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teachingenglish
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CONTENTS
3
Teaching English Magazine
Poetry Winners
12
Brief Guide to Texts
22
The Heros Journey
Reflections on Teaching English
27
Macbeth Workshop Diary
Abbey Theatre Workshop for Teachers
Cover image: Gabriel Metsu, Woman Reading a Letter c. 1662-1665, National Gallery of Ireland.
The Teaching English magazine is published by
the Professional Development Service for Teachers.
Co-ordinator of the Language Group of Subjects:
Dr Kevin Mc Dermott
Navan Education Centre, Athlumney, Navan, Co. Meath.
Phone: 046 907 8382 Mobile: 087 293 7302
Fax: 046 907 8385
Email: english@slss.ie
Administrators: Esther Herlihy/Joan Shankey
Design by Artmark.
The Professional Development Service for Teachers
is funded by the Irish Government under the
National Development Plan, 2007-2013
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Teaching English Magazine
POETRY WINNERS
SENIOR WINNERS
1st Place
Onion
Flaky skin, wrinkled with age,
a solid centre surrounded by layers of memory,
sight and sound and smell.
Fresh-tasting at first, in the spring of his life,
shoots of green.
The years in the fields have made him bitter,
a reluctance to share secrets readily
means digging down deep to find them.
The gnarled hair and pockmarked skin
hide well a man too sharp to flavour alone.
Still, when combined with others
he becomes a perfect compliment;
anecdotes and tales
bringing out flavours in others
they didnt know they had themselves,
though all along he maintains a supporting role,
just an occasional prompt, to let you know
he is still there, and very much a part of things.
Disregard the outward signs
that this is an allium best left alone.
Patrick Hull
Loreto Community School
Milford
Co Donegal
2nd Place
One Eight
I approach cautiously, entirely unsure.
I am numb to the past it is lost Sensitive to the future it will find me.
Hiding is pointless.
In awe of the prospect is the obligatory feeling.
I would rather be back there
Astray among the playing cards and games and chases,
And trees and e´clairs and loving embraces.
Sarah Browne
Jesus and Mary College
Our Ladys Grove
Goatstown Road
Dublin 14
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Joint 3rd Place
Joint 3rd Place
Judith and Holofernes
Evolution
Draping curtains as red as blood
The maid will encourage Judith
As she enters the realm of reality.
He picks for berries.
Simple, content
He leaves some for the next to come.
Holoferness hand clenching
The blood-stained sheets
Upon which his body lies.
Neanderthal he says, but hardly man at all,
His accent, up his upper class ass.
He directs us now to diagrams.
Pre-historic man, he pauses for effect,
His sickly grin, so gaunt, so gruesome,
But weve evolved he proclaims.
His shoulder arching forward,
His muscles pulsing.
Outside the frame his legs are thrashing,
As he tries to fight his fate,
Screaming to his saviour in the heavens.
We know better than to pick berries.
We know better, we know better!
We know Science and Fact.
We know war and tact.
Philosophy, Psychology,
Astrology and Theology.
Olivia Plunket
St Columbas College
Whitechurch
Dublin 16
Weve evolved.
Now we know just what we want.
We know better than to pick berries.
Cillian Fahy, Gort Community School
Ennis Road, Gort, Co Galway
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Joint 4th Place
Highly Commended
Blank Canvas
Mad Man
Autumn in Dublin with my Father,
the only time nature visits the city.
Paper dry leaves envelop the harsh pavements,
crunching like stale cornflakes
under each passing foot.
Ambers, ochres and burnt-out browns
merge into each other,
painting the dreary landscape.
He sat on his porch
With a beer in his hand.
A cigar in his mouth,
A scowl on his face.
He was a bitter man.
He was a mad man.
Someone told him death was bittersweetHe knew it was not.
Death was death and he was mad at the world.
Now it seemed to have no respect, no love, no life.
It was an on-going war,
With death the only outcome.
So, he sat on his porch
With a beer in his hand,
A cigar in his mouth,
A scowl on his face.
Curious feet would stomp
over and back the North Circular,
ears tuned in to
the orchestra of crackles beneath.
Ruby Malone
Loreto Community School
Milford
Co Donegal
Neasa ODonovan
Holy Family Secondary School
Newbridge
Co Kildare
Joint 4th Place
Valentines Day
Dido sits on her pyre,
Glancing furtively at the sea.
Cleopatra gasps for Antony,
Poison coursing through her blood.
Othello places trembling hands,
Around Desdemonas throat.
Juliet thrusts a rusty blade,
Into her pulsating chest.
Young couples kiss on street corners,
But black clouds are overhead,
Eternally.
Niall Guinan
Athlone Community College
Athlone
Co Westmeath
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Highly Commended
This is Going on the Internet
Done-to-death sentiments, jilted expression,
The rife melodrama and rampant pretension,
Meter like logs being eaten by woodworm
A message too diffuse to try to discern.
Lower case is amidst low-flying ravens,
square ended Brackets and twelve-winged angels.
Meaning obscured by a blood-dripping hand;
No one cares? At the least, no one else understands.
The follies are many and hard to forget.
Ellipses make clear that youre not finished yet…
Forsaking the rhythm for tenuous rhythms,
Like this all the time.
A wide range of techniques I put to good use:
Be circumloquacious: verbosely profuse;
Wordsmashedtogether, CAPITALS for stress.
If this line grows too long, then I will press
right on to the next stanza. Crouched by my desk,
I aim to write poetry, not to express.
Youll suffer for my art: the star of my life.
I use sixes of words, whereas none would suffice.
Highly Commended
Lacklustre beginnings and empty conclusions,
Events in an order, plot-structure delusions,
People defined by the length of their hair;
And, doubtless, the author is somewhere in there.
I Am
I am from the vapour of the shirt
I am from the puff puff puff like a calabash
I am from the very thin, burning rim
I am from under the cold tap
I am from the pain that wouldnt go away.
Look down from my plinth, comment on the below,
Tedious dialogue. Tell, dont show.
Omniscient narrators cover mistakes,
Like a train of thought that always arrives late.
From the door with no knob
From the unused tree house
From tiny cushions home to severe amounts
of moss, damp and spiders
From the trampoline covered in the faded petals
of a blossom tree.
Feedbacks a dog always chasing its tail,
Fed by critiques that smileys alone can convey.
Bring the cynics, sharp-eyed, looking for a wise man,
So as not to end up right back where we began.
Write in the present tense, say it adds emphasis.
Uneven diction in disjointed sentences,
Monotone battles and ill-described rage.
Put that colon around your neck onto the page.
From the traditional Lamb
From the no lamb on Sunday
From the lying toad
From the escape of a mental home
From my Dads office
From the standing hare that looked like a dog.
No depth to be found thats beyond the plot-holes
A wit only matched by belligerent trolls.
The pyres ablaze; stoke the fan-fiction first.
Prose, I commend they remains to the earth.
Each mistake is an invitation to shine.
Mire-pearls, but, for that, so much more fine.
The pure are the norm only after the cull,
Or a single red rose growing out of a skull
From the union of blood, success and tragedy
All these things I loved dearly,
So odd and on their own.
Home is where the heart is; but first you have
to find home.
Daron Anderson
Belvedere College
6 Denmark Street
Dublin 1
Michael Kemp
St Columbas College
Whitechurch
Dublin 16
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Blue
Shimmering, reflecting, blue,
Water and ultra marine skies.
Hot light reflecting, waters retracting,
Sun and heat, life and energy.
Robin blue of the laundry,
Making its way into every village.
Krishna and his follies.
The blue of animism and of cosmos,
Deep blue of night sky,
Clothes drying. Symbol of life.
JUNIOR WINNERS
1st Place
The Colours of Southern India
Red
Sunsets and sunrises like
The tikka dots on womens foreheads.
Red paste and flowers
In the market. Religion and life
Together joined. Passion and fruit,
Weddings and the henna designs
On the palms of girls about to be married.
Multicolours
Crowds milling, chanting, laughing,
Life, life vibrating, in the multitude of souls,
Hot clothes and steaming bodies,
Heat and exuberance. Vitality, joy.
The plenitude of human experience.
