Subject description

English Literary Studies is a 20-credit subject at Stage 2.

Stage 2 English Literary Studies focuses on the skills and strategies of critical thinking needed to interpret texts. Through shared and individual study of texts, students encounter different opinions about texts, have opportunities to exchange and develop ideas, find evidence to support a personal view, learn to construct logical and convincing arguments, and consider a range of critical interpretations of texts.

English Literary Studies focuses on ways in which literary texts represent culture and identity, and on the dynamic relationship between authors, texts, audiences, and contexts. Students develop an understanding of the power of language to represent ideas, events, and people in particular ways and of how texts challenge or support cultural perceptions.

Students produce responses that show the depth and clarity of their understanding. They extend their ability to sustain a reasoned critical argument by developing strategies that allow them to weigh alternative opinions against each other. By focusing on the creativity and craft of the authors, students develop strategies to enhance their own skills in creating texts and put into practice the techniques they have observed.

Capabilities

The capabilities connect student learning within and across subjects in a range of contexts.

The SACE identifies seven capabilities.

Literacy

Literacy is critical in the development of the skills and strategies needed to express, interpret, and communicate complex information and ideas. In English Literary Studies students apply, extend, and refine their repertoire of literacy skills and practices as they examine how meaning is communicated and as they engage in creative response and argument. Students compare texts and consider them in relation to their contexts and purposes, and they consider how texts are created for specific purposes, audiences, and contexts.

Numeracy

Students develop their numeracy capability in English Literary Studies as they practise and apply the skills of interpreting and analysing, comparing and contrasting, making connections, posing and proving arguments, making inferences, and problem-solving as they create and respond to a range of texts. For example, students use numeracy skills when they create and interpret sequences and spatial information in non-fiction texts. They draw conclusions from statistical information, interpret and use quantitative data as evidence in persuasive texts, and evaluate the use of statistics in media and other reports.

Information and communication technology (ICT) capability

There is a particular focus in English Literary Studies on ICT through the use of digital and multimodal texts, and on understanding and creating multimodal texts. For example, students explore the effects of sound and image as they consider how ideas are communicated in digital and multimodal texts. They use digital technologies when they access, manage and use information and when they create their own texts, including texts in multimodal form. They develop skills in reading, viewing, and responding to digital and multimodal texts, and analysing the effects of the use of different mediums on meaning and interpretation.

Critical and creative thinking

Critical and creative thinking is integral to the study and creation of texts in English Literary Studies. Students analyse and evaluate issues and ideas presented in texts. In thinking about and creating their own texts, they recognise and develop arguments, use evidence, and draw reasoned conclusions. Students experiment with text structures and language features as they transform and adapt texts for different purposes, contexts, and audiences. Students use critical thinking when they apply their knowledge of language to analyse the purpose, audience, and context, structural and language features, and underlying and unstated assumptions of a range of texts. They investigate ways in which language is used to position individuals and social, cultural, and interest groups. Creative thinking enables students to apply imaginative and inventive strategies in the creation of their own original works. 

Personal and social capability 

Students develop their sense of self, and understand their role and place in communities, through the development of their language skills. They develop their personal and social capability in this subject by extending their communication skills, teamwork, and understanding of verbal and non-verbal modes of interaction.

Students develop personal and social capability in English Literary Studies by enhancing their communication skills, teamwork, and capacity to empathise with and appreciate the perspectives of others. Close study of texts assists students to understand different personal and social experiences, perspectives, and challenges. Students identify and express their own opinions, ideas, and responses by interacting with a range of texts. English Literary Studies actively assists students in the development of communication skills needed for analysis, research, and the expression of viewpoints and arguments. Students work collaboratively in teams and also independently as part of their learning and research.

Ethical understanding

Ethical understanding is explored in English Literary Studies through the selection of texts for study, for example, when students engage with ethical dilemmas presented in texts, considering reasons for actions and implications of decisions. They explore and question values, attitudes, perspectives, and assumptions in texts, examining how they are presented, their impact on audiences, and how they are reflected in their own responses. Through the study of English Literary Studies, students come to appreciate and develop greater empathy for the rights and opinions of others. They develop increasingly advanced communication, research, and presentation skills to express viewpoints. Students develop an understanding of the importance of acknowledging the ideas and views of others through appropriate referencing. 

