Examiners’ reports 2013

Examiners’ report 2013

EN1010 Approaches to Text

Advice to candidates on how Examiners calculate marks

It is important that candidates recognise that in all papers, three questions
should be answered in order to get the best possible mark (ensuring that the
rubric for the paper has been followed accordingly).
Examiners follow a simple mathematical formula when awarding a final overall
mark: they give each answer a mark out of 100 (up to three answers only, as
required by the exam paper); they then total all available marks; and finally
they divide the total by three, thus giving an average overall mark.
So, if your first answer is given 57%, your second answer is given 56%, and your
third answer 50%, then the calculation will look like this:
57 + 56 + 50 = 163
163 ÷ 3 = 54.3
Overall mark: 54%
Two good essays and no third essay will always bring the mark down. So, if in
the example above a third answer was not given, the calculation would look
like this:
57 + 56 = 113
113 ÷ 3 = 37.6
Overall mark: 38%
In this case, even if the candidate had written a ‘poor’ third answer getting
a mark of 40% their overall mark would be higher than not attempting an
answer at all:
57 + 56 + 40 = 153
153 ÷ 3 = 51
Overall mark: 51%
Note in the example above how the 40% mark, while low, still enables the
candidate to achieve an overall mark in the Lower Second category, which is
in keeping with their first two marks of 57% and 56%. Not answering a third
question would see the candidate lose considerable marks and drop two
whole classes. It could also mean the difference between a pass and a fail.
Candidates are thus strongly advised to give equal attention across the paper,
plan their time accordingly, and attempt to provide three answers of roughly
the same length and as full as possible. Candidates are also reminded that it
is totally unnecessary to copy out the question again into the answer book;
a question number in the margin is sufficient enough, and this will also save
valuable minutes.

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General remarks
As has been outlined in previous Examiner’s reports, Approaches to Text
requires candidates to do two things across all of their answers: outline the
main principles of a particular literary-critical approach, and apply those
approaches to at least two texts that best demonstrate the type of critical
idea being put forward. The key element here is the demonstration of an
ability to consider the critical implications and consequences of various
approaches, rather than simply stating the key concepts of these theoretical
arguments. The specific feature of this examination is the balance it requires
between theoretical understanding and textual discussion. As a result, it is
worth reiterating a point made in last year’s Examiner’s report: candidates
need only highlight those moments in the narrative of their chosen texts
that are directly relevant to the question to which they are responding; the
theoretical approach and/or framework must always remain at the centre of
any discussion of a textual example.

Comments on specific questions

Section A
EITHER comment on ONE, OR compare and contrast TWO, of the following
examples using terms and concepts you have encountered in studying for this
course. You should pay attention to issues of form as well as content.
As with the trend last year, a significant proportion of candidates chose to
compare two passages and/or images in this section, rather than analyse one
passage/image in closer detail. There is much merit to this approach, not least
the opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of how passages work,
and how different literary and/or textual strategies produce different results.
That said, candidates would be well advised to consider responding in detail
to one passage and/or image. The single focus affords you an opportunity
to engage in close analysis and to support this close textual analysis with
references to relevant literary critical theories and approaches. It is this kind
of balance and detail that is required of candidates sitting this examination,
and those candidates who were most successful were those who managed to
maintain this kind of balance between close literary analysis and wider critical
approaches in their own responses.

Question 1
Example A
This passage forms the opening of the novel, David Copperfield, by Charles
Dickens. The passage takes the form of an autobiographical narrative,
which might be read productively within the context of the genre of the
bildungsroman. It narrates a journey of development, but also of introduction.
The narrator is very much concerned with presenting himself to the reader;
he is, in other words, intent on enabling himself to be understood by the
reader. The famous opening lines of the passage, however, also suggest
something a little more complex. While this narrative may take the form of
an autobiography, the narrator is not in a position of omniscience in relation
to his own life. There is uncertainty, both personal and textual, from the
very outset. One of the ways of developing a critical understanding of this
uncertainty is to explore the ways in which the passage casts suspicion over
notions of knowledge, whether that is self-knowledge, or otherwise. Narrative
here becomes a process of introspective exploration. Such a reading might

