Elective 2: Representing People and Landscapes
In this elective, students explore and evaluate various representations of people and landscapes in their prescribed text and other related texts of their own choosing. They consider the ways in which texts represent the relationship between the lives of individuals or groups and real, remembered or imagined landscapes. Students analyse representations of people’s experience of particular landscapes and their significance for the individual or society more broadly. In their responding and composing, students develop their understanding of how the relationship between various textual forms, media of production and language choices influences and shapes meaning.
Students choose one of the following texts as the basis of their further exploration of the representations of people and landscapes.
Some old but relevant notes from the Marking Centre for Mod C – Representation and Text: Stronger responses demonstrated a perceptive understanding of how composers use different ways to construct meaning and evoke responses through textual features and details. These responses presented a cohesive, focused and incisive thesis that dealt confidently and directly with the demands of the question. The analysis and evaluation of the textual evidence from the prescribed text – and text of own choosing – were used skillfully to consider how the unique act of representation in both texts evoked responses. The exploration of how the text’s form, medium of production, language features and purpose shape meaning was seamlessly integrated and used to further the thesis…
Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel
Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel represents the relationship between the traveller and the landscape as a complex and multidimensional give and take. Beginning with the potentially deceptive anticipation of travel and the challenging reality of the traveller’s own ever-present self – “I had inadvertently brought myself with me to the island” – through to the quandary of how best to preserve some meaningful gain from our travels, and how to return home and be satisfied, de Botton calls on the work of philosophers, artists and scientists to conclude that “the key ingredient of happiness could not be material or aesthetic but must always be stubbornly psychological.” He then contemplates a range of interactions of the psyche with a variety of landscapes and recommends an approach to travel that not only deepens and enhances one’s experiences away but enables one to have a deeper and more satisfying experience of home. Written against the traditional travel guide, de Botton’s gentle philosophical musings and travel anecdotes, address not where to travel and what to see but why one might travel and how. Whereas a travel guide might authoritatively tell us what to appreciate in a landscape or tourist destination, de Botton looks at travel through the eyes of those who have gone before and seeks to help us learn from their experiences and reflections so that we might appreciate what we ourselves bring to a destination and how we can enhance our enjoyment of what we see as a result.
In this elective, students explore and evaluate various representations of people and landscapes in their prescribed text and other related texts of their own choosing. They consider the ways in which texts represent the relationship between the lives of individuals or groups and real, remembered or imagined landscapes. Students analyse representations of people’s experience of particular landscapes and their significance for the individual or society more broadly. In their responding and composing, students develop their understanding of how the relationship between various textual forms, media of production and language choices influences and shapes meaning.
Students choose one of the following texts as the basis of their further exploration of the representations of people and landscapes.
Some old but relevant notes from the Marking Centre for Mod C – Representation and Text: Stronger responses demonstrated a perceptive understanding of how composers use different ways to construct meaning and evoke responses through textual features and details. These responses presented a cohesive, focused and incisive thesis that dealt confidently and directly with the demands of the question. The analysis and evaluation of the textual evidence from the prescribed text – and text of own choosing – were used skillfully to consider how the unique act of representation in both texts evoked responses. The exploration of how the text’s form, medium of production, language features and purpose shape meaning was seamlessly integrated and used to further the thesis…
Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel
Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel represents the relationship between the traveller and the landscape as a complex and multidimensional give and take. Beginning with the potentially deceptive anticipation of travel and the challenging reality of the traveller’s own ever-present self – “I had inadvertently brought myself with me to the island” – through to the quandary of how best to preserve some meaningful gain from our travels, and how to return home and be satisfied, de Botton calls on the work of philosophers, artists and scientists to conclude that “the key ingredient of happiness could not be material or aesthetic but must always be stubbornly psychological.” He then contemplates a range of interactions of the psyche with a variety of landscapes and recommends an approach to travel that not only deepens and enhances one’s experiences away but enables one to have a deeper and more satisfying experience of home. Written against the traditional travel guide, de Botton’s gentle philosophical musings and travel anecdotes, address not where to travel and what to see but why one might travel and how. Whereas a travel guide might authoritatively tell us what to appreciate in a landscape or tourist destination, de Botton looks at travel through the eyes of those who have gone before and seeks to help us learn from their experiences and reflections so that we might appreciate what we ourselves bring to a destination and how we can enhance our enjoyment of what we see as a result.