Bodies packed together tightly.
Elephants, music and festivals,
Celebrating the joy of being alive.
The start and end to a perfect day!
Yellow
Warm three-dimensional light
Of the early post-dawn and
Pre-dusk hours. Flowers and grains,
Saffron and turmeric for decoration.
Adornment for the Lord Buddhass feet.
Lemons for use in pujas for fertility.
Earth
Mother earth the soul of the land
Mother India Brown,
Inundated with water,
The tidal wealth of the subcontinent,
Rich and pulsing with life.
Clay-coloured temple carvingsMagnificent symbols of a past era.
A time when artists were revered
And the art of India a living,
Vibrant form of expression.
Brown and turgid at times,
Life blood of this world.
Hope and devotion.
Black
Night. Evil spirits and thoughts rise
To the fore. Meditation
And passive contemplation
An end to the day-a small death.
Granite temple carvings,
Small windows in the dark,
And fire giving the soul
Hope for tomorrow.
White
Saris of Christian women,
Saris of widowed Hindu women,
Pure, chaste and fervent.
Strings of jasmine,
Rich maharajas palaces,
Lilies in ponds,
Jain temples and carvings,
Markings in ash paste on a
Vaishnavite Sadhus forehead.
Akshaya Sivakumar
Cola´iste Pobail Setanta
Phibblerestown
Clonee
Dublin 15
Green
Rice paddies rolling like lifeEnchanching waves across the plains.
Colour of the freshness that follows
The annual monsoon
Life-giving waters to nurture
The crops. Symbol of good
In dance, token of fertility
Otherwise. Hope springs
Through its verdant shades.
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2nd Place
Joint 3rd Place
Though There Are Exams
Though there are exams,
There are summer holidays.
Though, somewhere in the world,
Women are grieving husbands lost at war,
There are thousands of hot air balloons
Floating through a blue, cloudless sky.
Though there are police chases in America,
There are tea parties in England.
Though there are homeless people
Wandering the streets
In the lashing rain,
There are African tribes,
Pounding beats on drums and
Jumping and dancing in glorious sunshine.
The Painting
You dip the tip
Of the stiff bristles
Into a watery
Orange,
As strong as a lion,
Brandishing your brush
But as you go on
The look of determination
Softens.
The paint guides your hand
As graceful as
A lithe ballet dancer.
The light sky
You composed yesterday
Is now changing,
Evolving.
You add reds,
Pinks,
And yellows,
Creating a symphony
For the eye
As genius
As Mozart
To the ear.
The sunrise is taking
A peek,
A squint of light
And you step
away.
You leave it to dry,
To become
Crisp and clean.
It lays there
But then you
Add more light,
And it is aglow.
The sun now
Beams and brightens.
Once again you
Let it dry,
Only this time
Though trees are being knocked down
In the Amazon
And ice caps are melting
In Antarctica,
There are wild mustangs
Galloping across open fields and
Young dolphins swimming through
Crystal clear oceans.
Though there are exams,
There are summer holidays.
Jennifer Kelly
Ardscoil Mhuire
Mackey
Ballinasloe
Co. Galway
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It takes longer,
Twelve hours or so,
And you wait impatiently
Pace, pace, pace.
Your arms flail in anger
Splat!
Black coffee
Smears across
This masterpiece
And everything
Goes dark.
You sit
On the precarious wooden stool,
Pensive as ever.
I cant work with this
Over and Over
Until!
You root around in some
Old boxes,
You knew it!
Something.
But the accident is there
For all to see,
And to ever be remembered,
But was and is fixable,
Hopefully.
Asha Bourne
Maryfield College
Glandore Road
Drumcondra
Dublin 9
A small package
Stuffed to the brim
With glitter,
Sprinkling each silver speck
So blithely,
Yet so perfectly,
So peacefully,
A hushed and
Enchanted midnight.
This painting
Now centres your life.
Day and night
You work with persistence.
Its beautiful,
Incomparable.
You leave its side
Only once
And arrive to
An unrecognisable canvas,
Smudged and preposterous.
Sorry, I tripped
You are outraged.
And with two angered hands
You raise it and
BANG!
It smashes
Against the stool you sat upon
Painting this for days.
An earthquake erupts this
Scene of bliss
What once was so sublime
Is now nothing but pieces,
Nothing but fragments,
That are meaningless,
Worthless.
Joint 3rd Place
Watermelon Refrigerator
This is a poem. It has to be ten lines long.
I dont know what to write but that doesnt matter
Because it can be about anything. Kiwi racecar.
Watermelon refrigerator. Is it ten lines long yet?
No? Ill continue then with this nothingness
That is like a plain dark room. You dont know what
Is in the room until you turn on a light so you can
Only imagine nothingness. Sticky polka dot
Flamingo.
Ruth Gallagher
Jesus and Mary College
Our Ladys Grove
Dublin 14
A finger out of line
And everything is wrong
Or is it what was planned?
And you are so careful
Lest you hurt someone,
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4th Place
The End
Decaying walls draw close,
Figures haunt the long dank halls
Old faces striking friendly poses,
Unknown strangers behind cheap stalls,
Water drips slowly down
The concrete blocks which surround,
All that is left to call your own
That and the slowly fading sound.
Hands now shake, ears fail,
Friends lie rotting in the ground,
Eyes strain to no avail,
Strength leaches, heart pounds.
Cage doors thrown open,
Light envelops all,
The heart stops beating:
Life has ceased to call.
Chris Tuohy
Mount St. Michael Secondary School
Rosscarbery
Co. Cork
Highly Commended
Highly Commended
The Silent Night
Longing
Fighting aircraft above my head
For now this trench must be my bed,
Im so tired of the hunger, the misery, the war
I dont want to be here anymore.
I am not sorry for my soul
That it must go unsatisfied
For it can live a thousand times,
Eternity is deep and wide
I finally sleep, but Im awakened by the silence
For now there is no more killing or violence,
I peek over the top, and across no-mans land I see
Bright lights shining on a Christmas Tree!
I am not sorry for my soul
But ah! my body that must go
Back to a little drift of dust
Without the joy it longed to know
The night becomes clear as the moon shines bright
A single German voice sings Silent Night,
My comrades reply with The First Noel
For one night only we werent in hell
God
I am with you, you men and women of a generation,
of ever so many generations.
Hence, just as you feel when you look on the river
and sky, so I felt.
Silent Night,
Holy Night,
All is calm,
All is bright
Love
Love adorns itself
It seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.
Love does not claim possession
But gives freedom.
Daniel ONeill
Belvedere College, Great Denmark Street,
Dublin 1
Ciara´n Healy
St. Kevins Community College
Dunlavin
Co. Wicklow
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Highly Commended
Highly Commended
Leaves
The Beach
I
Babies shriek, adults speak,
Seagulls squawk, lovers walk,
Grannies pout, kids shout,
Jellyfish wiggle, little girls giggle,
Buckets of sand, spade in hand,
Ice-cream drips down childrens lips,
Dogs by the docks, sandals and socks,
Bread and nutella, towels and umbrellas,
Lots of sun-cream, hats that are green,
That was my day at the beach.
Feels like rubber
an emerald feather
The crinkling of a crisp packet
II
A golden crown
a pencil
a hand with veins
cracking popcorn
seaweed
Ellen Clohessy,
Cola´iste an Phiarsaigh
Gleann Maghair, Co. Cork
III
When I was younger
I would kick the leaves
until they fluttered
through the air
The wind would wrestle them
scatter them before me.
Highly Commended
Granny
I went to see Granny today,
It always seems to be the way,
Toothy grins and pinched cheeks,
The smell of dentures when she speaks,
A cup of tea thats way too milky,
Couches that do not feel too silky,
Withered skin that falls right down,
Shoes that never change from brown,
Aint you big? and Youre so cute!
Have you been practicing your flute?
IV
Seasons change, snow swirls
sun down, moon lit sky.
Golden leaves like candles fall
The tree holds up its arms
to welcome me.