Intercultural understanding

Intercultural understanding in English Literary Studies encourages students to make connections between their own experiences and the experiences of others. Through the study of contemporary texts, texts from the past, and texts from diverse cultures, students explore and analyse these connections. Students understand and can express the interdependence of language, culture, identity, and values in Australian and other contexts, and are able to appreciate and empathise with the cultural beliefs, attitudes, and values of others. They study how cultural concepts, beliefs, practices, and perspectives are represented in a range of textual forms and for a variety of purposes and audiences.  

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, cultures, and perspectives

In partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and schools and school sectors, the SACE Board of South Australia supports the development of high-quality learning and assessment design that respects the diverse knowledge, cultures, and perspectives of Indigenous Australians.

The SACE Board encourages teachers to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and perspectives in the design, delivery, and assessment of teaching and learning programs by:

• providing opportunities in SACE subjects for students to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, and contemporary experiences
• recognising and respecting the significant contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Australian society
• drawing students’ attention to the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and perspectives from the past and the present
• promoting the use of culturally appropriate protocols when engaging with and learning from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.  

SACE literacy requirement

Students who complete 20 credits of Stage 2 English Literary Studies with a C– grade or better will meet the literacy requirement of the SACE. 

Learning requirements

The learning requirements summarise the knowledge, skills, and understanding that students are expected to develop and demonstrate through their learning in Stage 2 English Literary Studies.

In this subject, students are expected to:

1. understand the relationship between author, text, and context
2. analyse how ideas, perspectives, and values are represented in texts and how they are received by audiences
3. analyse and compare texts, through the identification of the structural, conventional, and language and stylistic features used by authors
4. use evidence to develop, support, and justify a critical interpretation of a text
5. develop analytical responses to texts by considering other interpretations
6. create oral, written, and/or multimodal texts that experiment with stylistic features by using and adapting literary conventions
7. express ideas in a range of modes to create texts that engage the reader, viewer, or listener.

Content

Stage 2 English Literary Studies is a 20-credit subject.

The content includes:

• responding to texts
• creating texts.

Responding to texts

Through their study of literary texts, students understand how readers are influenced to respond to their own and others’ cultural experiences, and how the expectations of audiences shape perceptions of texts and their significance. Students make comparisons between texts in different literary forms and mediums and from different traditions. Students observe ways in which Australian authors represent culture, place, and identity as well as ways in which perspectives in texts from other times and cultures may be read and interpreted by a contemporary Australian audience. Students observe how interpretations of texts may vary over time, and develop an understanding of literary texts in their historical and cultural contexts.

There is a particular focus on how ideas, perspectives, values, attitudes, and emotions are conveyed in literary texts. Students develop an understanding of how literary conventions and stylistic features are used in texts to create meaning and effect. Through a close study of techniques in texts, students develop an understanding of ways in which language, structural, and stylistic choices communicate values and attitudes and may shed new light on familiar ideas. Students are supported to appreciate the aesthetic qualities of literary texts.

Critical perspectives

Students consider factors that affect different readers’ interpretations of a text. They develop an understanding that a text may be interpreted from a range of critical perspectives and that each may emphasise different textual features. Students become familiar with a number of critical perspectives and develop an understanding that the position adopted in a critical perspective reflects a particular interpretation of a text, shaped by an understanding of how the text is seen to represent society and culture. By exploring a range of critical interpretations students understand that a single text may be interpreted in a number of different ways.

By considering the critical perspectives on a particular text, students deepen their knowledge of the text and are challenged to develop and support their own interpretations. Contrasting critical interpretations may emphasise the role of the author or the role of the reader in shaping the ‘meaning’ of the text, or students may focus on the text as a sociocultural product or as an artefact or icon that stands apart from its historical context.

Some critical interpretations present a blend of such emphases and others adopt one as the primary lens through which a text may be read. Through their study of texts and interpretations of texts, students develop an understanding of the assumptions that shape critical analysis. Such assumptions may, for example, be about the virtues of particular forms and styles, cultural and personal values and beliefs, or perceptions about the status of the author. By understanding different critical perspectives, students expand the number of meanings that they are able to read in a particular text.

