UNSEEN HSC 2020 Flashcards
Text 1 — Internet article and Text 2 — Illustration
How do these texts use a variety of language forms and features to communicate ideas about being creative? 5 MARKS
Text 1 — Internet article
From On Writing: authors reveal the secrets of their craft
Ideas for things come into one’s head, or bits of ideas; you feel there’s something – there’s some meat on the bone, there’s something there that lures you on. The more you think about it the more you’re led into this new world and the more of that world you see. And part of having an idea is having some notion of how you would tell the story . . . and the idea for the way to tell the story helps you to see what the story is. The story suggests the means, the means suggests the story; it’s mutually dependent. And you don’t have very much choice in the matter. Ideas come, characters suggest themselves, and the nature of the story and the nature of the characters dictates how it’s going to be done. I suppose if people are not writers or painters or whatever they see the life of the artist as being one of great freedom, but it’s not really; it’s as constrained as anyone else’s by the material that’s available. The thing seems to have some kind of reality in one’s head; it seems to be something that one is discovering, rather than inventing. I see that as a kind of psychological trick on oneself, because the
whole point about fiction is that it’s invention. It doesn’t really seem like it at the time – it seems as if you are slowly discovering something that already exists and seeing how the different parts of it relate to each other.
MICHAEL FRAYN
TEXT 2 ILLUSTRATION IN A BOAT
Question 1
In better responses, students were able to:
clearly explain how the texts communicated ideas about being creative using detailed evidence from both texts
demonstrate an understanding of storytelling, creativity and the construction of creative texts.
** Areas for students to improve include:**
demonstrating an understanding of the ways in which the specific language forms and features of each text convey ideas about being creative
providing relevant and judiciously selected textual references that support the ideas about being creative
ensuring that both texts are addressed in a reasonably balanced manner.
Explains effectively how the texts use a variety of language forms and
features to communicate ideas about being creative using detailed,
well-chosen supporting evidence
HSC NESA Sample answer:
These texts use a variety of language forms and features to communicate ideas about how being creative not only requires dedication, effort and being open to the world, but also brings joy and satisfaction through the act of creating. For example, Frayn’s clear, almost practical voice details how writers are ‘lured on’ by ideas that come into their heads. Frayn conveys the idea that being creative requires hard work by describing how it is not a life of ‘great freedom’. He details being receptive to ideas that arrive, to ‘characters [who] suggest themselves’ through the metaphor of being ‘led into this new world’. Frayn sees the act of being creative through the analogy of discovery – which he sees as something very different to the act of invention: being creative means discovering what is already there, following it and acting on it. The illustration, with its symbols of the bird and pencil, highlights how art and creativity bring freedom and joy to individuals. The journey of creativity, with its sense of discovering rich new ideas and unknown aspects of the world, is depicted in the illustration through the sea of flowing, poetic words that keeps the smiling, content writer afloat. The
creativity that is evident in this illustration by Julie Paschkis captures the joy that comes from the act of creating something vibrant, fresh and joyful.
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How do these texts use a variety of language forms and features to communicate ideas about being creative? DYMOCKS
Your response to this question should identify a specific idea about being creative: what inspires creativity, what assumptions people make about creativity, what the quality of creativity allows people to do…
You should analyse two examples from each text to support your response, bringing you to four examples in total.
SAMPLE ANSWER:
Both Text 1 and Text 2 present creativity as intrinsically codependent with the experiences that a composer has. However, Text 1 posits the idea that creativity is limited by an author’s experience, whereas Text 2 presents creativity as a liberating medium through which the world may be newly explored.
Text 1 discusses “ideas for things (that) come into one’s head, or bits of ideas” to personify creativity as an autonomous force that enters authors’ minds as a result of their experiences, and provides sustenance for their creative endeavours, as indicated by the metaphorical “meat on the bone.” However, the persona is “as constrained as anyone (else) by the material that’s available”, delineating creativity as not only fostered but also limited by experience. The word “constrained” negatively connotes inadequacy, and the text’s metafictive quality indicates the persona’s inability to write cohesively due to some lacking experience. Ultimately the audience is to consider the necessity of lived experiences before engaging in creativity.
Text 2, however, focalises creativity as a means of interpreting human experiences, as indicated by the use of text which fits within the organic strokes of the artwork. The text within the water creates a gliding alliteration of “WHILE”, “WHITHER”, “FLOW,” which symbolically allude to the function of language to replicate life and experience. In conjunction with this, the placement of the character at the centre of the image whose gaze creates a vector directed out of the frame is reflective of language’s ability to provoke curiosity and catalyse the discovery of new human experiences.