Laura Peoples, Loreto Community School
Milford, Co. Donegal
A sweater that she went and knitted,
Even though its never fitted,
Some Brussels sprouts to give me hairs,
Because she really truly cares,
But Mommy says to smile and nod,
Even if my food smells odd,
Shes your granny, you be good,
Act the way a grandchild should,
Take the biscuit when its presented,
Do not tell here you resented,
The latest Christmas robot toy,
Because she thought you were a boy,
So Ill sit and smile and say Yes please
When she offers frozen peas,
She acts so blind, deaf and old,
Until she hears Ive been bold,
She aint so frail with her cane,
Honestly, she cant be sane,
And when we leave, relieved farewells,
The last of her perfume smells,
Drive away, I look once more,
She stands waving from the door,
And is that a grin upon her lips,
One hooked claw on her hips?
Highly Commended
Blue Army
Every morning, enduring daggers of rain
Attack like tiny needles.
Ferocious winds chap lips, tangle hair.
We gather, dressed in blue
And descend on the red-brick HQ.
Let battle commence.
A piercing siren signals the daily drill.
First, Maths: divide and conquer.
Then Geography: logistics, plotting terrain.
PE is a physical assault.
Retreat heralds a welcome break.
Troops devour their meagre provisions.
Then congregate into separate divisions.
Alors, a French invasion.
Hannah Foley, St. Vincents School
Dundalk, Co. Louth
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Dara Griffin, Dominican College,
Taylors Hill, Co. Galway
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BRIEF REVIEW OF TEXTS PRESCRIBED FOR
EXAMINATION IN 2012
AUSTEN, Jane Emma
There is only one Emma Woodhouse, handsome,
clever and rich. She is also bored, gossipy,
generous, meddling, presumptuous; class
conscious, charming, blind, beautiful, intelligent,
indulged, cruel, infuriating, mortified, apologetic
and, finally, happy. And there is only one man for
her, Mr Knightley wise, gallant, good, and
sincere though very dull! Austens comic novel
on the dangers of meddling, the folly of youth,
the presumptions of the idle wealthy and the
ennui of life for a spirited young woman with no
real purpose in life.
Hugo and Francie Montmorency, and the English
army officer, Gerald Colthurst. Amongst the
party in the house, love and desire cause tension
and confusion, while outside the political
situation grows less certain and the threat of the
IRA hangs over the soirees and tennis parties of
the Big House. A coming-of-age novel; a comedy
of manners; a description of personal tragedy set
against the political upheaval of the War of
Independence and the decline of a whole class,
Bowens novel brilliantly conveys a moment
both private and public that is poised between
tradition and change, and the old and the new.
Ballard, J. G. Empire of the Sun
Based on his experience, this is Ballards brilliant,
clear-eyed, account of an English schoolboy lost
in Shanghai after the Japanese invasion, during
World War II. This is a novel of displacement, of
death marches and internment, and the
compromises made in order to survive. There is a
great cast of characters from Jim, the
enterprising young hero, the
dignified and kind Dr
Ransome, and the immoral
Basie. Ballard succeeds in
conveying both the squalor
and the bravery of war, its
brutality and its hallucinatory
beauty. The writing has a
cinematic flavour and there
are numerous memorable
scenes.
BRANAGH, Kenneth Dir.
As You Like It Film
This fast-moving version of
Shakespeares play is an
intricate tale of love a
merry war and betrayal,
jealousy and reconciliation.
Under the comic surface lies
an exploration of chastity
and marriage. Shot on
location in Tuscany, the film
is beautiful to look at and
the comedy is diverting,
though whether the casting
is wholly successful is a
moot point. Experienced
Shakespearean actors and
American film stars play
alongside each other. And
there is the age old question
of the degree of misogyny in the text.
BINCHY, Maeve Circle of Friends
Although this is a long novel, it is not a daunting
read. Set in Ireland in the late 50s, the novel tells
the story of Eve and Benny two friends from the
small town of Knockglen, who go to Dublin to
attend university. Their encounters with Jack Foley
and Nam Mahon teach them about true friendship.
Binchys warm, conversational style, as she charts
the up and downs of the two friends in life and love,
engages the reader and makes us empathise with
her heroines
.
BOWEN, Elizabeth The Last September
Set in Cork during 1920, Bowens novel charts the
last days of the Anglo-Irish gentry in Ireland. As
the country undergoes the war of Independence,
Sir Richard and Lady Myra Taylor carry on as
before. They entertain their guests, including
their niece, Lois Farquar; the English visitors
BRONTE¨, Emily Wuthering Heights
Classic romantic novel of consuming passions,
played out against the wild Yorkshire moors.
Cathy and Heathcliff are the unhinged,
tempestuous lovers, who wreak havoc all round
them. A dense, overwritten, overwrought tale of
passion, jealousy and revenge. A demanding read
but who can resist its peculiar madness: I am
Heathcliff! Hes always, always in my mind; not
as a pleasure, any more than I am always a
pleasure to myself, but as my own being.
CHEVALIER, Tracy Girl with a Pearl Earring
The novel is set in Delft. Griet is a sixteen-yearold girl who becomes a maid in the house of the
painter, Vermeer. Calm and mature beyond her
years, Griet has a special eye for colour and
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composition. Gradually master and servant
develop an understanding. In the hostile
environment of the household they share a secret
world that is not openly acknowledged until Griet
poses for the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Lyrical and descriptive, Chevalier never loses
sight of the social reality of Griets situation and
the choices she is forced to make to support her
poverty-stricken family.
CURTIZ, Michael Dir. Casablanca Film
Set in Morocco, during World War II, Ricks
nightclub is a haven for refugees hoping to
obtain transit documents that will eventually
allow them to reach the USA. Ricks apparent
neutrality and his willingness to entertain both
Vichy and Gestapo forces is called into question
when Ilsa, the great love of his life, and her
husband, Victor Laszlo, a famous Czech
nationalist and Resistance leader, show up in his
bar. For many, Casablanca is the greatest
example of the classic Hollywood film. It was
shot entirely in a Hollywood studio, using studio
actors, writers and directors. Bogarts worldweary Rick Blaine is one of the most iconoclastic
figures in cinema history and the famous ending
will generate plenty of debate and discussion in
class. A genuine classic movie.
FITZGERALD, F. Scott
The Great Gatsby NEW TEXT
Fitzgeralds novel on the search for love and
meaning; the lure of money and power; the
difference between the wealthy and the social
elite; and the moral and social fog that
surrounds the restless Jay Gatsby. The novel is
a satire on the lives of the idle nouveau riche.
And yet, Fitzgerald seems to be as seduced by
Gatsby as he is appalled by the emptiness of his
life. And Gatsbys life represents the triumph of
style over substance. Its a novel that a new
generation of readers, accustomed to celebrity
culture will understand immediately. And they
will also appreciate the way in which Fitzgerald
uses the automobile to highlight the emptiness
of The American Dream, where wealth is
pursued as an end in itself and the pursuit
proves futile. Of course this did not prevent
Fitzgerald from aping the lifestyle of Gatsby in
his private life … First published in 1925, the
novel still retains its freshness and energy.
FRIEL, Brian Dancing at Lughnasa
Friels heart-warming and heart-breaking play
on the lives of the Mundy Sisters in Ballybeg
who, like the tramps in Becketts Godot, always
seem to be waiting for things to happen. A
powerful evocation of Ireland in the 1930s, this
is a play of private grief and vanishing dreams
with that memorable scene of uninhibited
energy, as the sisters dance with Pagan abandon
to the music from their new wireless. Dancing
at Lughnasa explores some of Friels recurring
concerns: memory; change; loss; and the
identity that lies beneath the restrictions of
social and religious convention.
FULLER, Alexandra
Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight NEW TEXT
This is an award-winning
memoir by the English-born
writer, Alexandra Fuller,
whose family moved to
Rhodesia Zimbabwe when
she was little. This is a
dazzling piece of writing and
captures the many faces of
the Africa she knew as a
child: beautiful, hair-raising;
frightening, wild, startling.
The memoir is set during the
Rhodesian Civil War. Fuller writes from the
perspective of a white child in a colonial family.