In English Literary Studies, students compose analytical texts in response to their text studies. They present informed and sustained interpretations of texts, supported by close textual analysis. In their analytical texts, students use appropriate critical terminology to evaluate texts and justify interpretations. They develop skills in critically evaluating their own and others’ justifications, evidence, and points of view.

Responding to texts consists of:

• shared studies
• comparative text study.

Shared studies

Among the texts chosen for shared study there must be a:

• study of three texts
  • one extended prose text
  • one film text
  • one drama text
• study of poetry
• study of a range of short texts.

The shared studies must include the work of at least one Australian author. (The author may be a poet, playwright, prose writer, or film director).

Study of three texts

This study focuses on the role of the author in creating a text and the part played by the reader in making meaning of the text. The study is designed to address the ideas, values, and emotions explored in the texts. It entails a focus on the role of language techniques and stylistic features in achieving a variety of possible purposes. In this study, students develop an understanding of the ways in which different critical perspectives can shape interpretations of texts.

The study of three texts is a shared activity based on texts chosen by the teacher. There must be one extended prose text, one film text, and one drama text. Two of the texts must be from the text list (on pp. 18–20). The third may be from this list but is not required to be.

Study of poetry

This study is designed to explore and evaluate ways in which poets influence readers to respond to their own and others’ cultural experiences, and how ideas, perspectives, and values are conveyed through a range of language techniques and stylistic features. Students become familiar with ways in which specific poetic elements and forms shape meaning and influence responses, and develop an awareness of how various poetic conventions have been employed within and across historical and cultural contexts. In developing their own independent and informed interpretations of poetic texts, students learn to apply appropriate critical terminology to evaluate and support their interpretations.

The study of poetry is a shared activity in which teachers choose poems that focus on the works of at least three poets. At least one of the poets must be chosen from the poets on the text list (on p. 20); the remaining poet or poets are not required to be chosen from the list.

The selection must allow students to consider and compare the works of the chosen poets, but could also include a wider range of poems to cover students’ individual interests and choices, particularly if the teacher organises the study of poetry around a theme.

Study of a range of short texts

This study involves the reading of a range of short texts that may include prose fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and texts with graphic or visual elements. Students use close textual analysis to support and develop an informed and sustained interpretation of a range of short texts. The interpretation should take into account the relationship between authors, texts, audiences, and contexts, by analysing aspects such as the power of language to represent ideas, events, and people in particular ways. The study should include consideration of comparisons between short texts. Students develop and apply their understanding of ways in which ideas, perspectives, and values are communicated through language and stylistic features in texts. Students develop skills to communicate their analysis and evaluation of texts, using appropriate critical terminology.

Comparative text study

This study involves the comparative study of two texts: one from the shared studies and the other independently chosen by the student.

Text from the shared studies

The text from the shared studies may be:

• an extended prose text
• a film text
• a drama text
• poetry texts.

This text may be the same one for the whole class but is not required to be.

Independently chosen text

The second text in the comparative text study is selected by the student in consultation with the teacher. It is advisable for the teacher to discuss ideas for pairings during the study of the shared texts. The most appropriate pairings are those likely to produce ample scope for establishing both similarities and differences, and may focus on:

• work by the same author
• a common theme, idea, or topic
• the same or a contrasting historical or literary period (either of text production or setting)
• work that is similar or different in form or medium
• work from similar or different cultural perspectives
• an interpretation from a particular critical perspective.

The text or texts chosen by the student may be drawn from the similarly wide range of options governing the teacher’s selection of the shared texts, but this second text must not be another text from the shared studies. This second text must be studied in comparison with the initial text. Although the study is undertaken independently, teachers have a key role in supervising and advising students.

In their comparative study, students could focus, for example, on one or more of:

• the ideas and perspectives explored in the text
• the sociocultural context in which the text was generated
• the assumptions and bias in the text
• the form, medium, and mode of the text
• the language and stylistic techniques used by the author
• the context in which the text is being read or viewed
• a range of critical interpretations of the text.

Studying two texts in relation to each other allows students to broaden their understanding of the constructed nature of texts and to gain a better understanding of the influence of sociocultural contexts on both the text and the response of the reader. The influence of context on language, and the way in which power, bias, and discrimination are embedded in language can be considered. By studying one text in relation to another, and analysing the connections between the texts, students can see that the same idea, experience, emotion, or opinion can be treated in different ways. In this study, students also consider different ways of reading texts in the context of time, place, culture, and the traditions of a range of critical perspectives and/or reading positions. Students therefore explore the relationship between language, culture, and identity. Students may synthesise and challenge the interpretations of others, developing their own analytical responses.

