Modules
91
2009 Paper 2 Section I Module A – Elective 1: Exploring Connections
Here are the assessment criteria for 2009 (left hand column):
In your answer you will be assessed on how
well you:
• Demonstrate understanding of the meanings of a
pair of texts when considered together
• Evaluate the relationships between texts and
contexts
• Organise, develop and express ideas using
language appropriate to audience, purpose and
context
The question
So you need to:
•
•
•
Show how meaning is shaped and
reshaped by the connections between texts
Show how texts are products of their time
and place
Know how to write for specific purposes
and audiences
‘A deeper understanding of relationships and identity emerges from pursuing
the connections between Pride and Prejudice and Letters to Alice on First
Reading Jane Austen.’
Compare how these texts explore relationships and identity.
What it
requires
•
•
Both texts are connected by an exploration of “relationships” and
“identity”.
Compare and contrast the ways “relationship” and “identity” are
explored in the texts, taking into account context, audience, language and
textual form.
Sample response: Prose fiction and nonfiction
Prescribed texts: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 1813 and Letters to Alice on First Reading
Jane Austen, Fay Weldon, 1984
The two texts are
named and their
relationship is
explained, with some
context, leading to
the thesis (written in
the first person) in
the last three
sentences
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Fay Weldon’s Letters to Alice on
First Reading Jane Austen is an interesting pairing of texts. The immediate
observation is that Weldon depends on Austen for her text. The latter part
of the title, “On First Reading Jane Austen”, alerts us to this fact. This
dependence on the earlier canonical writer is further confirmed as we read
on and follow the meandering argument about the value of literature,
focusing on Austen. Austen’s novels are each given some consideration as
the argument develops, but Pride and Prejudice, the best known of the
novels, probably due to the popular film adaptations (one of which Weldon
herself wrote), features significantly. Weldon cites the book specifically, she
explains the historical, social and cultural contexts of the novel and she
makes some very provocative comments on how we should read Austen. All
of this creates a reaction in the reader, who may be tempted to follow the
interpretations of Weldon’s alter ego, Aunt Fay, or may choose to
completely ignore or even attack Aunt Fay’s views. The reaction depends on
the reader and how deeply involved with Austen the reader is. And this is
the relationship that I believe is the most important when we read Weldon
against Austen or vice versa. The reader’s own identity and his/her
relationship with the earlier text will be the guide for the way in which the
two texts are regarded. As Weldon tells us, “You the reader are as involved
in this literary truth as much as the writer”.
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Cambridge Checkpoints HSC Advanced English
Topic sentence on
structure, focusing
on Weldon but also
integrating Austen
Austen, Weldon and
context: how this
affects reader
response, supported
by relevant textual
evidence
The influence of
Weldon’s context
There is a complex relationship set up between the two texts in the way
Weldon has structured her book. The form of Letters to Alice is epistolary
and the stated purpose is to direct Aunt Fay’s “green haired” niece on how
to read Austen. Weldon is imitating Austen’s time. She uses the epistolary
form that was so popular in Regency writing (and appears in sections of
Pride and Prejudice) and she employs a didactic tone, copying the books on
moral conduct that were popular in Austen’s time. Aunt Fay’s relationship
with her niece has been strained due to her indiscretion as an author,
accused of using her sister’s life in a novel. She sees herself as a writer and,
as a writer, she feels that she can create characters who are a “conglomerate”
of all she has met. In using her own name for the aunt, Fay Weldon has
drawn our attention to the relationship of the author to the characters,
implying that authors are part of their books. But she has also created a
dilemma – to what extent does the author’s life intrude or get reflected in
the act of creativity? Despite her pseudo-revelation of truth, Weldon’s book
raises more questions than it answers. And this is further complicated by the
contradictory statements she makes. Early on she tells us that “the times in
which writers live are important” but then she criticises the fans who “seem
to believe that if only they understood the writer, they would then
understand the book”.