Other answers may include:
Creativity as a powerful force that ‘leads’ authors and creators into new worlds, and how ideas can ‘control’ the author’s process rather than the author being the one in total command.
The disparity between audiences’ understanding of creativity (believing it to be a freeing process), and composers’ understanding of its limitations and constraints.
The joy and freedom provided by the creative process.
The power of language and creative endeavours (art, writing) to capture experiences and concepts.
Creativity’s power to “transport” both authors and readers to new worlds, indicated by the symbolic boat being labelled “the pencil.”
Text 3 — Poem
How does the poem explore the power of storytelling? 5 MARKS
Text 3 — Poem
It Begins with Darkness
People file into the room, find their seats,
fill up the air with chatter. The stage
is bare except for a leather couch
and a lamp on a chrome and bakelite* stand.
It’s meant to be an old factory converted
to an apartment – exposed pipes, a ceiling
fit for a cathedral, polished oak floorboards.
A man dressed in black makes an announcement
about mobile phones. The lights go down.
I don’t know what I’m doing here,
I just know that this is theatre, my son an actor.
I hear his voice before I see him. It’s as loud
as the wind swatting at a loose sheet of corrugated iron
on the chook shed. When he comes on stage
he swears five times in the first minute,
all in the presence of a lady. I’ve a good mind
to go down and slap him about the face,
except that I’m sitting right in the middle of the row
and it wouldn’t be easy getting past all those knees.
Then I remember that he’s pretending
to be someone else, that this is his job now.
Soon everyone is laughing – they’re smiling
and nodding and taking in every move my son makes.
I’ve never been to a play before. It’s not
boilermaking, not the flying sparks from an arc welder**,
not the precision required for a submarine hull,
nor the relief of taking off your helmet,
gloves and apron and enjoying the coolness
of a harbour breeze as you eat your lunch
but it is, I guess, a different kind of trade.
I watch more and it all happens before my eyes
and I can see that he loves this lady,
everyone can see it and I want to say, ‘Son,
what are you afraid of?’ I want to reach out
and lift him up as I did when he was two
years old, riding a supermarket trolley
and screaming as if he’d just discovered
the power of his lungs. But I can’t touch him now
or even talk to him and I have this feeling
that it will turn out badly, like the week you have
the numbers in Lotto, but forget to buy the ticket.
The stage is dark again and he’s not swearing now
and the lady’s really pleased to see him
and she burns this scrap of paper and it flares up,
bright and yellow in the darkness
and the flame flickers across his forehead
and I glimpse in my son’s face the unmistakable
features of my father who is ten years dead.
Although the three of us won’t ever meet again,
I’m sure Dad would have loved this – a story
that takes a whole evening in the telling
and a small fire that leaps and glows
and transfixes us, for as long as it burns.ANDY KISANE
Question 2
In better responses, students were able to:
provide an effective explanation of how the poem explores the power of storytelling using relevant textual evidence
demonstrate an understanding of how the power of storytelling involves a movement from dislocation to connection.
Areas for students to improve include:
addressing how the power of storytelling is explored through the use of specific language forms and features
considering the complexities of the text in terms of emotions that emerge from shared and personal experiences
demonstrating an understanding of the broad range of human experiences explored in the poem.
Explains effectively how the poem explores the power of storytelling using
detailed, well-chosen supporting evidence
NESA HSC Sample answer:
Andy Kissane’s poem, It Begins with Darkness, details a father’s first encounter with his son’s performance as an actor, using images of light and darkness to depict the transformative effect the evening has on the father. The first stanza establishes the theatre as a place of storytelling and the father’s sense of dislocation and displacement through ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here,/I just know that this is theatre, my son an actor.’ The father
is characterised through his depiction as a ‘boilermaker’ who exults in ‘the flying sparks from an arc welder’ and someone who recognises his son’s performance is ‘a different kind of trade.’ However, Kissane gradually removes the father’s sense of dislocation through highlighting the effect his son’s performance – and the story being told on stage – has on
him. He moves from wanting to ‘go down and slap him about the face’ because of his swearing to wanting to ‘reach out/and lift him up as I did when he was two’. The final image of the burning scrap of paper illuminating his son’s face and revealing the ‘unmistakable/features of my father who is ten years dead’ creates a powerful resolution that binds the three generations of men together through a ‘story/that takes a whole evening in
the telling’.
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How does the poem explore the power of storytelling?
Your response to this question should identify what is powerful about storytelling – what specific effect does it have on people?
Your response should be supported by four succinctly analysed examples from the text.
SAMPLE ANSWER:
It Begins with Darkness reveals the power of storytelling to immerse audiences in new worlds, creating a shared experience that forges connections between individuals.