Creating texts

Students create texts that enable them to apply the knowledge, skills, and understanding developed through their study of literary texts in a range of forms.

Students experiment with and adapt content, medium, form, style, point of view, and language to create their own texts. Students draw on their knowledge and experience of genre and literary devices to experiment with elements of style and voice to achieve specific effects in their own texts. In their texts they understand and apply literary conventions for different audiences and contexts, and may experiment with conventions and reinterpret ideas and perspectives. In creating their own texts, students show their understanding of ways in which the expectations and values of audiences shape a text by adapting form, personal style, language, and content to engage and position the audience.

The creating texts study focuses on:

• transforming texts
• creating a written, oral, or multimodal text.

Transforming texts

Students develop their understanding of genre by considering how texts may be transformed into other forms of the same text type or into text types different from the original. The aim of transforming texts is for students to explore the complex ways in which the form and conventions of a text are significant in the making of meaning, both for original and transformed texts.

Students learn ways in which a completely new text can be created by converting, or reimagining, a text to reflect a new social or cultural context.

Students evaluate some of the literary conventions of the original and transformed text types and the effectiveness of these in shaping audience response. To support their evaluation, students consider the ways in which meaning is altered when the text is transformed.

In exploring how to transform texts, students may, for example:

• transform an extract from an extended prose text into a monologue (e.g. an extract from Dickens presented from the point of view of a contemporary children’s rights campaigner)
• create a drama script based on a poem (e.g. a section of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land presented as monologue)
• take a section of a film script and transform it into an extended narrative (e.g. select a scene, or collection of scenes, from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and write a descriptive narrative)
• use a minor character from one text as a major character in a new text with significant shifts to theme, plot, characterisation, or narrative voice (e.g. write a set of personal reflections from the point of view of Mr Wingfield from Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie)
• create a poem from a newspaper article (e.g. an opinion piece in a newspaper about a social/political issue could be transformed into a poem or series of poems).

Creating a written, oral, or multimodal text

Students create a written, oral, or multimodal text that demonstrates understanding and mastery of the features of the chosen text type. They draw on what they have learnt from analysing texts in the other studies to demonstrate, in their own text, the textual conventions and stylistic features appropriate to the form of their choice. They identify the features of a range of forms of writing or speaking, on which to model their own text creation.

Students develop an awareness and control of language techniques and stylistic features appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.

Although the text that the student creates may extend or elaborate on ideas, themes, or issues encountered in the shared studies or the comparative text study, it should not be a response to a text or texts, or depend on close textual knowledge or analysis of a particular text.

The text may take one of a number of forms, for example:

• a written narrative
• a formal speech
• a newspaper or magazine article that describes a social, political, or sporting event
• expository writing
• a toast
• a performance
• a monologue
• a podcast
• a multimodal presentation incorporating a substantial amount of writing
• an imaginative hypertext
• a personal letter to explain and justify a point of view
• a description.

Evidence of learning

All Stage 2 subjects have a school assessment component and an external assessment component.

The following assessment types enable students to demonstrate their learning in Stage 2 English Literary Studies:

School assessment (70%)

• Assessment Type 1: Responding to Texts (50%)
• Assessment Type 2: Creating Texts (20%)

External assessment (30%)

• Assessment Type 3: Text Study:
  • Part A: Comparative Text Study (15%)
  • Part B: Critical Reading (15%)

Students provide evidence of their learning through up to nine assessments, including the external assessment component. Students complete:

• up to five responses to texts
• two created texts
• two tasks for the text study (one comparative text study and one critical reading).

Assessment design criteria

The assessment design criteria are based on the learning requirements and are used by:

• teachers to clarify for the student what they need to learn
• teachers and assessors to design opportunities for the student to provide evidence of their learning at the highest possible level of achievement.

The assessment design criteria consist of specific features that:

• students should demonstrate in their learning
• teachers and assessors look for as evidence that students have met the learning requirements.

For this subject, the assessment design criteria are:

• knowledge and understanding
• analysis
• application.

The specific features of these criteria are described below.

