Transformations: Sample exam questions

Remember that in the HSC Examination there will a rubric containing assessment criteria for your Module A question. Make sure you read this as a part of the question: it will give clues as to what the markers will be looking for.

1. Why has Amy Heckerling chosen Jane Austen's Emma as the starting point for her critique of the late twentieth century adolescent?

 

2. Imagine you are Jane Austen reviewing Clueless in a letter to her sister, Vanessa. What might she say?

 

3. What values do Austen's  and Heckerling's heroines share in common. How have those values been represented in the original text and transformed in the modern text?

 

4. Imagine you are writing an article for a critical film journal in which you interview Amy Heckerling about the decisions she had to make in transforming Emma for a modern audience. You will need to consider purpose and context in your article as well as her chosen audience.

 

5. Emma opens with the description, "Emma Woodhouse, handsome clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the blessings of existence ..."

 Are Austen's qualifications about Emma's existence equally apparent in Clueless? Support your ideas by closely referring to both texts.

 

6. You are an expert in cultural studies and you have been asked to give a speech to a group of Year 12 students on the role of context in their chosen texts, Emma and Clueless.

 

7. How does the use of language reflect the particular contexts of the texts you have studied?

 

8. You are a member of the Jane Austen Society in your city. You are debating for the negative on the topic, 'Clueless is not a fitting transformation of Austen's novel, Emma.'