The opening stanzas create a juxtaposition between stark realism and dramatic imagery to reveal the power of storytelling to challenge one’s perspectives. Before the play within the text ensues, the poem cumulatively lists features in the scene such as “a leather couch” and “a chrome and bakelite stand,” which is purely descriptive and omits imagery. This bleak realism is juxtaposed by the performance, in which an auditory experience is replicated through the syllabic alliteration in the simile of the actor’s voice being “loud as wind swatting at the loose sheet of corrugated iron”. The performance becomes a symbol for the power of storytelling as it adds a sensory layer to the prosaic backdrop of the real world.
This immersive, shared experience unites those in attendance and allows the persona to forge a new connection with his son. The persona mentions that “[w]hen [their son] comes on stage he swears five times”, employing high-modality language to perpetuate the persona’s found engagement with the play, taking it to be real despite its fictionality. As the play progresses, the initially uncertain persona feels a growing sense of unity with other audience members, as seen through the cumulative listing of “everyone…. laughing… smiling and nodding and taking in every move my son makes.” This reveals how the process of storytelling undertaken in a theatrical production takes audiences on an imagined journey, resulting in an emotionally impactful collective experience.
Other answers may include:
The power of storytelling to evoke emotions (indicated through the persona and broader audience’s journey through uncertainty, angery, joy, empathy, nostalgia…)
The power of storytelling to shift the persona’s perception of his son: from a lack of confidence in his career as an actor, to a newfound appreciation for acting as a craft and an art form.
The power of storytelling to create an imagined experience just as powerful as a physical sensory experience (as seen when the persona compares it to his own memories of “the relief of taking off your helmet… enjoying the coolness of a harbour breeze…”)
The power of storytelling to evoke memory and connection (the persona’s memories of his son in childhood, and his deceased father)
Text 4 — Nonfiction extract
Explain how this text examines the human experience of laughter. 4 MARKS
Text 4 — Nonfiction extract
On Laughter
Laughter is a universal phenomenon, which is not to say a uniform one. In an essay entitled ‘The Difficulty of Defining Comedy’, Samuel Johnson remarks that though human beings have been wise in many different ways, they have always laughed in the same way, but this is surely doubtful. Laughter is a language with a host of different idioms: cackling, chortling, grunting, chuckling, shrieking, bellowing, screaming, sniggering, gasping, shouting, braying, yelping, snickering, roaring, tittering, hooting, guffawing, snorting, giggling, howling, screeching and so on. It can come in blasts, peals, gales, gusts, ripples or torrents, blaring, trumpeting, trickling,
swirling or piercing. There are also different ways of smiling, from beaming, smirking and sneering to grinning, leering and simpering. Smiling is visual and laughter primarily aural . . . In fact, most of the forms of laughter I have just listed have little or nothing to do with humour. Laughter may be a sign of high spirits rather than amusement, though you are more likely to think things funny if you are feeling euphoric in the first place. Physical modes and emotional attitudes can be combined in a variety of ways, so that you can titter nervously or derisively, bray genially or aggressively, giggle with surprise or delight, cackle appreciatively or sardonically and so on.
TERRY EAGLETON
Question 3
In better responses, students were able to:
clearly explain the multifaceted experience of laughter using detailed supporting evidence
engage actively with the text and provide examples of how different types of laughter convey the multiple human experiences and emotions.
Areas for students to improve include:
providing detailed explanations and relevant textual evidence
providing a clear view on human experience and laughter that moves beyond restating the question
demonstrating an understanding of the human experience(s) in the text.
Explains effectively how this text examines laughter using detailed, well -
chosen supporting evidence
Sample answer:
In On Laughter, Eagleton examines how the human reaction of laughter is something that has a language of its own, how it is remarkably fluid, lacks uniformity and can be completely divorced from humour. He paraphrases Samuel Johnson to initialise his thesis, disagreeing with the statement that humans ‘have always laughed in the same way’, accumulating an extensive list of adjectives to detail the many different ways in which humans laugh –
‘cackling, chortling, grunting … screeching and so on.’ This almost exhaustive list is also designed to amuse and engage our senses through detailing the wonderful variety of ways that people laugh. Eagleton’s distinction between smiling as a visual mode and laughter as an aural mode is designed to communicate the complex reactions humans have to a complex world. His short piece concludes with examples of how one way of describing a person’s laugh can be performed by a person in two completely different ways. He combines the verb ‘bray’ with two opposing adverbs, ‘genially’ and ‘aggressively’, to demonstrate how difficult it is to pin down the way the language of laughter works.
