Chris@SummitTutoring
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2023
- Messages
- 7
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- 2008
Before exploring the HOW in part 2, I want to unpack the idea of human experience itself.
To put it simply, this common module explores how texts represent human experiences and how texts also represent the emotions that arise from these experiences. Before exploring the HOW part, It's important to note that:
The idea of ‘human experience’ is part of a more concrete idea known as the “human condition” All human experience occurs within the ever present reality of the human condition. The human condition is the idea that human beings are subject to life, suffering, the inevitability of death, emotion, ageing and the perpetual ‘search for meaning’.
Human experience is inextricably connected to meaning.
Human beings are meaning seeking creatures. Students must take this a priori assumption into their reading of the prescribed texts for this module! Characters experience human experience through the lens of meaning. I would recommend students consult Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl’s book “Man's search for meaning”. In this book Frankl argues that while almost everything can be stripped from a person, the one thing they have power over is their attitude and will.
Choice therefore, or free will plays a key role in determining what occurs to the main character.
Note, ALL the common module texts, whether it be Nineteen eighty four or Billy Elliot, explore this concept of good and evil in some way. At the centre of this struggle lies the protagonist and the story unravels their role in manifesting either good or evil.If the main character contributes to good, how did they arrive and why? And if they contribute to evil, how did they end up there and why?
Despite the fragilities of life, some things are more important than the preservation of life itself. This is the case In 1984,The Crucible and ‘I am Malala’
Lets use 1984 by George Orwell as an example, it recounts the story of an oppressive totalitarian state and a helpless protagonist who, despite his own resentment against the state, is part of the machinery of state control. Ultimately, despite the tragic death of the protagonist, we are left with a sense of hopelessness, evil winning yet a sense of the urge that something should have been done despite those dire circumstances. In the Crucible for example, John Proctor is killed for refusing to lie and confess to witchcraft. In I am Malala, the protagonist attempts to educate herself despite knowing the imminent dangers. As a result of her daring actions, she was ‘shot by the Taliban’ yet still continues to actively speak out about human rights and the importance of female education.
Role of emotion:
Arising as a product of ‘human experience’/the human condition are the spectrum of human qualities and emotions. It is important to note there are six basic human emotions, anger, sadness, fear, trust, joy, guilt. Students should take time to study characters' emotional worlds and reactions to events.
How much of a role does emotion play?
Are characters guided purely by emotions?
Are some possessed by emotions?
In the Poetics, Aristotle argued that the downfall of a main character was a result of “hamartia”. This was an innate quality that led to the downfall of a character..
I would advise students to explore this idea of hamartia more…
In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is obsessed with getting his “pound of flesh” from Antonio. That demand is driven by a complex emotional state comprising resentment, anger, and bitterness.
Paradoxes, Contradictions and Anomalies of Human Behaviour
The syllabus also wants students to examine the ‘paradoxes’, contradictions and ‘anomalies’ of human behaviour.
What motivates human behaviour?
Are we puppets to our environment?
Do characters have free will?
What are the cultural or social expectations of behaviour and do characters contradict these?
Why do characters hold beliefs that contradict their behaviours and why do they have behaviours that contradict their beliefs?
In the Poetics, Aristotle insists that a character's downfall is a result of “hamartia”. Are characters victims of their own vices?
What motivates contradictory behaviour?
How do such questions demand us to consider things differently, think more critically or challenge our existing assumptions about people and the world?
What pattern of behaviours do characters follow and why?
How would you define contradictory behaviour?
What does contradictory behaviour reveal about a character's subjectivity?
To put it simply, this common module explores how texts represent human experiences and how texts also represent the emotions that arise from these experiences. Before exploring the HOW part, It's important to note that:
The idea of ‘human experience’ is part of a more concrete idea known as the “human condition” All human experience occurs within the ever present reality of the human condition. The human condition is the idea that human beings are subject to life, suffering, the inevitability of death, emotion, ageing and the perpetual ‘search for meaning’.
Human experience is inextricably connected to meaning.
Human beings are meaning seeking creatures. Students must take this a priori assumption into their reading of the prescribed texts for this module! Characters experience human experience through the lens of meaning. I would recommend students consult Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl’s book “Man's search for meaning”. In this book Frankl argues that while almost everything can be stripped from a person, the one thing they have power over is their attitude and will.
Choice therefore, or free will plays a key role in determining what occurs to the main character.
Note, ALL the common module texts, whether it be Nineteen eighty four or Billy Elliot, explore this concept of good and evil in some way. At the centre of this struggle lies the protagonist and the story unravels their role in manifesting either good or evil.If the main character contributes to good, how did they arrive and why? And if they contribute to evil, how did they end up there and why?
Despite the fragilities of life, some things are more important than the preservation of life itself. This is the case In 1984,The Crucible and ‘I am Malala’
Lets use 1984 by George Orwell as an example, it recounts the story of an oppressive totalitarian state and a helpless protagonist who, despite his own resentment against the state, is part of the machinery of state control. Ultimately, despite the tragic death of the protagonist, we are left with a sense of hopelessness, evil winning yet a sense of the urge that something should have been done despite those dire circumstances. In the Crucible for example, John Proctor is killed for refusing to lie and confess to witchcraft. In I am Malala, the protagonist attempts to educate herself despite knowing the imminent dangers. As a result of her daring actions, she was ‘shot by the Taliban’ yet still continues to actively speak out about human rights and the importance of female education.
Role of emotion:
Arising as a product of ‘human experience’/the human condition are the spectrum of human qualities and emotions. It is important to note there are six basic human emotions, anger, sadness, fear, trust, joy, guilt. Students should take time to study characters' emotional worlds and reactions to events.
How much of a role does emotion play?
Are characters guided purely by emotions?
Are some possessed by emotions?
In the Poetics, Aristotle argued that the downfall of a main character was a result of “hamartia”. This was an innate quality that led to the downfall of a character..
I would advise students to explore this idea of hamartia more…
In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is obsessed with getting his “pound of flesh” from Antonio. That demand is driven by a complex emotional state comprising resentment, anger, and bitterness.
Paradoxes, Contradictions and Anomalies of Human Behaviour
The syllabus also wants students to examine the ‘paradoxes’, contradictions and ‘anomalies’ of human behaviour.
What motivates human behaviour?
Are we puppets to our environment?
Do characters have free will?
What are the cultural or social expectations of behaviour and do characters contradict these?
Why do characters hold beliefs that contradict their behaviours and why do they have behaviours that contradict their beliefs?
In the Poetics, Aristotle insists that a character's downfall is a result of “hamartia”. Are characters victims of their own vices?
What motivates contradictory behaviour?
How do such questions demand us to consider things differently, think more critically or challenge our existing assumptions about people and the world?
What pattern of behaviours do characters follow and why?
How would you define contradictory behaviour?
What does contradictory behaviour reveal about a character's subjectivity?