They are part of the system built upon race, even
as they are victims of that system. The memoir
opens with a picture of the seven-year-old
Fuller putting bullets into a gun, and this
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ultimately, manipulative. It is mannered. The
narrators name, for example, Changez is almost
silly and the girl with whom he falls in love is
Erica Am-Erica. For all that, a provocative and
engaging read.
establishes the bizarre circumstances of her life,
where a trip to town for groceries involves a
mine-proofed Land Rover and an armed escort.
The memoir charts a bleak family history three
siblings die in infancy, and their deaths destroy
her mother but it is lightened by humour and
the perspective of the child narrator. This is a
fierce book, full of love for a country that is far
away and lost forever.
HARDY, Thomas
Tess of the DUrbervilles NEW TEXT
GAGE, Eleni North of Ithaka
North of Ithaca is New York journalist Eleni
Cages account of the rebuilding of her ancestral
home in a Greek village, where her grandmother
had been executed during the Greek Civil War in
1948. Her grandmothers story is related in Eleni
written by the writers father. Her decision to
restore the old house in the village of Lia, close to
the Albanian border, causes tension in the family
and raises the spectre of old hurts and division.
The story of an American making a connection
with her Greek roots is comic and tragic with the
predictable
clash
between
urban
cosmopolitanism and rural traditionalism and
told with energy and affection. A story on the
need to belong, as well as an interesting insight
into modern Greek history and society.
HAMID, Moshin
The Reluctant Fundamentalist NEW TEXT
Written in the wake of the attacks on September
11 2001, on the World Trade Centre in New York,
Hamids novel is an intelligent and thoughtprovoking read. Changez, the narrator, speaks to
a stranger in a cafe´ in the Pakistani city of Lahore.
Bearded and dressed in traditional clothes, he
speaks perfect English. He has been educated at
Princeton. As he tells his story, one of growing
disenchantment with all things American and
Western, the real reason for the encounter in the
cafe´ becomes apparent. Clever, poised, with the
feel of a thriller, this is an interesting novel on
identity and transformation, and the
misunderstandings and prejudices that exist
between East and West.
In a clever twist, the
fundamentalist of the
title applies as much to
the American company
Underwoord Samson, for
whom Changez worked,
whose motto is: focus
on the fundamentals.
Some readers consider
the novel to be too
clever, too knowing and,
Tess of the dUrbervilles is one as Hardys finest
novel. It is a dark tale of love, betrayal and murder.
Hardy is not the easiest writer to read. Sometimes
the language is clunky and the plotting is laboured.
However, he is also capable of brilliant lyrical
description and his stories are compelling, none
more so that Tess. The novel tells the story of Tess
Durbeyfield, a beautiful young woman from a poor
family. When her parents learn that they are
related to the wealthy Durbervilles, Tess is sent to
solicit help from their relations at the family seat
at Tantridge. Here the young woman is pursued
and violated by Alex DUrberville and becomes
pregnant. Her child dies. Wracked by guilt and
feelings of worthlessness, Tess goes to work on a
dairy farm where she meets and falls in love with
Angel Claire. The two marry. On her wedding
night, Tess confesses her secret and is rejected by
her husband. After a chance meeting with Alex,
Tess succumbs to her fate and becomes his
mistress. When Angel comes back into her life, Tess
seeks a desperate remedy… Melodramatic, farfetched, but also ignited by Hardys passionate
anger at the injustices facing his young heroine, this
is a memorable read. Interestingly, some of the
reviews of the novel were so negative and personal
that Hardy vowed never again to write fiction.
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HARRIS, Robert Pompeii
On the morning of August 24 A.D. 79, Mount
Vesusius erupted and destroyed the city of
Pompeii, killing thousands of people. Thomas
Harris brings this story to life in a novel that has a
contemporary feel. The last hundred pages,
describing the destruction of the city, are terrific
and, though we know the
end of the story, Harris
creates real suspense and
drama. The Sherlock Holmes
at the centre of the novel is
Marius Attilius, a young
engineer from Rome. As he
sets out to discover the cause
of a water shortage in the
area of Naples, he finds
himself in the new town of
Pompeii on the slope s of Vesuvius. What follows
is a detective story of new money, local corruption,
dodgy developers, love and heroism, with more
than a passing similarity between the Roman
Empire and contemporary America or Ireland, for
that matter to amuse or irritate. A readable,
stylish thriller and historical novel.
HOSSEINI, Khaled
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseinis debut, The Kite Runner, was
one of the first novels to present Afghan culture
to Western readers. It is a gripping story of
friendship, betrayal, cowardice, exile and,
ultimately, redemption set against the political
upheavals of Afghanistan. The story has a
Shakespearean sweep. Amir is the privileged son
of a wealthy Pashtun, living in Kabul. Hassan, a
member of Hazara tribe, is his devoted servant
and friend. There is a shocking scene at the centre
of the novel which shatters both boys lives and
leads to the severing of their relationship. As
Afghanistan falls apart, Amir and his father
escape to America, but Amir returns to expiate
the guilt of childhood and right a wrong
committed against Hassan. Among other things,
The Kite Runner is an interesting exploration of
the lengths to which we are prepared to go to
secure peace and peace of mind. 334 pages
IBSEN, Henrik A Dolls House
Ibsens play on the need for freedom and the
oppressive affects of middle-class values in a
patriarchal society, written in 1879, still packs a
punch. There are enough symbols and symbolic
motifs to engage most students, while Noras
decision to leave the insufferable Torvald is sure to
generate heated classroom debate on the
15
responsibility of the individual to herself versus her
responsibility to her family. There are many echoes
of Ibsens work in Friels Dancing at Lughnasa.
ISHIGURO, Kazuo Never Let Me Go
Ishiguros dystopian novel explores the dangers of
scientific advances in contemporary society.
Hailsham is a seemingly idyllic boarding school in
the heart of the English countryside, dedicated to
the welfare of the children who reside there.
However, through the narrative of Kathy H, a
carer at the school, the dark secret of the
institution is revealed. The school is a sham a place
as twisted as Miss Havishams eerie residence in
Great Expectations. The children at Hailsham are
donors, cloned to provide healthy organs so that
other normal people might live. So slyly does the
truth of the society creep up on you in the reading
of the novel that the impact is unforgettable.
Margaret Atwood described the novel as like a
cross between Enid Blyton and Blade Runner and
this catches something of the strangeness of the
work. Written in his customary spare, flat style,
this is a novel of real power and purpose, in the
tradition of Orwell. It brilliantly mimics societys
ability to cover morally dubious practices under
euphemism and scientific language and make the
monstrous seem normal. 263 Pages
JOHNSTON, Jennifer
How Many Miles to Babylon?
Two boys, separated by class and religion, grow
up as friends on a large country estate. Their
relationship is frowned upon and they are forced
apart. When WW1 begins, both young men leave
to fight. We follow their careers separately until
they meet again near the dramatic and moving
end of the novel. Brilliantly written, with a
number of superb set pieces, Johnsons novel is a
meditation on class, war, loneliness and loss. A
great favourite among students.
KEANE, John B Sive
First produced in Listowel in 1959, the play tells the
story of Sive, a young orphan, who lives with her
grandmother, her uncle and his bitter wife, Mena.
Mena conspires with the local matchmaker to sell
Sive in marriage to Sea´n Do´ta, a worn, exhausted
little lorgadawn of a man, Despite the protests of
Sive and her grandmother, the arrangement
proceeds until the evening before the wedding
when Sive takes her fate into her own hands with
tragic consequences. A strong tale of innocence,
lechery and betrayal. Contemporary young readers
will question Sives willingness to proceed as far as
she does with the arrangements made for her.