Aunt Fay, like the literary fans who have been mentioned, draws
conclusions from Austen’s historical context that are not found in a close
reading of Austen’s text. In her letters, Aunt Fay offers us many facts about
Austen’s life and times: she gives us information on Austen’s relationship
with her family and with her publishers; she introduces us to two Janes, the
girl at home and the savvy commercial author; but none of this help us to
read Austen. The interpretation of Mrs Bennet is a case in point. Early in
Pride and Prejudice, Mrs Bennet is described as “a woman of mean
understanding, little information, and an uncertain temper”. Weldon
examines the evidence of the times and having shared with us the financial
precariousness of unmarried women, she describes Mrs Bennet as “the only
one with the slightest notion of the sheer desperation of the world, whom
everyone laughed at throughout” and decides that she will “take a very
tender view of Mrs Bennet, more tender than her creator does”. In so doing,
Weldon goes against all the conventional readings of Mrs Bennet.
To understand what Weldon is doing, we need to look at Weldon’s own
context. Weldon wrote Letters to Alice in the 1980s, a time of great change
in literary analysis, with different critical perspectives such as Marxist,
psychoanalytic, feminist and postcolonial, to name a few, emerging. What
many of these forms of criticism did was to look beyond the text at the
context of the author and to locate gaps and silences. The idea of the
“author’s intention” and “reading for enjoyment” were considered oldfashioned ways of looking at the text. But Weldon starts her book with this
very idea. The City of Invention is capitalised to show the pre-eminence of
those authors who become part of the canon. There is a suggestion of the
relationship between the author’s identity and the text, in the discussion of
Austen’s fame as author of her novels. As the letters progress there seem to
be different theoretical perspectives being touted, with one letter focusing
on the work of women as servants and prostitutes and taking a Marxist line.
In another letter, Austen’s family background is closely dissected, suggesting
a psychoanalytic view, and feminism underpins most of the discussion. In
doing this, Letters to Alice becomes directionless, contradicting itself and
making assertive statements that are often indefensible.
Modules
Interrupting the
argument can create
tension for readers,
who see that the
argument was not
completed earlier –
do this with care. It
can, however,
indicate a personal
response from an
accomplished writer
Clear link, using
similarly, followed by
extensive evidence
Specific detail has
been given to
develop a case
Connection created
using the word, same
Detailed discussion
of how the
connection leads
responder (us) to
reshaping meaning in
Pride and Prejudice
An excessively long
paragraph has been
broken up at an
appropriate point to
facilitate reading
How Weldon’s text
reshapes our
response
93
If we return to the argument about Mrs Bennet we can see how untenable
Weldon’s case is. She admits that she is going against the book when she
talks about Mrs Bennet. Accepting Weldon’s statements too readily means
that we lose sight of the whole text. We may start to understand the
Regency world that drives Mrs Bennet and Charlotte, but if we start to
sympathise too much with these views we lose sight of the integrity of the
Austen text. Despite the economic pressures placed on her, Mrs Bennet’s
way of dealing with life is not acceptable, whatever Weldon says. A closer
look at Pride and Prejudice reminds us that Mrs Bennet frequently behaves
badly. She fails to deal with the disgrace of Lydia’s departure and she fails to
acknowledge the impact of Lydia’s actions on the family. She also tries to
force Elizabeth into marriage with Mr Collins, with little respect for her
daughter’s feelings.
Weldon similarly tries to turn us away from Mr Bennet, calling him “callous
and egocentric”. However, if we go back to the novel, we see that Mr
Bennet is not a one-dimensional character, but a man who learns from what
has happened, admitting to Lizzy, “It has been all my own doing”. We need
then to be cautious of what Weldon is trying to do. She is manipulating the
audience into a way of thinking that doesn’t consider the novel in its
entirety. “Fictional characters,” she tells Alice, “are simple and
understandable – real people are infinitely more complex, incomprehensible
and even in appearance look one way one day and another the next”. The
minor characters in Pride and Prejudice, such as Mr Collins, may be onedimensional, but they are merely foils for the main characters who have the
complexity of “real people” in that they change and grow in the novel.