The set of assessments, as a whole, must give students opportunities to demonstrate each of the specific features by the completion of study of the subject. 

Knowledge and Understanding 

The specific features are as follows:

Analysis  

The specific features are as follows:

Application  

The specific features are as follows:

School assessment

The school assessment component for Stage 2 English Literary Studies consists of two assessment types:

• Assessment Type 1: Responding to Texts
• Assessment Type 2: Creating Texts.

Assessment Type 1: Responding to Texts (50%)

Students produce up to five responses to their text studies; together, the responses comprise a maximum of 5000 words. One of these responses can be oral or multimodal in form, where 6 minutes is equivalent to 1000 words. There is flexibility within this study for the texts to be considered in terms of each other, leading to a single response or set of responses of up to 5000 words.

As a set, the responses must cover each of the following text studies:

• extended prose text
• film text
• drama text
• poetry texts.

For the extended prose, film, and drama texts, two of the texts must be from the text list. The third text may be from this list, but is not required to be.

The poetry texts should include poems by at least three poets, with at least one of the poets selected from those on the text list.

One text response must be a critical perspectives task, in which students consider one or more texts (or a selection of texts in the case of poetry) from two critical perspectives. Students consider how the position adopted in a critical perspective reflects a particular interpretation of a text. The perspectives can either be from an identified lens (e.g. feminist or post-colonial perspective) or reflect the student’s awareness of their own critical reading of the text or texts and the way in which that is informed by the perspectives of other readers, viewers, or critics.

For example, a:

• text by a contemporary Indian writer considered from a post-colonial and a feminist perspective
• Shakespeare play interpreted in terms of its representation of gender and psychological motivation
• nineteenth-century text scrutinised from a socioeconomic and a race perspective
• collection of poems examined from a psychological and a personal reading perspective
• war film viewed from a pacifist and a historical perspective.

For this assessment type, students provide evidence of their learning in relation to the following assessment design criteria:

• knowledge and understanding
• analysis
• application. 

Assessment Type 2: Creating texts (20%)

Students create:

• one transformative text linked to another text, with a writer’s statement (1500 words, or
  9 minutes, or equivalent in multimodal form)
• one written, oral, or multimodal text (1000 words, or 6 minutes, or equivalent in multimodal form).

Transformative Text

The transformative text requires students to select a text and transform it, or an aspect of it, into another form. The text chosen as the basis for this task may or may not come from the texts in the shared studies. The accompanying writer’s statement should outline the choices the student has made in terms of the text type, audience, and purpose.

Written, Oral, or Multimodal Text

This text allows scope to focus on understanding and mastery of the features of a chosen text type. Although the text that the student creates may extend or elaborate on ideas, themes, or issues encountered in the shared studies or the comparative text study, it should not be a response to a text or texts, or depend on close textual knowledge or analysis of a particular text.

For this assessment type, students provide evidence of their learning in relation to the following assessment design criteria:

• knowledge and understanding
• analysis
• application. 

External assessment

The external assessment component for Stage 2 English Literary Studies consists of a text study.

Assessment Type 3: Text study (30%)

The external assessment is divided into two sections, Part A and Part B.

Part A: Comparative Text Study (15%)

A comparative text study that compares one of the texts studied in the shared studies with another text individually chosen by the student, in a response of a maximum of 1500 words. This response is a critical essay, in which the two texts are discussed in relation to each other. Students frame their own question and develop their response during the year, and submit the completed response for external assessment.

Teachers and external assessors appointed by the SACE Board assess the comparative text study, with reference to the performance standards.

The following specific features of the assessment design criteria for this subject are assessed in the comparative text study:

• knowledge and understanding — KU1, KU2, and KU3
• analysis — An1, An2, and An3
• application — Ap2 and Ap3

Part B: Critical Reading (15%)

A critical reading of one or more short texts. The short texts may be in a variety of forms (e.g. prose, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, texts with graphic or visual elements, or excerpts from film or soundtracks).

The critical reading is a 100-minute examination developed by the SACE Board.

The following specific features of the assessment design criteria for this subject may be assessed in the examination:

• knowledge and understanding — KU1, KU2, and KU3
• analysis — An1, An2, and An3
• application — Ap2 and Ap3. 

Performance standards

The performance standards describe five levels of achievement, A to E. 

