Unit 4, OUTCOME 2

Note: This is the Toorak College interpretation of this outcome; other schools should check with their own teacher as to how their individual school is setting up this outcome. However, students studying Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' may also benefit from the material here.

Focus on Wuthering Heights

What is the task?

On completion of this unit, the student should be able to evaluate critically the assumptions and assertions made about a literary text and draw comparisons with their own response and interpretation.

A written analysis of an oral or written review or commentary.

or

A discussion paper presenting the merits of various readings.

This task should be in the range of 600–800 words and completed over a period of 80–100 minutes.

The task should be completed mainly in class and under teacher supervision. Students may use a dictionary, their own notes, the prescribed text/s and the review to assist in the completion of this task. The task may be either handwritten or word processed. This task contributes 40 marks out of the 100 marks allocated for Unit 4.

At Toorak College the task shall be focused on the the novel 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte and will include various reviews and interpretations of their work, written from various perspectives. This is intended to also help students develop their own critical interpretations of these works before the exam so the task shall focus on the poems set for study.

Students should be familiar with the poems for study before they begin. They should also be familiar with the Bronte pages on this internet site and the Extras page here

The works to be considered are:

'The Tact of Audacity: Peculiarity in Wuthering Heights' from Viewpoints 1988l, Brian McFarlane (ed), Longman 1988

'Wuthering Heights', Arnold Kettle, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'Fiction and the Matrix', Mark Schorer, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'The Circumambient Universe', J. Frank Goodridge, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'Jane Eyre and 'Wuthering Heights'', Virginia Woolf, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'Emily Bronte and '"Wuthering Heights"', David Cecil, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'On "Wuthering Heights"', 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'Dreams and the Exegesis of "Wuthering Heights"', Edgar F. Shannon, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'Implacable, Belligerent People of Emily Bronte's Novel', V.S. Pritchett, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'The Incest Theme in "Wuthering Heights"', Eric Solomon, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'Emily Bronte and the Metaphysics of Childhood and Love', Irving H Buchen, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'Emily Bronte', J. Hillis Miller, 'Twentieth Century Interpretations of "Wuthering Heights"', Thomas Volger (ed), Prenctice-Hall, 1968

'The Magnanimity of "Wuthering Heights", Joyce Carol Oates, Critical Inquiry, Winter 1983 (available on the internet HERE)

'Symphonic Reading in "Wuthering Heights": Books, Reading and Learning', Kim Rollins, Internet.

'The Dreams in "Wuthering Heights", John P. Farrell, Internet

'Family Systems Theory, Addiction and Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", Jerome Bump, Internet

How will it work at Toorak College:

Students will be presented with a range of critical opinions listed abovel including reviews, extracts from critical accounts, biographical material and internet based material. From the range of material students will either choose to analyse one of the reviews or write a discussion paper presenting the merits of some of the various 'readings'.

How is it marked?

Assessment criteria

The extent to which the response demonstrates:

• Understanding of the strategies and/or theoretical perspectives which have formed the viewpoint expressed in the review or commentary.
• Understanding of the various criteria readers use to interpret and evaluate a text.
• Identification and discussion of the strategies and/or theoretical perspectives of the reviewer.

• Critical identification and analysis of the literary devices and assumptions the reviewer has used to
• interpret or evaluate the text.
• Identification and analysis of literary devices.
• Understanding of the assumptions and values implicit in an interpretation of a text.

• Ability to argue a developed reading of the text substantiating this reading with appropriate evidence
• from the text and/or the review.
• Selection of appropriate evidence.
• Considered use of the evidence to support a developed reading of the text.

• Coherence and fluency and choice of appropriate language to indicate awareness of the literal and figurative language of the original text.
• Appropriate, expressive and fluent language.
• Coherent ordering and development of the response.

[ASSESSMENT GUIDE REVISED VCE 2000]