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McEWAN, Ian Atonement
It is 1935. 13-year-old Briony Tallis reads a sexually
explicit message sent by Robbie, her sisters beau,
and then witnesses a passionate encounter
between her sister, Cecilia, and Robbie which she
does not understand. Disturbed and unsettled
Briony accuses Robbie of a crime he did not
commit. Years later during World War II, Briony,
now estranged from Cecilia and Robbie, tries to
atone for her action by working as a nurse for the
wounded from Dunkirk. Working out from the
two minor incidents the reading of her sisters
note and the witnessing of the sexual encounter
between her sister and
Robbie McEwan creates
a work that explores
innocence, guilt, fate,
love, the disturbing power
of sex, bitterness, the
social upheaval of war
and the search for
forgiveness. Interestingly,
Atonement echoes the
work of E.M. Forster, but
has darker strands running
through it. The novel
works brilliantly in placing private guilt and upset
against the grief and upheaval of public affairs
and in depicting the psychological aftershock of
singular incidents. 371 pages
MacLAVERTY, Bernard Lamb
First published in 1980, the novel tells the story
of Michael Lamb, a young religious brother who,
shocked by the harsh regime in the Boys Home
run by his order, flees taking twelve-year-old
Owen Kane with him. Posing as father and son,
the two enjoy a brief interlude of happiness until,
running out of time, money and a place to hide,
Michael settles on a desperate and tragic course
of action. Short, simple, unsettling with a
shattering ending that will divide readers Lamb is
a powerful exploration of innocence and
goodness in a brutal world.
MARTEL, Yann Life of Pi
Winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize Life of Pi is
part tall-tale, part fable, part philosophical
treatise on faith and scepticism, a literary yarn
with its tongue firmly in its cheek. It tells the
fantastic story of 16-year old Pi Patel, an Indian
boy cast overboard from a sinking ship carrying a
cargo of zoo animals, who finds himself sharing a
life raft with a hyena, a zebra, an orang-utan and
a Bengal tiger hiding under the tarpaulin. The
majority of the book is taken up with the seven
months Pi spends at sea alone on the raft with
the tiger, Richard Parker, who soon sees off the
other animals. Martel is playful and inventive and
there are many edge-of-the seat moments, and
the book is full of useful hints for surviving on a
raft with a tiger! However, not all readers will
find that the charm and wit of the book will
sustain them through its 300+ pages.
MEIRELLES, Fernando Dir.
The Constant Gardener Film
Part thriller, part love story, Meirelles film
explores the cynicism of the international
pharmaceutical industry and the unholy alliance
of Western Governments and Global pharmaceutical
companies. Ralph Fiennes plays Quayle, a quiet,
unobtrusive British diplomat and the constant
gardener of the title. He is stationed in Nairobi in
the British Embassy. Following a whirlwind
romance Quayle marries the radical, impetuous
Tessa and takes his new wife to Kenya with him.
There, activist that she is, Tessa works with the poor
and investigates the activities of pharmaceutical
companies in drug testing. When she is killed in
suspicious circumstances, Qualyle sets out to find
out the truth behind her death and the unsavoury
rumours that surround it. In undertaking his
personal odyssey, Quayle learns that his wife was
murdered and is forced to confront the moral
corruption of his government and its collusion with
an unscrupulous industry. Quayles real quest is,
however, personal - what he finds out about himself
in his search for the truth. And this focus on
character prevents the film from becoming
McDONAGH, Martin The Lonesome West
McDonagh is an exciting voice in Irish theatre. In
The Lonesome West Quentin Tarantino meets J.M.
Synge or J.B. Keane meets Father Ted in this black
comedy set in Leenane, the murder capital of the
west. Featuring fratricide, sibling rivalry, a
doubting-priest and a tough-talking teenager girl,
the play reveals McDonaghs gift for language
and exuberant comedy.
Funny, dark, surreal,
McDonagh will appeal to
many Leaving Certificate
students and provoke
interesting debate on
the way Irishness is
represented. Is the play a
satire? Is it a parody?
McDonaghs work will be
known to many students
through his debut feature
film, In Bruges.
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hectoring or issue-driven. Great acting, beautiful
cinematography and well-judged direction bring
this story vividly to life on the screen.
MURPHY, Tom A Whistle in the Dark
First produced in 1961, a Whistle in the Dark is a
tragic exploration of the Carney family imploding
at a family re-union in Coventry. Michael is the
young Irishman living in Coventry with his young
English wife, Betty. Harry is his thuggish brother
who has never forgiven Michael for perceived
slights and insults and who, with his brothers
Iggy and Hugo, treats Betty with disdain. Dada is
the fierce patriarch, a domestic King Lear, foolish
and aggressive in equal measure, who goads his
sons on. A fierce study of masculinity and inter
and intra-family rivalry that hurtles to its tragic
conclusion, Murphys play, described by one
reviewer as a clenched fist, is as raw and powerful
today as it was in 1961.
NGOZI ADICHIE, Chimamanda
Purple Hibiscus
This debut novel by the
young Nigerian writer has
been widely praised. The
story is narrated by the 15year old Kambili. She
describes a life of apparent
privilege. However, her
wealthy father is a fanatic
and his strict adherence to
Catholicism makes life a
misery for his wife and
family. A kindly aunt alerts
Kambili to the possibility
of a different kind of life, free of fear and free of
domestic tyranny. The novel is grounded in the
domestic world but explores themes and issues
which move beyond the boundaries of the
personal and the familial. Through the eyes of the
young narrator, we witness the conflict between
Catholicism and the tribal tradition of animism and
ancestral worship. We also witness the pernicious
effect of religion in a society that is crumbling and
struggling with the aftershocks of colonization.
Kambilis voice is sad, poignant and hopeful.
ODONNELL, Damien Dir.
Inside Im Dancing Film
Two young men in wheelchairs determined to live
life to the full and escape from the institution where
they are treated as children. Life in the world
beyond the institution proves more difficult than
either of them had anticipated. For many this is a
really vibrant film on rebellion and the search for
17
love, freedom, friendship and a place to call home
with a good script and excellent performances. For
others, it is cliche´d in its depiction of disabled people
as emotionally immature and nai¨ve. A film that will
get students talking.
PETTERSON, Per Out Stealing Horses
Trond, a man in his 60s, buries himself in the far
north of Norway and takes to living in a
subsistence manner, recreating the conditions of
an idyllic summer he spent with his father. A
chance encounter with a character from that faroff time causes him to search the past for
answers to the questions which have dominated
his life. Moving between descriptions of everyday
life in a cold climate and memories which seek to
solve the mystery of the disappearance of the
father he idolised, we piece together the story of
Trond and his family. The story covers a span of
fifty years and includes the Nazi occupation of
Norway; his fathers role as a courier for the
Resistance movement; the dangerous work of
felling trees and sending the logs down river to
the mills; love; betrayal and abandonment. The
telling of the story, the moving back and forth
between present and past is done with
breathtaking assurance, control and tightness in
a narrative voice that is as low-key as the events
it describes are momentous. The moral viewpoint
is scrupulously ambiguous as is the novels
balancing of the freedom of frontier lifestyle and
the obligations of marriage and family. A
contemporary literary masterpiece. 263 pages
PICOULT, Jodi My Sisters Keeper
A popular best-seller which, like Ishiguros Never
Let me Go, explores the ethics of modern
medicine. The central character is Anna, a bright
13-year-old, who has acted as a donor for her
older sister, who suffers from leukaemia. When
her sister needs a kidney, Anna takes legal action
for the right to decide the medical procedures to
which she will or will not be subjected. Told from
a variety of perspectives,
the novel nimbly moves
through the emotional,
legal
and
familial
repercussions of Annas
decision. Not all of the
novel works, but it does
race along at a break-neck
speed and ends with a real
surprise, though the final
twist of the plot may tie
things up far too neatly
for some readers. Picoults
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the elements of the novel for young adult readers
Daisys love for her cousin is not chaste; she is
prone to anorexia … And then theres the lack of
punctuation and the mixing of tenses but most
will fall in love with the narrator and with
Rosoffs memorable and lyrical novel. Winner of
the Guardian Childrens Fiction prize and a host
of other prizes. pages 208
books are a publishing sensation, devoured by
many youthful readers. Read My Sisters Keeper
to find out why. 422 pages
QUINN, Marian Dir. 32A Film NEW TEXT
I remember that summer in Dublin. The old
Bagatelle song might serve as the anthem for 32A,
which tells the story of Maeve Brennan during the
summer of 1979. Maeve is growing up, just
entering her teenage years, about to get her first
bra. She yearns to be older than she is; she yearns
to be in love; she yearns to have more freedom
than she has. Freedom is symbolised by the park
and the local disco, The Grove. Home is where you
try to hide as much about your life as you can and
parents are obstacles you have to circumvent.