Each level of achievement describes the knowledge, skills, and understanding that teachers and assessors refer to in deciding how well students have demonstrated their learning on the basis of the evidence provided. 

During the teaching and learning program the teacher gives students feedback on their learning, with reference to the performance standards.

At the student’s completion of study of each school assessment type, the teacher makes a decision about the quality of the student’s learning by:

• referring to the performance standards
• assigning a grade between A+ and E– for the assessment type.  

The student’s school assessment and external assessment are combined for a final result, which is reported as a grade between A+ and E–.

Performance standards

Stage 2 performance standards for English Literary Studies can be viewed below. You can also download in Word format [DOC 22KB].

To learn more about what performance standards are, how they are used, and other general information, see performance standards and grades. 

Text list

Prose texts

Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart

Adiga, Aravind, The White Tiger

Ali, Monica, Brick Lane

Allende, Isabel, The House of the Spirits

Anderson, Boyd, The Heart Radical

Atwood, Margaret, The Handmaid’s Tale

Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice

Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights

Carroll, Steven, The Art of the Engine Driver

Coetzee, J.M, Summertime

de Botton, Alain, The Art of Travel

Dalton, Trent, Boy Swallows Universe

Dickens, Charles, Great Expectations

Doerr, Anthony, All the Light We Cannot See

Fitzgerald, F.S., The Great Gatsby

Flanagan, Richard, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, Love in the Time of Cholera

Grenville, Kate, The Secret River

Hosseini, Khaled, The Kite Runner

Ishiguro, Kazuo, Never Let Me Go

Jones, Lloyd, Mister Pip

Kent, Hannah, Burial Rites

Kesey, Ken, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Lucashenko, Melissa, Too Much Lip

McEwan, Ian, Atonement

Malouf, David, Fly Away Peter

Martel, Yann, Life of Pi

O'Farrell, Maggie, Hamnet

Orwell, George, 1984

Parrett, Favel, Past the Shallows

Proulx, E. Annie, The Shipping News

Rooney, Sally, Normal People

Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein

Stedman, M.L., The Light Between Oceans

Steinbeck, John, The Grapes of Wrath

Süskind, Patrick, Perfume

Temple, Peter, The Broken Shore

Tan, Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists

Winch, Tara June, Swallow the Air

Williams, John, Stoner

Winton, Tim, Breath 

Film texts (directors)^*

Anderson, Wes, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Boulting, John, Brighton Rock

Bong Joon-ho, Parasite

Clooney, George, Good Night, and Good Luck

Coen, Joel, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Curtiz, Michael, Casablanca

Daldry, Stephen, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

DuVernay, Ava, Selma

Farhadi, Asghar, A Separation

Fosse, Bob, Cabaret

de Heer, Rolf, The Tracker or Charlie’s Country

del Toro, Guillermo, Pan’s Labyrinth

Donnersmarck, Florian, The Lives of Others

Gondry, Michel, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Gordon, Seth, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (documentary)

Hitchcock, Alfred, Psycho

Iñárritu, Alejandro González, Birdman

Jeunet, J-P., Amelie

Lawrence, Ray, Jindabyne

Leigh, Mike, Secrets and Lies

Linklater, Richard, Boyhood

Luhrman, Baz, Strictly Ballroom

McKenzie, Catriona, Satellite Boy

McTeigue, James, V for Vendetta

Marsh, James, Man on Wire (documentary)

Moorehouse, Jocelyn, The Dressmaker

Nair, Mira, Monsoon Wedding

Niccol, Andrew, Gattaca

Perkins, Rachel, Radiance

Reed, Carol, The Third Man

Scott, Ridley, Blade Runner

Tykwer, Tom, Cloud Atlas

Tyldum, Morten, The Imitation Game

Vasarhelyi and Chin, Free Solo

Watt, Sarah, Look Both Ways

Welles, Orson, Citizen Kane

Zhang Yimou, Raise the Red Lantern

*The version of a film listed for study will be the first cinematic release by the named director, or the director’s cut. 