The same reduction occurs when Weldon talks about the plot. She gives us
the plot of Pride and Prejudice “in a nutshell” – “Poor girl gets rich man in
unbelievable circumstances: the setting rather mundane. The nearest thing
to High Life, a guided tour by a housekeeper around a stately home …
Nobody even swooned. Jane caught a bad cold, but that hardly counted”.
This makes us revisit the book and reconsider the plot and the relationships
of the characters. It may not be an action plot, but it does in fact have some
very dramatic moments that keep the audience involved. In the first
chapters it moves slowly through a series of interiors, people meeting in
houses, people talking about meeting in houses, people planning to meet
again in houses. The everyday conversations take place between different
groups of people, recounting the same events. Austen captures the dull
provincial nature of society in the country, but underpinning this series of
encounters and conversations there is fear. And this is where Weldon can
give us insight. The manners which are carefully cultivated mask a fear of
being outside society. Part of this is the financial incentive that Weldon
discusses.
After reading Weldon, our attention is drawn more to the repeated mention
of money. Every significant character is described in financial terms, starting
from the first page about a “single man of good fortune”. We learn about
the different types of wealth. Mr Bennet’s property is “almost entirely in an
estate of two thousand a year”, Mr Bingley “inherited property to the
amount of nearly an hundred thousand pounds from his father” and he
“rode a black horse”, Mr Darcy had “ten thousand a year”. Suddenly, from
reading Weldon, these monetary references start to stand out. The
attractiveness of characters is closely related to their wealth and their identity
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Cambridge Checkpoints HSC Advanced English
is inextricably linked to their relationship to money and the way in which it
has been gained.
Returning to the
thesis about the
reader’s importance
in shaping meaning
In all this, it is the relationship of the reader to the text that is pre-eminent.
The identity of the text and its author as great or not great depends on the
reader. We can read Weldon and return to Austen with new eyes, seeing
elements that may have escaped us, but we can also choose to dismiss Aunt
Fay’s provocative re-readings of Pride and Prejudice. Despite all the
possibilities offered by exploring Austen’s context, Aunt Fay offers her most
powerful advice in the final letter, reminding her niece Alice, and by
implication the reader, that it is “better to read than not to read”.
Working with the sample response
Read the Notes from the Marking Centre and complete the questions below.
Notes from the Marking Centre: General comments on Module A
Better responses developed a thesis which addressed the question and demonstrated a strong
conceptual understanding of the module and the elective. These responses embedded an
evaluation of the relationship between text and context in the analysis of the texts and thus
revealed a wide-ranging understanding of context and how that was reflected in texts. These
responses also incorporated an analysis of the ways in which a comparative study invited deeper
understanding of the concepts suggested by the question.
Weaker responses tended to make connections between texts often through lengthy description
and recount. They were explanatory and narrative rather than analytical. These responses did not
demonstrate evaluative judgements and treatment of context was often superficial or absent.
Textual references were often not well selected or integrated into the discussion of the two texts
studied.
Notes from the Marking Centre: Exploring Connections
Better responses demonstrated a conceptual understanding of the module and a deeper
understanding of ambition, place, relationships or suffering and identity through detailed analysis
and evaluative comments both implicit and explicit. The relationship between texts and contexts
was evaluated and textual reference was detailed and selected discerningly. A discriminating
feature was a candidate’s ability to engage with the terms of the question and shape a response
accordingly.
Weaker responses adopted a more literal approach to the question and confined the discussion to
the more thematic elements of the texts and making simple connections between texts.
Treatment of context was not integrated into the discussion and was frequently a series of listed
facts rather than an understanding of context as influencing the texts being discussed. These
responses often lacked appropriate textual detail and occasionally showed an unbalanced
treatment of texts.