Property" is discussed. This is the title of the chapter itself so is important. Consider these questions:

1. How dot he Progressive Element ensure that the sale of Bragdon Wood to the NICE is passed by the College?
2. Who opposes them, if at all? How is this described and dealt with by the narrator?
3. What do we learn, at this point about the mysterious NICE from this section?

The Dimbles

In this section, we meet Dr Dimble and Mrs or Mother Dimble.

1. What do we learn about Dr and Mrs Dimble in this section?
2. What does their first meeting with Jane reveal about Jane herself?
3. What are Dr. Dimble's views on the past and how are these presented?

C. S. Lewis

I would like us to create a display about C. S. Lewis for my room. We will use some of this afternoon to work on this if we can get access to computers in the library etc. The display could focus on:

• Biography
• Lewis' other fiction
• Lewis as a lay theologian
• The Cosmic or Space Trilogy
• That Hideous Strength itself
• Photos and pictures are always good
• Quotations from Lewis' work including That Hideous Strength

Homework

1. Find out about the story of the Tower of Babel. Check here for starting points (Wikipedia).
2. Research the legend of Merlin and King Arthur. You can try these links:

• Merlin at Wikipedia
• Merlin at Kingarthursknights.com
• Merlin at Legends of Camelot

3. Who was the Fisher King?

Image: Merlin by Alan Lee.

Unit 4 coursework: The Miserific Vision

The Opening of That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

Today we will begin studying That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis. I will supply you with the opening sections of the first chapter if you don't have a text yet. The opening of the novel introduces the reader to Jane Studdock, wife of Mark Studdock. Both are the main characters in the novel.

Jane and Mark are recently married; Jane is working on a doctoral thesis about John Donne and Mark is a sociologist who belongs to Bracton College in Edgestow where they live. We also meet Mark in conversation with a colleague Curry on the way to the college and then are introduced by the narrator to Bragdon Wood, a mysterious and ancient woodland located next to Bracton College.

After reading, discuss and answer these questions:

1. How is Jane Studdock presented to the reader in the first section?
2. What is her attitude towards marriage and being married?
3. What is Jane's dream about and how is it presented?
4. Why does Jane abandon her thesis and go out?
5. What does Mark's conversation with Curry tell us about them both?
6. What is the 'inner ring' Mark seems so keen on?
7. Who is Lord Feverstone?
8. How is Bragdon Wood introduced to the reader by the narrator?
9. What people and events seem to be associated with Bragdon Wood?
10. What kind of atmosphere does the narrator create through his description of the Wood?

I will also be giving out two secondary sources: One by Walter Hooper about the novel from the monumental C. S. Lewis Companion and Guide that he edited and the other by Thomas Howard. Hooper is Lewis' main editor and probably the world's foremost authority on Lewis's work; Thomas Howard lectures in English Literature in the USA and has written widely on Lewis and his contemporaries.

Essay Planning

How does Lewis introduce the reader to his two main characters in the opening of That Hideous Strength? Consider how the opening establishes them in relation to each other and to their interest, work and environments (800 words).

Work together to plan ideas you could include in your writing.

Coursework Information

For unit 4 Reflections in Literary Studies you will be expected to produce a coursework folder of between 2500 and 3000 words maximum that meets the four assessment objectives:

1. Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary texts, using appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written expression.


2. Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meaning in literary texts.


3. Explore connections and comparisons between different literary texts, informed by interpretations of other readers.


4. Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received.

Your folder will consist of two studies, each referring to more than one text studied in the unit. We will base these on That Hideous Strength as the main text. The folder is marked out of 80 and is worth 40% of the A2 marks.

You should read all the texts, including secondary sources I give you to prepare properly for this coursework.

I will also be taking you for part of Unit 3 Interpretations of Prose and Poetry to help you prepare for the Unseen part of the examination which is worth 60% of the A2 marks.

Homework

1. Get your texts!
2. Essay writing about the opening of That Hideous Strength.

Image: Ancient English Woodland (Bragdon Wood).