Drama texts

Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot

Bovell, Andrew, When the Rain Stops Falling

Brecht, Bertolt, The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Chekhov, Anton, The Cherry Orchard

Churchill, Caryl, Top Girls

Davis, Jack, No Sugar

Enright, Nick & Monjo, Justin, Cloudstreet

Frayn, Michael, Noises Off

Gow, Michael, Away

Harrison, Jane, Stolen

Ibsen, Henrik, A Doll’s House

Miller, Arthur, The Crucible

Murray-Smith, Joanna, The Female of the Species

Nowra, Louis, Cosi

Pinter, Harold, The Caretaker

Rayson, Hannie, Two Brothers

Riley, Sean, Beautiful Words

Shaffer, Peter, Equus

Shakespeare, William, any play

Stoppard, Tom, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Williams, Tennessee, The Glass Menagerie

Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest

Williamson, David, any play

Poets

Auden, W.H.

Blake, William

Boey, Kim Cheng

Dawe, Bruce

Dickinson, Emily

Dobson, Rosemary

Donne, John

Eliot, T.S.

Frost, Robert

Hardy, Thomas

Harwood, Gwen

Heaney, Seamus

Hopkins, Gerard Manley

Hughes, Ted

Keats, John

Kinsella, John

Kroll, Jeri

Moreton, Romaine

Mtshali, O.M.

Murray, Les

Neruda, Pablo

Nichols, Grace

Noonuccal, Oodgeroo

Owen, Wilfred

Plath, Sylvia

Rich, Adrienne

Rossetti, Christina

Shakespeare, William

Slessor, Kenneth

Soyinka, Wole

Sykes, Roberta

Thomas, Dylan

Walker, Alice

Whitman, Walt

Wordsworth, William

Wright, Judith

Yeats, W.B.

Glossary

Audience

The group of readers, listeners or viewers that the writer, film-maker, or speaker is addressing. Audience, real and implied, includes an individual, students in the classroom, and the wider community.

Context

The environment in which a text is responded to or created. Context can include the social, historical, and cultural conditions in which a text is responded to and created (the context of culture) or the specific features of its immediate environment (context of situation).

Convention

An accepted practice that has developed over time and is generally used and understood, for example, the use of specific structural aspects of texts, such as in report writing with sections for introduction, background, discussion, and recommendations.

Intertextuality

The shaping of a text's meaning by the reading of other texts or the interrelationship of texts, such as when an author borrows from or transforms another text or a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. Texts gain meaning through their reference to or evocation of other texts.

Language features

The features of language that support meaning (e.g. sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation, figurative language, framing, camera angles). These choices vary according to the purpose of a text, subject matter, audience, and communication mode.

Literary text

Literary texts refer to past and present texts across a range of cultural contexts. They are valued for their form and style and are recognised as having enduring or artistic value. All texts in the text list are examples of literary texts. Some texts in the digital media category may also be considered literary texts.

Medium

The resources used in the production of texts, including tools and materials (e.g. digital text and the computer, writing and the pen, typewriter).

Metalanguage

Specialised language used to refer to technical aspects of the study of English, for example, language used to discuss film or literary study (e.g. mise-en-scène, symbolism, characterisation) or language used to talk about grammatical terms (e.g. ‘sentence’, ‘clause’, ‘conjunction’).

Mode

The various processes of communication: listening, speaking, reading/viewing, and writing/creating. Modes are also used to refer to the semiotic (meaning-making) resources associated with these communicative processes (e.g. sound, print, image, gesture).

Multimodal text

Combination of two or more communication modes (e.g. combining print, image, and spoken text in film or computer presentations).

Perspective

What a reader/viewer brings to a text, or the way in which a reader/viewer is positioned by the author through the text, or how a particular ideology is embedded in a text (e.g. a feminist perspective).

Stylistic features

The ways in which aspects of texts (e.g. words, sentences, images) are arranged and how they affect meaning. Style can distinguish the work of individual authors (e.g. Henry Lawson’s poems) as well as the work of a particular period (e.g. Elizabethan drama), or of a particular text type (e.g. recipes, scientific articles). Examples of stylistic features are narrative viewpoint, structure of stanzas, juxtaposition, nominalisation, alliteration, metaphor, and lexical choice.

Text types

Examples of text types include: reports, essays, speeches, narratives, recounts, infographics, films, stories, poems, novels, podcasts. These text types can be further classified according to the particular purposes they are designed to achieve (e.g. informational, imaginative, interpretive, analytical, or persuasive).

Subject changes

Any changes to this subject will be recorded here.