HSC - Henry Lawson Flashcards
HL - Introduction
Composers provide responders with (Question), conveying meaning concerning identity and culture. Within Lawson’s short story ‘The Drovers Wife’ he reveals the subjugation of women within the modernist era through realist imagistic style, challenging modernist gender standards and roles within society. Furthermore, in ‘Union Buries its Dead’ Lawson elucidates to the nihilistic values of Modernism, highlighting the loss of individuality and the reasons behind loss through dialogic. (link to question)
HL - Para 1 Idea
The Drovers Wife - Feminist Critique, Isolation
HL - Para 1 Quote 1
“Nineteen miles to the nearest signs of civilisation - a shanty on the main road.”
HL - P1 Q1 Technique
Visual Imagery - Reveals isolation, the requirement for one to be self-sufficient and mentally fit, help only rarely comes by. The composer’s use of imagery allows responders to recognise the isolation experienced by women during the modernist era.
HL - Para 1 Quote 2
“There are things that a bush woman cannot do.”
HL - P1 Q2 Technique
Sexism - Metaphor for a constant fight, resulting in being overworked and overwhelmed. Reaffirms the requirement for a male influence in a life, some kind of male is needed to life happily.
HL - Para 1 Quote 3
“But this bushwoman is used to the loneliness of it. As a girl-wife, she would have hated it, but now she would feel strange away from it.”
HL - P1 Q3 Technique
Anomaly with the context of the period, juxtaposes past and present life. Word use evokes complex emotions and imagery of loneliness, ‘hated’ and ‘strange’ show she is content with her life but nothing more or less.
HL - Para 2 Idea
Union Buries it’s Dead - Loss of individual identity – Modernist Era (industrialisation, capitalism)
HL - Para 2 Quote 1
“I didn’t take any notice of him, he said something didn’t he?”
HL - P2 Q1 Analysis
Dialogue - Colloquial. Showcases the lack of connection between the dead’s identity and individuality. Reveals how outside of a social circle, everyone is alienated and has no meaning, revealing a lack of individual interest and identity.
HL - Para 2 Quote 2
“Why! Didn’t you know that before… No; but I knew he was a union man”
HL - P2 Q2 Analysis
Dialogue - The man’s original identity is replaced with the collective ‘union’ identity. To have him known collectively as a ‘union’ is all that matters, original identity has no meaning in a modernist society.
HL - Para 2 Quote 3
“Perhaps not one of the fourteen possessed a soul any more than the corpse did.”
HL - P2 Q3 Analysis
The narrator showcases a Nihilistic view of life through Dialogue, the comparison of the others acting with disinterest leads to a conclusion alluding to the lack of soul and complete drainage of identity.
