The last couple of lessons have been spent creating detailed Dracula essay plans as a class - the essays planned spanned a range of themes, meaning we got a flavour of the range of topics we could be asked about in the exam. Sharing ideas, finding quotes and discussing how we'd approach questions as a class has been really helpful and I now feel more prepared with regard to the exam. Studying the text and then moving on to essay planning is my preferred way of working - when we were studying Faustus and did essay plans and practises as we went along, I got a bit confused. Feel more confident with 'Dracula' as we got an overview of the text before we started to structure our knowledge around what the exam asks for.
Last lesson, as an introduction to 'The Bloody Chamber' we started to look at gender expectations. As discussed, in today's society, we've been trained to be politically correct and, when thinking of gender expectations, it was quite difficult to gather ideas as we've had ideas of equality drummed into us. Acknowledging this, we spoke about how, unlike today's society in which we are keen to promote equality and hesitant when it comes to discussing stereotypes, in the 1950s gender roles were very specific and very restricting.
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I'm pleased that the approach we took in Dracula worked for you.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting what you say about finding it difficult to talk about gender equality in our modern context. How do you think this will influence our reading of The Bloody Chamber?
I think we will be more accepting of 'feminist' themes within the novel as ideas deemed 'feminist' at the time in which Carter was writing may now be considered a product of 'equality'. Because we, in terms of modern society, have had political correctness and ideas of equality drummed into us, I think bearing in mind the context in which the text was written and primarily received will be crucial to unlocking the real power behind 'The Bloody Chamber' - ideas that were radical then are, perhaps, to us 'norms'
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