English Advanced

How do the extracts provided contribute to a broader textual conversation between the pair of prescribed texts that you have studied in Module A?
MIRANDA: . . . But thy vile race— Though thou didst learn— had that in’t which good natures Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou Deservedly confined into this rock, Who hadst deserved more than a prison.
CALIBAN: You taught me language, and my profit on’t Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language!
(from The Tempest)
“Then, seven individuals are imprisoned in events in which the jailer is Prospero. He would seem to be the top jailer in this play.”
“Plus he’s a slave-driver,” says Red Coyote.
“Not just with Caliban, he’s got his foot on Ariel too,” says 8Handz.
“He threatens him with that oak tree. Permanent solitary. It’s inhuman.”
“Plus he’s a land stealer,” adds Red Coyote.
(from Hag-Seed)
From Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood published by Hogarth. Copyright © Margaret Atwood, 2016. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

How do the extracts provided contribute to a broader textual conversation between the pair of prescribed texts that you have studied in Module A?
As virtuous men passe mildly away,
And whisper to their soules, to goe,
Whilst some of their sad friends doe say,
The breath goes now, and some say, no:

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
T’were prophanation of our joyes,
To tell the layetie our love.
(from A Valediction: forbidding mourning)

VIVIAN: . . . But it can’t be helped. I don’t see any other way. We are discussing life and death, and not in the abstract, either; we are discussing my life and my death . . . (Quickly) Now is not the time for verbal swordplay, for unlikely flights of imagination and wildly shifting perspectives, for metaphysical conceit, for wit . . . (Slowly) Now is a time for simplicity. Now is a time for, dare I say it, kindness.
(from W;t)
W;t by Margaret Edson. Reproduced with kind permission from Nick Hern

How do the extracts provided contribute to a broader textual conversation between the pair of prescribed texts that you have studied in Module A?

How many million times she had seen her face, and always with the same imperceptible contraction! She pursed her lips when she looked in the glass. It was to give her face point. That was her self — pointed; dartlike; definite. That was her self when some effort, some call on her to be her self, drew the parts together, she alone knew how different, how incompatible and composed so for the world only into one centre, one diamond, one woman who sat in her drawing-room . . . had tried to be the same always, never showing a sign of all the other sides of her — faults, jealousies, vanities, suspicions, like this of Lady Bruton not asking her to lunch; which, she thought (combing her hair finally), is utterly base! Now, where was her dress? (from Mrs Dalloway)

In textual conversations, the later text is often seen as a shadow, lacking the originality and power of the earlier.
To what extent is this statement true of the two prescribed texts you have studied in Module A?

Everything is being dismantled, reconstructed, recycled. To what end? For what purpose? To what extent is this statement true of the texts you have studied in this module? In your response, make close reference to the pair of prescribed texts that you have studied in Module A.
The prescribed texts are:
• Shakespearean Drama and Film – William Shakespeare, King Richard III and – Al Pacino, Looking for Richard
• Prose Fiction and Film – Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway and – Stephen Daldry, The Hours
• Prose Fiction and Prose Fiction – Albert Camus, The Stranger and – Kamel Daoud, The Meursault Investigation
• Poetry and Drama – John Donne, John Donne: A Selection of His Poetry The prescribed poems are: * The Sunne Rising * The Apparition * A Valediction: forbidding mourning * This is my playes last scene * At the round earths imagin’d corners * If poysonous mineralls * Death be not proud * Hymne to God my God, in my sicknesse and – Margaret Edson, W;t
• Poetry and Film – John Keats, The Complete Poems The prescribed poems are: * La Belle Dame sans Merci * To Autumn * Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art * Ode to a Nightingale * Ode on a Grecian Urn * When I have fears that I may cease to be * The Eve of St Agnes, XXIII and – Jane Campion, Bright Star
• Poetry and Poetry – Sylvia Plath, Ariel The prescribed poems are: * Daddy * Nick and the Candlestick * A Birthday Present * Lady Lazarus * Fever 103° * The Arrival of the Bee Box and – Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters The prescribed poems are: * Fulbright Scholars * The Shot * A Picture of Otto * Fever * Red * The Bee God
• Shakespearean Drama and Prose Fiction – William Shakespeare, The Tempest and – Margaret Atwood, Hag-Seed