Escape is Dollymount Strand. The film is set in the
Dublin suburb of Raheny, and the world of the girls
is far away from the wider context of Ireland, in
the late 1970s. The relationship between Maeve
and her three friends is
the focus of the film. The
girls are all different and
the difference makes for
much of the humour in
the film. 32A, the feature
debut of director Marian
Quinn, is one of those
rare things, a coming-ofage film told from the
perspective of a young
girl. The themes of
friendship, loyalty and growing up are handled
with skill. The film features terrific performances
from the young cast and creates a world that every
teenage girl will recognise.
SAVATORES, Gabriele Dir.
Im Not Scared Io Non Ho Paura Film
NEW TEXT
Set in the southern most tip of Italy over a long,
hot summer, Im Not Scared is a coming-of-age
film that bristles with suspense and menace. The
films narrative focuses on ten-year-old Michele.
He hangs out with a gang of friends; adores his
frequently-absent father; and fights with his
beautiful and troubled mother. By accident, he
stumbles across a boy held captive in a pit. Curious
and fascinated, he treats the discovery as a guilty
secret and begins to visit the boy on a regular basis.
To his dismay he finds out that his father is one of
the gang who have kidnapped the boy and who are
demanding a ransom from his wealthy father. His
mother dreams of the lovely things the money will
allow her family to do. Michele thinks of the young
boy in the pit. What makes the film so successful is
the way in which the moral conundrum is played
out, allied to the brilliant visual style of the filmmaking, where so many memorable images speak
to the themes of the film. In a word: terrific.
ROSOFF, Meg How I Live Now
Rosoffs work is marketed as Young Adult fiction,
but she is one of those writers whose work is so
sophisticated that it can be read by young and
not so young adults alike. The central character is
Daisy, a fifteen-year-old New Yorker who comes
to stay with her bohemian English cousins in an
English country manor. The family is happily
dysfunctional, unconventional and close to
nature. Daisy falls in love with Edmond and they
develop an almost telepathic understanding.
When war breaks out, the novel is set in an
alternative present the cousins are left to fend
for themselves. The question then becomes, how
will these child-adults live in the absence of
adults? The answer is more hopeful than that
provided by Lord of the Flies. Daisy is a terrific
narrator, breezy, intelligent, infuriating. Some
readers may question the suitability of some of
SHAKESPEARE, William Hamlet
The Prince Philosopher; The Carefree Student;
The Sensitive Soul; The Callous Lover, The
Avenging Son; the Oedipal Son; The Playwright;
The Swordsman; The Man of Action; the Man of
Inaction; The Savage in a savage time; The Seeker
of Truth; Sweet-natured; Ill-tempered. To be or
not to be. What a piece of work man is. What a
writer Shakespeare is!
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SHAKESPEARE, William
A Winters Tale NEW TEXT
One of Shakespeares later plays that shows a
serenity of mood and a confidence in the writing.
The famous restoration scene in the final act, in
which the repentant Leontes and the innocent
Hermione are reconciled, is unique in Shakespeare
in making the older generation the foundation of
the new order. As in Othello the play concerns the
misplaced jealousy of a husband who accuses his
virtuous spouse of adultery. In this instance, the
consequences are not calamitous, and the kings
repentance is rewarded. The subplot of Perdita, the
daughter of Leontes and Hermione, who is
abandoned on the coast of Bohemia modern
Puglia, in Southern Italy, because her jealous
father believes she is illegitimate, is a delight. The
play contains one of the most famous stage
directions in Shakespeare: Exit, pursued by a bear.
SHIELDS, Carol Unless
Reta Winter is a translator, a successful author, the
wife of the local doctor in a small Canadian town
and the mother of three teenage girls. Her life is
perfect until her daughter, Norah, suddenly
abandons her studies and becomes a vagrant,
sitting all day on a street corner in Toronto with a
begging bowl and a sign with the word goodness
printed on it. Unless charts Retas struggle to make
sense of her daughters action while, at the same
time, attending to the everyday concerns of her
life and her family. It captures the tragedy and the
absurdity of the situation as Reta muddles along as
best she can in spite of the rage she feels on her
daughters behalf for the way women are excluded
from life and lifes greatness. Carol Shields was
suffering from the cancer which claimed her life in
2003 during the writing of Unless and it is hard not
to read the novel as autobiographical with Shields
reflecting on the choices she made and the
situation of women and women writers in
19
contemporary culture. Written in Shields light,
fluent prose, with many interesting and amusing
digressions, Unless is a novel about being a
woman, being a mother and being a writer. It is
funny, touching, satiric and forceful, all in one, and
packs more into its 200 pages than many novels
twice its length.
SOPHOCLES Oedipus the King
Written almost 2,500
years ago, Sophocles
masterpiece relates the
tragedy of Oedipus who, in
attempting to escape the
prophecy of the Delphic
Oracle that he will kill his
father and marry his
mother, leaves Corinth
and the court of King Polybus, whom he believes
to be his father, and heads to Thebes. There,
without knowing it, he fulfils the prophecy by
slaying Laius and marrying Queen Jocasta. Oedipus
the King opens with Oedipus as King of Thebes,
unaware that the prophecy has been fulfilled. The
play charts the inevitable tragedy as the true facts
of his life and actions emerge. In the themes of
self-knowledge, suffering, sight and blindness,
Oedipus the King explores many of the same
themes that appear in Shakespeares King Lear.
TREVOR, William The Story of Lucy Gault
In 1921 in the wake of the War of Independence,
and unrest throughout the country, Captain
Everard Gault and his family prepare to leave
their modest county Cork estate of Lahadane.
Having accidentally shot a local youth, Gault
fears reprisals and decides to go to England.
Trying to protect 9-year old Lucy, her parents
dont tell her the full story behind their
departure. Unable to understand what she sees as
her parents cruelty, Lucy runs away. When she
doesnt return, her heart-broken parents fear she
has drowned and leave, moving from one place to
another in Europe and severing all contact with
Ireland. Only Lucy hasnt drowned and the novel
then becomes a story of regret and guilt. Lucys
life in Lahadane, where she is taken care of by the
former servants, is that of a sleeping beauty,
marking time in the enchanted house she didnt
want to leave. In a short review it is hard to do
justice to the beauty and simplicity of Trevors
writing and it is the quality of the writing that
makes us accept some of the unrealistic or fairytale elements of the story. Covering some of the
same territory as Bowens The Last of September,
The Story of Lucy Gault is a very readable novel.
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narrator is Death himself. The narrative voice is
interesting though whether it is wholly successful
is a moot point. The fact that Death addresses the
reader in the voice of a contemporary teenager
might be too much for some. Be that as it may,
there are lots of delightful and grimly humorous
elements to the story, not least the beautiful short
story that Max writes to Liesel, the nine-year-old
adopted daughter of his protectors and the book
thief of the title, on white-washed pages torn from
a copy of Hitlers Mein Kampf! Zusak, the
Australian-born author of the novel, says that the
inspiration to write The Book Thief came from
stories related to him by his German parents
concerning the war and the bombing of Munich.
One concerned a teenage boy offering bread to a
starving Jewish prisoner who was being marched
through the streets. Both the boy and the prisoner
were whipped for this act of generosity. The scene
finds its way into the novel. The Book Thief has
been hugely successful. Much of its success is due
WOLFF, Tobias This Boys Life NEW TEXT
Wolffs autobiographical novel on growing up in
the 1950s, set, for the most part, in rural
Washington, about a troubled youth, Jack a name
he borrowed from Jack London, and his love for his
divorced mother, Rosemary. The young mans life
changes for the worst when his mother marries a
single father, and the stepfather intimidates and
humiliates him. Although the subject matter is
sometimes grim, this is really a novel about a young
mans inventiveness and determination to succeed.
With strong themes of identity, the desire to
escape and the need to belong, the meaning of
family and fatherhood, the novel is a compelling
read, written in crystal-clear prose.