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be developed by exploring the various uses of the first-person point of view,

notions surrounding focalisation, as well as the use of the symbolic ‘caul’ as a
synecdoche for narrative self-knowledge as a whole. Another way of reading
this passage would have been to analyse it from the perspective of the literary
‘hero’ and to have explored the ways in which the narrator casts himself in
the position of hero. The notion of the hero could then have been compared
to the frequent narrative unease in the novel and understood as another
demonstration of the tension between narrative and knowledge.
Example B
As with Passage A, Passage B is another example of a first-person narrative in
which the narrator assumes the role of confessor. The narrator describes an
evening in which he observes the steady flow of people across a small part
of London one evening. As the hour gets later the type of person wandering
the streets of London also changes. Of crucial importance is the way in which
the narrator places himself outside of the narrated events: he observes, but he
does not participate in the hustle and bustle of the city. As a result, the narrator
casts himself in the role not simply of observer but also of interpreter and
judge. As with the passage by Dickens, however, this passage also begins on a
clear note of uncertainty. All the while the narrator is purporting to ‘read’ the
goings on of the city, the reader is reminded constantly of the sense that not
everything can be read and that some things might actually be misread. As a
consequence, one of the key elements suggested by this passage is the way in
which it veils, rather than reveals. Precisely what is being veiled is something of
a question, but the end of the first paragraph suggests a correlation between
veiling and crime. A sinister, even gothic, tone is implied. The task of analysing
this passage is to outline the ways in which the narrator puts his text together,
but also to analyse the ways in which the implications of that opening
paragraph foreshadow everything that follows, as well as exploring the various
consequences of this.
Example C
James Fenton’s poem, ‘In Paris With You’ is written in free verse, and divided
into five stanzas of irregular length. The poem is narrated by someone whose
relationship has just ended. The tone of the poem is ironic and bitter. This
bitter irony finds its expression in the inversion of Paris as a synecdoche for
romance, as well as in its formal parodying of love poetry via its use of rhyme
and rhythm. This is most clearly expressed through some of the more facile
rhymes in the poems (‘earful’, ‘tearful’), humorous rhymes (‘Elysées’, ‘sleazy’), as
well as the use of neologisms or made up rhymes (‘wounded’, ‘maroonded’).
The lilting rhythm of the poem, combined with its choric repetition of the title
phrase, apes the romantic lyric poem, which replaces the reflection on the
spiritual worth and idealism of love with a more crass and superficial sense
of the replacement of romantic love with sex. Successful responses to this
poem would have outlined the various formal devices within it, discussing
these in relation to the types of poetry Fenton is parodying; rhyme, stanzaic
construction and word play would have been important elements upon which
to focus in response to this poem.
Example D
As with Example C, successful responses to this poem needed to balance
textual discussion with formal analysis. The poem is a sonnet written in iambic
pentameter. Candidates are reminded, however, that they should do more
than simply identify this poetic form and metre; they are also required to
construct a critical argument that reflects on why this form and metre are
relevant to the poem’s concerns. In the Fenton poem this was largely about
the ironic displacement of romantic poetic conventions. In Shelley’s poem,

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however, the concern is with the ways in which the poem combines this formal
structure with its reflection on the ephemerality of power in the context of
the passage of time. The formal conventionality of this poem mirrors the
sense of forthrightness expressed by Ozymandias, but it also serves as ironic
counterpoint to Ozymandias’ hubristic argument regarding self-worth. At
issue here is the way in which Shelley displaces Ozymandias’ narrative from
the outset by framing it within the context of reported speech. The poem is
narrated by someone else and this distancing marks another instance in which
power is undermined in the poem. Other notable features to consider are the
repeated uses of alliteration in the sonnet; in various ways it places language,
rather than human endeavour, at the centre of the poem, particularly in terms
of how language constructs – and therefore deconstructs – our senses of self.
Here such linguistic construction is related closely to humility. As such, the
poem also opens itself to wider critical approaches to do with literary critical
understandings of language, art, power and ideology.
Example E
In similar ways to Shelley’s sonnet in Passage D, Thomas Cole’s painting is
concerned with representing the hubris of political – and, by extension,
personal – power. The canvas can be divided into four interconnected sections.
On the left- and right-hand sides are neo-classical buildings with imposing
colonnades. In the foreground is a scene of violent carnage overseen by
the ironic inclusion of a partially destroyed statue that suggests strength,
resilience and endeavour. Across each of these three quarters is a dark smoke
cloud and fire. The final quarter of the canvas is the section of clear blue sky
in the background, to which the viewer’s eyes are drawn. This is a painting
with a clear narrative structure, and one which is foreshadowed by the title.
Strong responses to this painting rightly construed its title as a vital part of
the painting itself. The painting constructs an opposition between human
construction and the natural world, but Cole also uses the natural landscape
of storm clouds, wind and fire to echo the destructive force of the constructed
empire. Symbolic in construction, the painting lends itself to various
ideological and postcolonial readings.
Example F
As with any advertisement, the purpose of this image from the mid-1950s is
to legitimise and reinforce a certain cultural understanding of what it means
to be a wife and a woman. Similarly, and again, as with any advertisement, the
image is not, and cannot be, value-neutral. It attempts to exploit a keen use of
focalisation in order to communicate its implicit message: namely, that this is
what it means to be a ‘good housewife’. At issue here is the use of the adjective
‘good’. Candidates need to outline the construction of wifely femininity on
display in this image, but they also need to relate that general representation
with a slightly more implicit discourse of cultural coercion. Notions of
performativity (as outlined by gender theorists) would help to develop the
context for this line of analysis, but more general notions of feminist theory
would also help to provide an apparatus for critiquing the ways in which this
image communicates its message to the viewer. Being able to outline, at least
briefly, the ways in which these visual codes are communicated by reference to
notions of connotative and denotative codes would be advantageous.

