Advanced Module A Elective:  Transformations

Sample questions

• Emma and Clueless

Worksheets

• Emma and Clueless

Resources

• Emma and Clueless

• Chaucer' Pardoner's Tale and A Simple Plan

Module Overview

Note: You will study ONE elective only.

You will study TWO texts from the Prescribed Texts document listed for study against the Elective you are studying.

In this Module you examine two texts that have a strong connection: they may have similar themes; one may be an adaptation of an earlier text; one may take an aspect of a text and develop it further. You will then be in a position to examine the value of the texts.

 

In examining the transformation of a text, study the original text first so that you are sensitive to the process of adaptation as you study the transformation of the original text into the new text. This will also enable you

• to appreciate the original text,

• understand the process of transformation, and

• evaluate the transformation in relation to the original and on its own terms

Studying a transformation will involve and understanding of:

• Context refers to the composer's background: historical, social, cultural, workplace etc

          A composer's context will influence the texts that they compose: their themes, their perspective; the setting and characters they create.

          The texts set for you to study will also have a context: the set of circumstances that lie behind its composition.

          Context will also play a role in how a composer chooses to present their ideas.

• Audience, the body of responders (readers or viewers) for whom the text has been composed. A composer will be conscious of their audience as they make their meaning. In the transformation of a text, for example, Emma and Clueless, there is a significant difference in the audience's for both texts. Austen wrote in a very different time, the early nineteenth century, to Heckerling's time, the late twentieth century. Heckerling has also pitched her film at a specific section of her potential viewing audience.

 

• Comparison is the process of putting two or more things - in this case two texts and their contexts - against each other and looking for what is similar and what is different and whether or not the transformation has worked for the audience.

          Comparison also involves evaluation of what is being said and how it is done and the value of the text to the context of its composition.

In approaching this module you need to study:

firstly -

• each composer's context - those personal, historical, social, cultural and workplace circumstances that surround the composer
• the context for each text - the specific historical, social and cultural factors at the time of composing that influenced the composer to create the text that has been set for study
• how context is reflected in the texts set for study
• how the composer has created their text - form eg, novel, drama, film; distinctive structural and language features; characterisation.

then look across the information you have gathered and consider -

• how the contexts of the composers differ
• how these differences are reflected in their texts
• how these differences are reflected in how they have created their texts

Finally, having examined the two texts, their contexts and compared them, you can determine the value of the texts in their own context and for a modern audience. You will be able to decide why we still read, view or listen to these texts.