Unseen Social and Political Protest Poetry

Question 1

Elements of political and social protest writing:

What are the key elements of political and social protest writing

Answer 1

-unfairness of the law isolationism
-ruling class
- powerlessness
-patriarchy
- position of women
-contrasting idealised worlds
-authority figures courage of individuals unquestioning
-group mentality deception
-freedom
-power of the state power of the spoken word
-secrecy
-suppression
-challenge to authority
-settings: dystopian, historical
-resistance
-control
-intimidation
-ambiguous endings
-protest
- radical voices of narrators/ authors
-power
social class
voicelessness
-of the church
-power of the media
-power of the written word
-including social media
-peer pressure
-cruelty
-corruption
-mobs manipulation bullying
-punishment

Question 2

Exam tips:

What are some key tips for social and political protest writing e.g. reading the extract

Answer 2

Students should spend time carefully reading the extract and having a clear understanding of the narrative and characters. Those students who achieve highest grades do so by reading the passage carefully and having a clear sense of the narrative (story) and power dynamics

Question 3

Exam tips:

What are some key tips for social and political protest writing e.g. their responses

Answer 3

They opened their responses with an overview of the passage linked to the elements of the genre that is relevant

Question 4

Exam tips:

What are some key tips for social and political protest writing e.g. literary terms

Answer 4

They use literary terms with precision rather than just labelling words

Question 5

Exam tips:

What are some key tips for social and political protest writing e.g. hidden messages

Answer 5

They are able to understand the subtleties and ambiguities within the writing (look for hidden messages)

Question 6

Exam tips:

What are some key tips for social and political protest writing e.g. 3-4 key ideas

Answer 6

Examine 3 or 4 key ideas in depth- score higher than those who comment on many things but don’t have much depth in them

Question 7

Contextualising paragraph:

What help can the contextualising paragraph give e.g. date

Answer 7

this will help you know what period you are dealing with and the political and social issues you already know

Question 8

Contextualising paragraph:

What help can the contextualising paragraph give e.g. title

Answer 8

this should indicate certain issues relating to politics such as power, protest

Question 9

Contextualising paragraph:

What help can the contextualising paragraph give e.g. author

Answer 9

the gender of the author could help in discussing gender issues relating to political ideology

Question 10

Contextualising paragraph:

What help can the contextualising paragraph give e.g. narrative information

Answer 10

often at what point in the narrative the extracts comes (early etc) will be outlined, helping with discussions about narrative (story) structure

Question 11

Contextualising paragraph:

What help can the contextualising paragraph give e.g. character information

Answer 11

the roles, titles and gender of the characters may be tole which will give impressions about power and hierarchy

Question 12

Contextualising paragraph:

What help can the contextualising paragraph give e.g. Likely outcomes

Answer 12

sometimes, what will happen is told to us, indicating the result of the protest, rebellion or dominance.