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DYMOCKS
Explain how this text examines the human experience of laughter.
Your response should articulate what specific idea about laughter is being conveyed in the text.
Your response should be supported by three succinctly analysed examples from the text.
SAMPLE ANSWER:
Text 4 exhaustively accumulates types of laughter to argue against the idea that laughter is a “uniform” human experience by presenting it as a complex medium for communicating an array of emotions. Namely, Eagleton provides a counterclaim which denounces laughter’s uniformity across human experiences through the metaphor of “Laughter is a language with a host of different idioms.” In comparing it to language, Eagleton raises the possibility of multifaceted purposes and interpretations, which subverts the reader’s understanding of laughter from being a social reaction to a complex feature of communication.
Eagleton continues by listing various synonyms of laughter, such as “cackling”, “chortling”, “shrieking”, screeching”. The contrasting use of positive and negative connotations logically invalidates Samuel Johnson’s argument that laughter is universally the same, by presenting communication via laughter as a complex form of unique individual experience. Ironically, Text 4 subscribes to a highly formal register to omit the use of humorous tone, as to present a possible contrapuntal view that humour only contributes towards an emotional experience, and not an intellectual one. Therefore, the audience learns to embrace the diverse emotional layers of the human experience which is shaped by humour and other comedic language.
Other answers may include:
The paradox between laughter being primarily associated with happiness and humour, yet also being a means to express negative emotions.
The importance of laughter to human communication and the multitude of ideas and emotions it can express.
Text 5 — Prose fiction extract
Analyse the ways this text represents the relationship between identity and place. 6 MARKS
Text 5 — Prose fiction extract
Normal Phantom was an old tribal man, who lived all of his life in the dense Pricklebush scrub on the edge of town. He lived amidst thickets of closely growing slender plants with barely anything for leaves, which never gave an ant an inch of shelter under a thousand thorny branches. This foreign infestation on the edge of Desperance grew out of an era long before anyone in the Phantom family could remember . The Pricklebush mob says that Normal Phantom could grab hold of the river in his mind and live with it as his father’s fathers did before him. His ancestors were the river people, who were living with the river from before time began. Normal was like ebbing water; he came and went on the flowing waters of the river right out to the sea. He stayed away on the water as long as he pleased. He knew fish, and was on friendly terms with gropers, the giant codfish of the Gulf sea that swam in schools of fifty or more, on the move right up the river following his boat in for company. The old people say the groper lives for hundreds of years and maybe Normal would too. When he talked about the stars, they said he knew as much about the sky as he did about water. The prickly bush mob said he had always chased the constellations: We watched him as a little boy running off into the night trying to catch stars. They were certain he knew the secret of getting there. They thought he must go right up to the stars in the company of groper fish when it stormed at sea, when the sea and the sky became one, because, otherwise, how could he have come back? “How you do that?” was the question everyone asked. “The water doesn’t worry me,” Normal Phantom answered simply, although he knew that when his mind went for a walk, his body followed. Everyone in Desperance was used to the sight of Normal’s jeep driving north to meet the river’s edge. It was the only vehicle he had ever owned. Always, the small tinnie boat, full of dints, a stray bullet hole or two, strapped onto the roof. A vessel purchased with cross-countrY road transport in mind, much more than water safety. They say he knew these deep muddy waters better than the big salties: crocs that got tangled up in the nets in the middle of the night. Glassy-eyed monsters that came over the side of his tiny craft looking for action with the big river man. Jaws charging for a winner-takes-all kind
of fight in the swamping boat, snapping in full flight, water splashing up into a storm with the swishing, thrash, thrash, thrashing of an angry tail against the side of the boat. People like to remember Normal saying in melancholy fashion (faking a thoroughly modern Americanised impersonation of a presidential Captain Hook): those snapping jaws meant diddly squat to him. Meanwhile, he moved like a hopping hare, fumbling for what seemed like ages to find the gun. Normal ended hundreds of lives of prehistoric living fossils this way, with his gun pointing all over the place in a turmoil of water and thick leather crankiness, until he made a direct hit between the eyes of the reptile caught in an instant of moonlight. In this otherwise quietly living population of about three hundred people, no living soul remembered what the port had looked like before. No picture could be put on display in a showcase at the museum of scarce memorabilia, because no one at the time of the heyday thought it was worthwhile to take a photo. But everybody knew that this was Normal’s river.
*ALEXIS WRIGHT
Question 4
In better responses, students were able to:
demonstrate strong understanding of the relationship between identity and place
articulate ideas with clarity and depth
use relevant textual evidence to form a cohesive response.
