Characteristics of the Sub Genre: Prose

Okay I'm pretty lazy right now and don't really wanna type so I'm doing this in point form. Structure and narration are huge things in prose so CAPE likes to ask a lot of questions on it. Even if they don't outwardly ask you to talk about it, you mention it as a technique the writer uses or something, so it ends up coming up anyway...so KNOW it.

Wuthering Heights:
Gothic

• Supernatural Elements (Cathy's ghost, superstition)
• Gloomy Setting (the moors were described as a "misanthropist's heaven" how much more depression do you want? architecture falls under this too)
• Strong, emotional (sometimes even a tad bit melodramatic) characters like Catherine and Heathcliff, i believe the word they like to use is passionate?
• Anti Heroes (and heroines!) this is a protagonist that doesn't exactly have any virtuous qualities about them like what typical heros have (Catherine was a selfish little brat and Heathcliff was a vengeful ass) 

Brown Girl, Brownstones:
Bildungsroman

• a bildungsroman is a coming of age novel (follows the protagonist from a child to an adult)
• revolves around the conflict the protagonist goes through when trying to find their identity.
• conflict can be family related or response to the wider society
• novel ends with the protagonist's assessment of themselves and their place in society

Introductions of Essays

A lot goes into the introduction of any essay; it is the entire basis and foundation of your essay so you have a lot riding on it. So make sure it's good. There are two main things you need to do when writing the introduction of any lit essay, you need to:

1. Provide the relevant context
   here you need to give a little background into the books you're doing. You need to state the name of the book and who wrote it. You may wanna talk about the setting and maybe the literary period the book was written in. Whatever you do here don't go too in depth, just give enough context for your essay to make sense. For example if you have to do a drama essay about women in society then you may just wanna mention how society treated women then. Was it a patriarchal society? Was feminism a thing? Don't go in depth here, that's what the body of the essay is for just mention enough to justify your answer or thesis.
2. Answer the question/state your thesis.
   well obviously this would be the other part. I like to put it at the end of the intro so it'll be justified. Here you answer the question they're asking you or give your opinion if it's an argumentative essay (try to always make it an arguementative essay - you get points for analysis). It's basically your essay in one sentence - the topic sentence.

  

Here's how my intros typically look; the green part is context and the yellow part is my thesis.                                                                  

              _____________________________________________________

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Remember we NEVER use examples  and start discussion in the intro. If you wanna be fancy you can use a relevant quote from some third party or maybe even the person themselves relating the question. Just don't start discussing here, you'll have plently of time for that in the body. 

Behold! Twelfth Night Quotes That You Really Should Know

I'm just giving you the quotations because I assume you can figure out what they mean. They're not in any particular order.

"If music be the food of love, play on" (Orsino to his court)

"Give me excess of it, that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die." (Orsino to his court)

"I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
With this thy fair and outward character." (Viola to Captain)

"Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent." (Viola to Captain)

"Diana's lip
Is not more smooth and rubious: thy small pipe
Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound,
And all is semblative a woman's part." (Orsino to Cesario)

"I have unclasp'd
To thee the book even of my secret soul.
Therefore, good youth, address thy gait unto her," (Orsino to Cesario)

"for I myself am best
When least in company" (Orsino to Viola)

"Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife" (Viola in an Aside)

BOOM! Random penguin..shit gets
 boring...I know. I had to type it up 

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit." (Feste to Olivia)

"I wear not motley in my brain." (Feste to Olivia)

"the hood does not make the monk" (Feste to Olivia)

"Methinks I feel this youth's perfections
With an invisible and subtle stealth
To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be." (Olivia in soliloquy)

"Poor lady, she were better love a dream.

Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness" ( Viola in soliloquy)

"Journeys end in lovers meeting" (Feste's song)

"I was once adored too" (Sir Andrew to Sir Toby)

"She never told her love...
...She pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy
She sat like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?" (Cesario to Orsino)

"I am all the daughters of my father's house
And all the brothers too." (Cesario to Orsino)

take cuteness pon your ass! 

"This fellow's wise enough to play the fool,
And to do that well craves a kind of wit." (Viola in soliloquy)

"I am not what I am" (Cesario to Feste)

"If this were played upon a stage now, I could
condemn it as an improbable fiction." (Fabian to Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria)

"A little thing would make me tell them
how much I lack of a man" (Viola in an Aside)

"Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil
Are empty trucks, o'er flourish'd by the devil" (Antonio to Cesario)

"Nothing that is so, is so." (Feste to Sebastian)

"There is something in't
That is deceivable" (Sebastian in a Soliloquy)

"I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you!" (Malvolio to well...everyone on stage for Act 5)


If you were paying attention you may have realized I used Viola and Cesario in different places, I used Viola when she's not in disguise (this includes soliloquies and asides) and Cesario when she played that part.

These are definitely not the only quotes that are important, you can look through and see what else you can fish out but learn these and use them properly and you'll do well. Try to get in at least three quotes in your essays, but please don't just throw them in, explain and relate them and all that good stuff.

Some Helpful Hints for Poetry

For me poetry is the hardest module. I get confused and overwhelmed by the amount of crap required of me. My brain shuts down and I write like a mentally deranged squirrel. Not my best module at all. Here are some tips to prevent you from losing it while analysing poetry or writing poetry essays.


   1. Know your poet!
 Poets tend to have recurring themes in their poetry. Once you do a few poems by ANY poet you'll realize that they're obsessed with death/nature/relationships/society. Make a list of some recurring themes in your poetry because most likely you'll be encountering them all the time.
 For example Les Murray is completely obsessed with:

• The Human Condition
• Urbanization
• Consumerism
• God-conciousness
• Loss of Humanity
• Displacement of Aboriginal People

   2. Study Smart!

In your exam they always ask you to refer to at least THREE poems by your poet. I'm not telling you to learn only three, but if you have two days to study for the exam it really doesn't make sense trying to learn all by heart. Learn the main ones, the ones you believe portray the themes the best and have the most to write on. 

  3. Don't narrate!

I bet you've heard this enough already for prose and poetry. Don't retell the story! The examiners have read the novel, they know what happened. The same goes for poetry. Retelling each line of the poem isn't going to get you a one. Stick to the question they ask and use your information wisely. They look for analysis more than knowledge. SO FUCKING ANALYSE THAT SHIT! 

4. Prepare

I don't care if you have three days left and you haven't picked up a book. Prepare and organize your notes wisely. Go through each poem and comment on the techniques and devices used (more about that in a next post). And write it down!! I'm telling you won't remember it....Do this for at least five poems. on your 'study sheets' (yes that's what I'm calling them). It will be helpful to compare some poems here before hand so that it will just be a matter of recalling in the exam. 

5. Plan

I want essay plans! Both in and out of the exam. When doing past papers, plan before you write. It provides some framework for you to work with so that your essays will actually have structure and not be all over the place. You don't even need to actually write the past paper essays, just plan them out.