ZUSAK, Markus The Book Thief NEW TEXT
The first thing to be said about The Book Thief is
that it is a remarkably easy novel to read and
enjoy. The second thing to say is that is that it has
received mixed reviews. The novel tells the story of
a decent German who give shelter to a Jewish man,
Max, during World War II. We learn about the
German, and his family and his neighbours. Just as
we come to know and empathize with the
characters, the Allies bomb Munich where they
live. One of the conceits of the novel is that the
to the simplicity of the writing and the quality of
the story-telling, with many readers describing it
as impossible to put down. The key debate for
teachers and students is whether the idiom robs
the subject of the seriousness it deserves?
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SOME NOTES FOR TEACHERS
Teachers and students should make sure that the
texts they are studying come from the prescribed
list for the year of the examination. Candidates
who are repeating the Leaving Certificate course
should note that texts prescribed for one year may
not necessarily be prescribed for subsequent years.
For students taking the Higher Level Papers, the
study of a Shakespearean play is compulsory as
either a single text or as part of a comparative study.
The study of a film adaptation of a Shakespearean
play does not fulfil this requirement as the director
of the film is considered the author of the film text.
may be studied as one of the three texts in a
comparative study.
3. The Comparative Modes for Examination in
2012 are:
Higher Level
i Theme or Issue
ii The General Vision and Viewpoint
iii Literary Genre
Ordinary Level
i Relationships
ii Theme
iii Hero, Heroine, Villain
It is also worth noting that three texts are
prescribed for study in a comparative manner at
both Higher and Ordinary level.
As the syllabus indicates, students are required to
study from this list:
As the syllabus indicates, students are required to
study from this list:
1. One text on its own from the following texts:
Austen, Jane
Ballard, Emily
Binchy, Maeve
Friel, Brian
Ibsen, Henrik
Johnston, Jennifer
Emma H/O
Empire of the Sun H/O
Circle of Friends O
Dancing at Lughnasa H/O
Dolls House H/O
How Many Miles
to Babylon? O
McDonagh, Martin
The Lonesome West O
Shakespeare, William Hamlet H/O
Trevor, William
The Story of Lucy Gault O
· One of the texts marked with H/O may be
studied on its own at Higher Level and at
Ordinary Level.
· One of the texts marked with O may be studied
on its own at Ordinary Level.
2. Three other texts in a comparative manner,
according to the comparative modes
prescribed for this course.
· Any texts from the list of texts prescribed for
comparative study, other than the one already
chosen for study on its own, may be selected for
the comparative study. Texts chosen must be
from the prescribed list for the current year.
4. Shakespearean Drama
At Higher Level a play by Shakespeare must be
one of the texts chosen. This can be studied on
its own or as an element in a comparative study.
· At Higher Level and at Ordinary Level, a film
At Ordinary Level the study of a play by
Shakespeare is optional.
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THE HEROS JOURNEY:
REFLECTIONS ON TEACHING ENGLISH
This is an edited version of the text of the address
given by Kevin McDermott, National Coordinator Language Group of Subjects, Second
Level Support Service, at the INOTE conference
in Kilkenny in May 2010.
In 2002, when the English Support Service was
designing a number of new courses, we engaged
in an exercise of playful dialogue, where every
time it seemed that we had reached a conclusion,
we kept the conversation going by asking a series
of supplementary questions, in the spirit of the
Brendan Kennelly poem:
Though we live in a world that dreams of ending
That always seems about to give in
Something that will not acknowledge conclusion
Insists that we forever begin.
The intention was that each new question would
generate further discussion and force us to find
new ways of looking at old certainties. In one of
these sessions we decided that we would create a
narrative of teaching English and try to capture
teachers stories as we facilitated a course on the
teaching of narrative.
The Disguise of Myth
In asking you to don the mantle of the hero, in your
own cycle of adventure, Im inviting you to dress in
the disguise of myth. Through assuming different
identities, through taking on different roles and
trying out different versions of ourselves, we effect
a potentiating transformation, that contributes to
the ongoing project of scripting the narrative of our
teaching life.
One measure of the success of that conversation
is that, eight years later, Im still as excited now as
I was then by the narrative of teaching English,
which, at this gathering of teachers of English, I
want to characterise as the heros journey.
The Heros Journey and Education
The phrase and the concept, the heros journey,
come from the writings of Joseph Campbell on
comparative mythology. I think there is a
correspondence between the life of an English
teacher and the archetypal hero of Campbells
myth. Both are concerned with self-discovery;
both involve a relationship between the
individual and the community; in both the
heros journey and the teachers life, the
protagonist undertakes a series of individual
journeys, which combine to form a cycle of
adventure.
If each academic year, from
September to June, is characterised as a single
heroic journey, think of how many such journeys
we each undertake in the course of a teaching
life. And the aggregate of those journeys forms
the adventure that is, for us, teaching English.
So for the next few minutes, I want you to
imagine yourself as the hero of your own journey
of self discovery, venturing forth from the world
of common experience into the strange and vast
world of literature from which you bring back
reports, and then lead a group of followers across
its threshold in search of hidden treasure. For the
students who join you on the journey, who
embark on their own parallel voyage of
discovery, you are both mentor and threshold
guardian; hero and guide.
The Refusal of the Call to Adventure
In Campbells version of the heros journey, the
hero is often loath to answer the call to adventure.
I doubt if any of us feels very heroic in mid August,
when were sitting in the South of France,
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surrounded by those whom we love, feeling the
Mediterranean heat upon us, reading our favourite
authors, and trying desperately to suppress the
knowledge that our timetable, our call to
adventure, awaits. But, ultimately, we do answer
the call and we do so out of contractual obligation
but also in a spirit of service because, at heart, we
know that we wont let down our students, those
who depend upon us.
to reflect. And I thought about the things I value
most as an educator, and I thought about the
educational legacy I inherited from my parents. As
educators, my parents gave me an example of
encouragement and nurture, and a way of being
present to myself and my siblings. Their example
anchors my identity as a teacher and helps me to
negotiate between the Scylla of managerial control
and the Charybdis of a consumerist model of
education. I am sure that every one of you has
A number of years ago, the Second Level Support
Service invited the teachers in a large postprimary school to create a collective image of
themselves. According to this assemblage of
individual statements, a teacher is someone who
is strongly committed to the students; who
enjoys seeing the students progress and develop;
who loves his/her subject; who strives to involve
all students in learning; who possesses a range of
personal attributes; and who is open to learning.
What struck me then, and continues to strike me
now, is that this collective image is expressive,
personal, and associates teaching with relationships,
with optimism, and with possibility. And it is this
sense of the possible that, I believe, brings us
back, year after year, and makes us teacher folk
longen to goon on pilgrimages, and seek out
strange lands.
The Gifts for the Journey
In the Campbell myth, the hero is supported to
commence the journey by a guide, a supporter,
who helps the protagonist overcome fear and leads
him or her to the threshold of the new world.
Sometimes the guide does no more than help the
hero recognise his or her own inner strength.
I have rarely met a teacher of English who did not
profess deeply held beliefs about the nature and the
importance of teaching. In a piece of research on
teacher motivation, a respondent said: I come
from a disadvantaged school and am passionate
about promoting the lot of the kids and thats
fundamental to what I do, and it carries through
into all aspects of my work. Passion, and the
courage it engenders, underpins our teaching
identity, and it is one of the personal resources we
carry on our journey.
And this guide often gives the hero a gift, a gift
which has protective properties. It could be a
special shield or a cloak that confers invisibility. I
am at an age when neither of my parents survives.
And when my mother died, that face-to-face
encounter with mortality caused me, as it causes
everyone faced with similar life and death events,
23
similar personal, biographical moorings which
anchor you as you manage the tension between
your sense of personal integrity and the various
external pressures that bear upon you. And I think
it is the values that we inherit from those whom we
love and who loved us, that provide a protective
cloak as we set out on our annual journey.
The Heros Ordeal
The journey itself is marked by many tests of
character and endurance and seeming failures. And
there are moments when our followers doubt
whether we can find the treasure and return home
safely. I have a vivid memory of a student throwing
down his pen in disgust and proclaiming loudly for
all his classmates to hear; Sir, I understood that,
before you explained it. These are times when the
journey is lonely and we doubt ourselves when, for
example, in the dark days of Winter, the Mock
exam results are disappointing and theres a
murmur from the followers that the teacher in the
neighbouring school, or the Grind School, or the
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Into her womb convey sterility!
