Belonging

Prescribed text - Emily Dickinson Poems

• Areas of study are, by definition, broad. The concept of belonging itself can be elusive because its understanding is dependent on people's perceptions.

• While there are no prescribed focuses for the Area of Study, certain texts and approaches tend to settle into frameworks that can direct and support student responses.

• This presentation is designed to help students’ develop a structured and relevant framework from which you can build your analysis and responses to texts.

Developing a framework…

• Being • Becoming • Belonging• Identity • Institution • Belonging• Institution • Identity • Multiple institutions •

identity • belonging

• Which of these frameworks fits best with your prescribed text?

• Can you design your own framework?

Test the success of your chosen framework…

Use the venn diagram on the next slide to help…

• One Belonging Framework: • Being .... Becoming .... Belonging

• One way of looking at the concept of belonging is to examine people's perceptions of:

what they are (being), how they are changing (what they are becoming)

and the feelings of acceptance (belonging) that this

may or may not generate.

Being .... Becoming .... Belonging… & Emily Dickinson

• In the Dickinson poems set for study the persona reflects on the uncertain, and even precarious, nature of belonging.

• POEM: I gave myself to him… Although it reflects on the uncertain, and

even precarious, nature of belonging, the poem I gave myself to him possesses a whimsical tone.

What reflections does the persona offer on the uncertain path to belonging?

• You might like to listen to a recording of the poem from the audiobook The Great Poets – Emily Dickinson read by Teresa Gallagher

A sample response - which explores concepts about Belonging in Dickinson’s I gave myself to him and an extract from the film The Piano

The extracts from "The Piano” and the Dickinson poem, "I Gave..." promote a sense of ambivalence towards perpetuating the role of BEING a female in the 19th century. BECOMING the archetypal "wife" figure simply by being of a particular age and culture. Then BELONGING to not only a husband but to the powerful traditions and paradigms ingrained in society. In Dickinson's poem, the interior monologue reveals the persona’s reflection on marriage. The mercantile language style suggests a metaphorical analogy of marriage as a cold and emotionless business venture. The cynical attitude towards marriage is expressed as "depreciation" over time. The "hidden cargoes” metaphorically suggests that the union is burdened by hidden flaws. The alliterative "myself a poorer prove” depicts the persona’s lack of power in the marriage which loudly echoes the lack of power that women possess in the patriarchal world in which they belong.

In "The Piano", a similarly cynical attitude to marriage is presented by the wife. Again, the use of interior monologue introduces the private and candid thoughts of the protagonist, revealing insights into her ambivalent and almost depricating attitude to her betrothal. This contrasts significantly to her seemingly cooperative and genial arrival in New Zealand, where the reader hears no interior monologue. Her piano, symbolises her “voice” and suggests the repressive atmosphere she enters as she becomes a wife and belongs to the patriarchal values and nature of marriage. Her muteness becomes an increasingly powerful metaphor for the paradigm of passive feminine submission in marriage. Her Piano clearly symbolises not only the protagonists true love… but also her sense of her true power. The interior monologue combined with other literary techniques used in both texts evoke powerful ideas about a woman belonging to a husband; from being an independent woman, to becoming a wife, then ultimately belonging to a husband and the traditions of marriage. As each persona reaches that place in which she “belongs” so too she becomes increasingly submissive, passive or "mute".

Question: What skills do you need to write successful responses in the HSC examination?

Consider the following sections of the HSC examination:• Section 1: Unseen texts- • Section 2: Creative writing- • Section 3: Analytical writing

Creative writing-• How to structure imaginative responses- • Writing in different text types (journal, short

story, speech, etc)- • Effective use of sentence structure (variety of

sentences, types of sentences)- • Appropriate word choice- • Imaginative writing- • Appropriate paragraphs- • Development of ideas- • Character development-• Narrative voice- • Point of view (first, second, third person)- • Type of language (formal, informal,

colloquial)- • Use of figurative language (metaphors,

similes, etc)

Analytical writing- • Understanding of types of question- • Understanding of key terms- • Reading analytically-• Effective use of sentence structure (variety of

sentences, types of sentences)- • Appropriate word choice- • Appropriate paragraphs- • How to structure analytical responses (thesis

statement, developing paragraphs, thesis reinforcement)-

• Development of ideas-• How to write about the concept of belonging

through reference to prescribed text and related texts (accurate reference to elements of text, relevant examples, appropriate use of language and or visual techniques, explanation/analysis of text)-

• How to link prescribed text and related texts

•To be continued…