Year 13 Studies: Reflections in Literary Studies (Unit 4)

Unit 4 Title: The Miserific Vision

Unit 4 is a coursework unit that requires students to study three texts, one of which can be literary criticism. The texts we will study are given below and I have placed the Lewis and Huxley novels on my aStore (here) for your information and for purchase. Click on the texts to see them in my aStore:

• That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
• C. S. Lewis Man of Letters: A Reading of His Fiction by Thomas Howard (extract from critical text which I will provide as a photocopy)
• Apocalyptic Themes in "That Hideous Strength" by Marisa White
• THat Hideous Strength: A Faity-Tale for Grown-Ups by Walter Hooper

The Orwell novel is an optional third novel which you could read and refer to in your coursework. All three novels present the reader with fictional dystopias; visions of our world gone somehow terribly wrong, or going that way. Hence the unit title, 'The Miserific Vision'.

You will be preparing either one or two pieces of critical response to the novels for a folder of 2500-3000 words. Our main text is Lewis' That Hideous Strength, an exciting supernatural thriller which is the third in a trilogy sometimes called the 'Cosmic Trilogy' as they involve inter-planetary travel. That Hideous Strength, however, is set mainly in the fictional world of Edgestow, a small university town somewhere in the Midlands of England.

Please obtain the texts as soon as possible so that from the 15th June 2009 we can begin studying them.

Image: C. S. Lewis and That Hideous Strength.

Y12 examinations

Just a reminder:

Your Unit 1 examination for Prose and Poetry is on Wednesday 20th May 2009 (2hr 15mins, am).

Happy days!

Coursework completion and poetry preparation

Coursework Folders

You should now have completed your two assignments and only need to make minor corrections to them in order to submit for final marking.

2500 is the maximum word length for both assignments together. The Explorative Study should be about 1600-1800 words and the Creative Critical Piece about 700-900 words but no more.

Please ensure you hand in your final submission to me next week, at the latest by Friday 8th May 2009. I will have to final mark and moderate by 13th May so MUST have these in hand.

Unit 1 Poetry: "From Here to Eternity"

We will look together at "CV" by Simon Armitage and "It's Work" by Benjamin Zephaniah.


"CV" by Simon Armitage

1. How many jobs are there on this CV? Make a list.
2. What reasons does the narrator give for leaving some of these jobs?
3. What impression does the rapid-fire listing of jobs give in the poem? Of work and of the 'worker' or narrator?
4. Are these jobs all part of one CV or several? Why do you think this?
5. What impressions and images of work are given by this poem? Is it something noble or of value in the lives of others in this poem? Why?
6. How does this poem reflect a view that work is part of a 'rat race' and what might this mean? How might class be a significant presence in the poem? Or is it?
7. What is the significance of the ending of the poem for what has come before?
8. How is this poem a commentary on the meaning and value of work in contemporary society?
9. Do you think this is a cynical poem? Why/why not?
10. How realistic to the experience of people in modern Britain is this poem?

"It's work" by Benjamin Zephaniah

1. What kinds of work are catalogued in this poem?
2. Which jobs would the narrator feel comfortable with and why?
3. How much is this a poem about growing up?
4. What does the poet mean by "An me black heart don't get no lighter"?
5. How much is this a poem about the experience of black youth - and especially males - in modern Britain?
6. Why does the poet suggest that "One day I'll have a proper job"?
7. What is the poet adamant he "won't do "? Why is this?
8. How does the poet use non-standard English in the poem?
9. How does this poem compare to "CV" by Simon Armitage?
10. Which do you prefer and why?

Homework

1. Complete coursework for final marking.
2. Complete questions on the poems.

Image: Simon Armitage, as he appears on his website http://www.simonarmitage.co.uk/.

The Explorative Study: Comparing and using secondary sources

Creative Critical Coursework

The redraft is due in today, 3rd April 2009.

Comparing Desire in "Hamlet" and Doctor Faustus"

The focus of your Explorative Study is a comparison between the two plays and how they treat the theme of human desire. We will begin by brainstorming how they can be compared - thinking closely about similarities and differences in the presentation of this theme in the plays.

For example:

• Hamlet desires knowledge about his father's killer, Faustus also desires knowledge
• But the kind of knowledge Faustus is seeking is different - it is of the universe and cosmos
• Hamlet desires justice for his father's murder, Faustus to become a 'deity'

How many similarities and differences can you find?

Using Secondary Sources

As part of your study, you are expected to refer to what other readers/critics have said about the plays - not at length but by using some quotations to support your answer.

We will look at one example of another reader Joseph Pearce taken from: The Quest for Shakespeare by Joseph Pearce.

Explorative Study

You have the rest of the afternoon to work on this, seeing me if necessary.

Early finish :)...

Homework

Don't forget you have a final deadline to meet for this coursework of 5th May. I would like to see a draft in the first week back after Easter.