Students demo. inter-textuality

This time last year we had some hot days (remember them?) but that didn’t stop some AS Eng. Lit. students working hard under even hotter studio lights. Students from five UK schools from Hertfordshire to Nottinghamshire had just a day each to film extracts from some of the texts being studied for A Level English Literature.

A wide range of works were covered, for example:

> plays such as Measure for Measure and The White Devil
> novels such as those by Dickens and Scott Fitzgerald
> verse by poets such as Donne and Rossetti.

A whole new understanding

 The aim of the enterprise was to illustrate how much authors use allusions within their work. They assume that their audiences will pick up the references, thereby adding a whole new layer of understanding.

Unfortunately, with changing times, not everyone stays familiar with the references that were once known so well.

For example, most people watching Hamlet today won’t register that, when Hamlet confronts his Mum about how gross he regards her hasty marriage to his step dad, he adds weight to his disgust by quoting the Bible at her. No pressure then!

 To illustrate how authors have drawn on references like these from the Bible, performances were interspersed by relevant verses, or particular narratives were used to frame the extracts.

Impressing the examiners

Given that any half decent A Level essay or exam answer will be expected to mention concepts such as inter-textuality and the context of reception, these film clips (which last from between 2 – 7 minutes) provide an easy way to delight your teachers / examiners.

To help reinforce the concept, a series of lesson downloads accompany each performance. (Don’t tell anyone, but sometimes even your teachers don’t know this stuff, so we’ve given them a helping hand.)

Why not explore Inter-textuality AV resources and see if one of the authors you are studying is featured? It could just open your eyes to a new way of reading…