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Section B
You must answer TWO questions from this section. You may use any of the
examples from Section A to illustrate your answer, provided you do not use the
same examples in your answer to the questions in Section A.

Question 2
‘The occasion where we come to understand that what we take to be “real”, what we invoke as the
naturalised knowledge of gender is, in fact, a changeable and revisable reality’ (JUDITH BUTLER).
Discuss the ways in which at least two texts reinforce or challenge gender conventions.
In essence, this question is asking candidates to outline the critical
understanding of gender as something that is culturally, rather than naturally,
constructed. While candidates do not need to engage in any detail with the
quotation by Judith Butler in the question, the quotation is there, at least
in part, to assist candidates by providing them with some of the key terms
within the debate. As such, and while there are various different possible
approaches to this question, candidates would be advised to begin their
answer by outlining some of the main ideas of gender theory, demonstrating
an awareness of notions of performativity and how these theorists apply it
to gender. Once this critical foundation is established, candidates can then
shift their discussion to two texts which dramatise or reflect on these issues.
Candidates do not need to say everything about their chosen texts and would
be advised to concentrate only on those textual aspects that are directly
relevant to the question. In relation to this, as well as outlining the textual
engagements with regard to notions of gender conventions, candidates
should also relate this back to the theory, showing the relevance of the
theoretical arguments for a wider understanding of their chosen texts.

Question 3
What is the relationship between narrative and history? Your answer should refer to at least two
textual examples.
There was a degree of confusion in some of the responses to this question.
Rather than simply detailing various texts that dealt with historical situations,
the question invites candidates to engage more critically with the concept of
history itself. Some of the strongest responses to this question made useful
reference to new historicism, although specific theoretical and critical detail
was often lacking. In broad terms the question requires candidates to engage
with the debates surrounding notions of historiography, particularly in terms
of the ways in which the communication of history requires some form of
narrative ordering and structure. As with other questions in this examination,
the particular requirement is two-fold: candidates must outline the general
principles of this theory and demonstrate the ways in which such conceptions
can be seen to be at work within their chosen texts. Given the breadth of this
argument, candidates are not expected to go into great detail but rather are
expected to demonstrate understanding of the main principles and identify a
few literary examples where such ideas are at work.

Question 4
‘There are two processes in the unconscious which bring these contents to conscious expression,
the first of which is displacement […] and the second is condensation. […] displacement and
condensation are disguises, ways of expressing indirectly what cannot be expressed directly’ (JOSH
COHEN). Consider the ways in which at least two texts use displacement and/or condensation as a
narrative technique.
Again, a successful strategy in response to this question would be to outline
general understandings of the terms ‘displacement’ and ‘condensation’ in a

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psychoanalytical context, and then to identify at least two instances of these

codes at work in the candidate’s chosen texts. In addition to this, however,
candidates also need to go one stage further in their responses to this
question: the most successful responses are those which also manage to
engage in an analysis of the critical implications of the uses of displacement
and condensation. In a manner similar to passages A and B in the first section
of the examination paper, the requirement here is to demonstrate an ability to
reflect on the critical implications of literary strategies: why an author might
choose such an approach, as well as the effects of such an approach.