Areas for students to improve include:
avoiding describing or recounting elements of the text
analysing the representation of the relationship between identity and place in the extract and how this may involve multiple levels of human connection.
Analyses effectively how thetext reveals the relationship between identity
and place using detailed, well-chosen supporting evidence
NESA HSC Sample answer:
Throughout this extract from Carpentaria, Alexis Wright establishes the complex relationship between identity and place juxtaposing the everyday and the supernatural using Normal ‘an old tribal man’ who lives in a ‘foreign infestation on the edge of Desperance’. Wright details the relationship between identity and place through the connection Normal has with sea and sky that has been passed down to him by his ancestors, a connection that
allows him to ‘grab hold of the river in his mind and live with it as his father’s fathers did before him’. This spiritual connection with land, combined with an ability to run off into the night ‘trying to catch stars’ is something Wright describes to ensure Normal’s identity is connected with both the present and the past. While Wright’s use of third person narrative has the potential to distance us from Normal, it also allows her to shift the point of view so that we see him from a number of different perspectives – through the eyes of the Pricklebush mob, the people of the town of Desperance and the eyes of ‘everyone’. Wright uses this third person perspective to give us
a wider view of how people view Normal as he drives ‘north to meet the river’s edge’. It also allows her to focus in on the places that we have heard about, but no-one else has gone to:‘his gun pointing all over the place in a turmoil of water … until he made a direct hit between the eyes of the reptile caught in an instant of moonlight’.
DYMOCKS
Analyse the ways this text represents the relationship between identity and place.
Your response should explore what impact places have on identity (or vice versa: how one’s identity affects their response to a particular place), identifying the specific landscape and type of identity being explored in the text.
You should draw on 5-6 examples from the text to support your response.
You should use a ‘mini-essay’ structure for a response of this length, with a brief introduction and two body paragraphs.
Text 5 emphasises the powerful relationship between individual identity and natural landscapes, revealing both how one’s cultural identity may allow them to forge spiritual connections to place, as well as how an individual’s legacy may become part of the collective memory of a specific location.
Initially, the extract begins by describing the landscape as hostile and unforgiving, as “(Phantom) lived amidst thickets of growing slender plants with barely anything for leaves… a thousand thorny branches.” The negative connotations of “slender,” “barely” and “thorny” create discomfort in audiences, suggesting a barren landscape devoid of potential sustenance. However, this attitude is starkly juxtaposed with Phantom’s ability to forge a deeply meaningful spiritual connection to the landscape, as “he could grab hold of the river in his mind and live with it as his father’s fathers did before him”. The soft consonants “h”, “f” and “l” instil feelings of safety, accompanied by the repetition of “father,” which suggests that despite the seeming hostility of Phantom’s landscape, it acts as a conduit which connects himself to his familial identity, passed down by his ancestors. The simile “Normal was like ebbing water” utilises natural imagery to reveal the significance of the natural world to Phantom’s sense of self, suggesting his symbiotic connection with his surroundings. Wright therefore conveys the powerful way an individual’s inherited cultural identity allows them to forge emotional connections with natural environments.
Furthermore, Wright reveals how one individual’s identity can have an enduring impact on the legacy of a particular landscape. In the line, “No one remembered what the port had looked like… no picture… no one… thought it was worthwhile to take a photo,” the repeated negative diction reinforces the river’s lack of memorable features, and how the townspeople failed to construct a sense of its historical legacy. However, this contrasts the extract’s final line, “Everybody knew that this was Normal’s river,” which utilises high modality language alongside the possessive of “Normal’s” to emphasise that the river has become indelibly associated with one individual’s actions. In this way, Wright shows how an individual’s significant relationship with a place has the potential to become part of its identity in the collective memory.
Other answers may include:
The emotional and physical connections an individual can have with a natural landscape.
The way a landscape can foster an individual’s qualities, and therefore their identity (considering Normal’s ‘friendliness’ with the gropers, bravery in challenging the crocodiles…)
The way someone’s beliefs and values as a result of their cultural values can influence their perceptions of a place.
Normal’s “identity” as perceived by the townspeople being shaped by his close relationship to the river (their belief that Normal may “live for hundreds of years,” and “knew the secret of getting (to the stars).”)
**In order to gain maximum marks in this section, it is important to demonstrate several key skills:
**
Accurately comprehending and articulating what ideas each text explores – in relation to the focus of each question.
Identifying **visual and language devices **that construct these ideas.
Being able to write a concise analysis that brings all these ideas together.
Note that 5-mark and 6-mark questions require longer responses that delve more deeply into the ideas of the text.
Here are some sample answers that demonstrate how you might approach each questio