Question 5
With reference to at least two texts, discuss the relationship between form and meaning.
On the face of it, this might be considered to be quite an open question but
actually the question is asking candidates to take a very direct approach in
their responses. There was some confusion in responses to this question this
year, with some of the candidates who opted to answer this question losing
sight of its specific focus and simply discussing some of the wider ‘meanings’
within their chosen texts. As opposed to such general approaches, candidates
need to apply the same level of precise textual analysis as they would to one
of the passages in Section A of the examination paper, exploring the ways
in which meaning is affected by form, and vice versa. This is perhaps most
important in poetry, but it applies equally to any literary genre and requires an
understanding of literary structure and the transmission of content.

Question 6
‘Literature – more specifically, poetry – remains a figure that provides an experience of the
impossible’ (GAYATRI SPIVAK). Discuss at least two poems in the light of this quotation.
As with previous questions on the topic of poetry, this question asks
candidates to outline their understanding of how poetry works. In this, useful
reference might be made to such notions of ‘defamiliarisation’ in poetry, but
also the expressive use of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, imagery, poetic
tradition and form more generally. The implication of Spivak’s statement used
in the question is that poetry articulates an experience or sense of the world
which bounces against the limits of the comprehensible. In order to explore
why this might be the case, candidates should outline some general critical
overviews of poetry, and then widen this discussion by referring to at least two
different poetic examples that convey a sense of the inexpressible, or at least
of things that carry an essential uncertainty. Spivak’s point is that poetry puts
language to new and different uses and so articulates a sense of the world that
is missed by other forms of discourse.

Question 7
With reference to at least two texts, consider the relationship between literature and power.
As with Question 5, and despite the general frame of the question, candidates
should be wary not to construe this question too broadly. Candidates need to
begin by setting out the specific terms of their response: how is power being
defined in their approach? What specific critical focus do candidates wish to
develop in relation to this question? Rather than simply outlining examples
of texts which engage with questions of power at the level of plot, however,
a more informed critical response might analyse ideological understandings
of literature. As with suggestions in relation to this from previous years,
such arguments might cover critical debates to do with canon formation, or
candidates might consider the ways in which literature has been demonstrated
to be part of the ‘social fabric’, a tool within wider cultural and political projects.

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Question 8
‘Colonialism constructs figures of alterity and manages their flows in what unfolds as a complex
dialectical structure. The negative construction of non-European others is finally what founds and
sustains European identity itself’ (MICHAEL HARDT and ANTONIO NEGRI). With reference to at least
two texts, consider the ways in which they might be said to challenge or reinforce the colonial
project.
Although this question asks candidates to outline the ways in which their
chosen texts challenge or reinforce the colonial project, the primary spur of
the question is to encourage candidates to engage with postcolonial theory.
A number of candidates usefully referred to the main ideas of Edward Said’s
landmark Orientalism, although the level of detail here tended to be brief and
consisted of a general sense of the importance of the ‘other’ in Said’s argument.
Key terms upon which candidates might have centred their responses are
also contained in the quotation that forms part of the question. Quotations
within questions are often there to assist candidates in their focus. The key
is to be able to demonstrate an awareness of some of the main elements
of postcolonial theory, and then apply these to at least two texts, perhaps
exploring the ways in which those texts challenge or emphasise those
postcolonial arguments.

Question 9
With reference to at least two texts, discuss the ways in which gay, lesbian and queer criticism
attempts to explore the ‘queerness’ of supposedly ‘normal’ sexual culture.
As with other questions on this examination paper, responses here needed
to adopt a two-tiered structure. First, candidates need to provide a working
definition of gay, lesbian and queer criticism as a field of critical study.
Depending on the particular approach taken, responses need to outline
the notions of sexual identity as socially constructed, perhaps referring to
such theorists as Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, or perhaps even the
founding work of Michel Foucault. Particularly important here is outlining the
ways in which queer theory challenges the notion of a ‘normal’ or ‘deviant’
sexual identity. Again, the task is to outline an overall understanding of the
critical field, before applying its arguments to two well-chosen texts which
illustrate, or at least dramatise, the types of argument being put forward.
When preparing for the examination, candidates would be well advised both
to revise their understanding of different critical fields of study, as well as to
identify specific texts that best support their understandings of these critical
approaches.