Dry up in her the organs of increase;
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honour her! If she must teem,
Create her child of spleen; that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her!
local convent, has a much better way of teaching
the Comparative Study than you have. On those
occasions the hero is like one of the Men of Erin
who, huddled around the camp fire, hears
dispiriting reports of the deeds of Cuchulainn.
Who could possibly match him? And is his heart
not badly shaken?
The Ordeal
Sometimes, we face more daunting challenges that
really shake our confidence and self belief to the
core, when, as a teacher, we almost die. There can
be a subject inspection when who we are and what
we represent gets lost in translation; there are
times when we dive deep below the surface of a
Sylvia Plath poem and cannot find our way back,
when we want to say:
I am incapable of more knowledge.
What is this, this face
So murderous in its strangle of branches?
Its snaky acids hiss.
It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults
That kill, that kill, that kill.
And not even Niall McMonagles eloquent
commentary can help because you have reached
the bottom and theres no diving bell. Or, you are
overcome by the nihilism in King Lear:
How bleak and cruel and merciless is that? You
want to close the text and protect your fragile self.
But you cannot because the followers are waiting
for you to guide them and dont understand that
youre lost. Thats when your classroom becomes a
really lonely place, an isolating place, when you are
a king of banks and stones and every blooming
thing. And theres no point in confiding in your
colleagues: youre the Senior English Teacher, for
goodness sake, youre the hero. And just as you
think, well, no worst, there is none, you hear that
the new English teacher is not only handing out
typed notes on Plath and Lear but he/she has
created a website where the students can
download the notes, or an MP3 file, if they prefer,
so that they can listen to the notes on their iPods.
And like any hero faced with despair, you pray. You
invoke the ancestors. Recently I completed a series
of workshops with colleagues on encouraging
students to be more confident in their abilities to
write short stories. A remarkable feature of those
workshops was the number of teachers who could
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Of course I know that, Louisa. I do not see the
application of the remark. To do him justice he
did not, at all.
remember an instance from their own schooldays
when an English teacher responded appreciatively
to a piece of written work in a way that was a
defining moment for the teachers younger self. In
work with pre-service teachers, around the creation
of a teaching identity, most young English teachers
say they want to model themselves on the person
who taught them English. When you hit rock
bottom, you think of the people who inspired you;
you don your protective cloak; you draw on your
reserves of courage and passion; you go into class
next day and you begin again, afresh.
Thomas Gradgrind: philosopher and school-owner,
the man who carries a rule, a pair of scales and a
multiplication table so that, at any given moment,
he can weigh and measure any parcel of human
nature and tell you what it comes to. I wonder
what Gradgrind would have made of this young
Leaving Certificate students account of her life, as
recounted to a teacher-researcher. This is what the
researcher Mary Fagan, reports:
The Reward
And because you stick your courage to the sticking
place you are rewarded. Of course, there is the
reward of the examination results that your
students achieve. And their achievement would not
be possible without your guidance. However,
Leaving Certificate results are increasingly used to
measure teacher performance, as if they were the
only measure that matters. One has only to think of
the public spectacle that is the publication of the
league table of schools. But you know and I know
that results and league tables are simply
information; they do not tell the narrative of
human experience that lies behind the statistics.
They are like the smoke from the chimneys in
Coketown. You remember the scene in Hard Times,
Gradgrind and Louisa speaking of the offer of
marriage that Bounderby has made:
As A tells her story it is clear that the formation of
the self has taken place in circumstances of family
disintegration, domestic violence and dislocation.
Prematurely, A assumed familial responsibilities.
By the age of seven, she remarks, I could make
a Christmas dinner. As a child, she stayed at home
from school to mind the kids, and to observe the
chaotic drama of her parents life:
And watch me da get stabbed, or, you
know, me ma end up in hospital. There was
always just violence violence, drink,
drugs, whatever …
What A values most is her collection of
photographs. However, A has no images from
the period of her life between the age of two
and the age of nine. This sense of loss and the
feelings of suffocation she experienced,
expressed in a remarkable series of vivid images,
make her appreciate her present circumstances:
…at that time it just felt like there was…you
were in this room and you couldnt get out of
it, and there was no air. And it felt youd
never, ever get out of it. And I used to always
imagine myself crawling up the wall, getting
to the top and that the ceiling was going to
open and it eventually did so … thats the
way … thats my other side, like … thats the
way I look at it. I got out of that bad side,
thats the dark side. Now Im in the light side.
From the present perspective, A looks back with
wonder at her younger self and what she went
through and the responsibilities she assumed.
Her early experiences give her a belief in herself,
or a belief in the necessity to believe in your self,
in your own agency:
Removing her eyes from her father, Louisa sat
so long looking silently towards the town, that
he said, at length: Are you consulting the
chimneys of the Coketown works, Louisa?
There seems to be nothing there but languid
and monotonous smoke. Yet when the night
comes, Fire bursts out, father! she answered,
turning quickly.
You have to just try everything you can to
get where you want to be. … Its all to do
with you. You have to be strong; you have to
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want to do it … thats what Im trying to
prove to people … You dont have to, you
dont have to be on the dole; you dont have
to do this; you can further yourself. You can
better yourself.
comes at the subject in an interesting way. The
composition is an imaginative and intelligent
interpretation of the title.
Now, just imagine you are that young woman. Just
imagine, you have put your heart and soul into
writing a story and you receive this response from
your English teacher. Just imagine how you would
walk home from school on that day. You would
permit yourself the privilege of walking on air, if I
can borrow from Seamus Heaneys Nobel
acceptance speech. And, in all likelihood, that
would be the day when youd begin to think of
yourself as a young writer, not simply as a student.
And there is no way of knowing when the seed
planted on that day would blossom.
I think the reward in teaching, especially in teaching
English, is related to the gift we have at our disposal
to bestow on students, like the student whose voice
we have just heard. This is the gift of helping them
believe in themselves, believe in their ability to enter
language in ways that are meaningful, and lyrical and
beautiful, as that young womans voice is.
At the series of workshops on writing short stories,
teachers were invited to respond to a number of
stories written by Leaving Certificate students. One
of the pieces was written in response to a question
from the 2007 Leaving Certificate examination:
And there is an equal uncertainty in reckoning the
impact of the heros journey on our followers,
because the significance of the journey extends
way beyond the present into the future. And if our
heroic journey has been successful then the
students who have followed us will be hospitable to
the insights that are still to come in the future. I
love George Steiners remark that the things which
we know by heart, and take to heart, will ripen and
deploy within us. And the ripening of the things
taken to heart is the reward we receive for having
the courage to go on our heros journey.
I tune in to conversations around me. TEXT 2
Write a short story suggested by the above
sentence.
The workshop participants were invited to identify
everything that was commendable, from a writing
perspective, in the piece. This is a summary of what
the teachers said about this young womans story:
This is an ambitious piece of writing. It is
aesthetic, imaginative and empathetic. It
immediately catches the interest of the reader
and sets the scene. It deals with an important
issue in a mature way. Real emotion and a depth
of feeling are described without excess or
sentimentality. A clear voice personal, sensitive
and sincere emerges from the writing. There is
interesting use of popular culture as well as
literary and legendary allusions to provide
context, develop the theme and frame the story.
The register moves successfully between the
colloquial and the literary. The description of the
landscape evokes a mood and an atmosphere.
There are easy transitions between internal
monologue and description. The changes of mood
in the text are mirrored in changes in form and
style. There is an interesting use of tense, linked
to themes of time and memory. Good use is made
of the car journey to structure the piece and
symbolise the personal journey of the narrator.
The use of place names locates the journey in the
real world. The variety in sentence structure
creates the rhythm and mood of the piece. The
narrow time frame and the tight setting allows
for rich description. There is a clear placement of
characters in their situation. The young writer
Why the Heros Journey
I have had the great good fortune for the last twelve
years to work with English teachers up and down the
length and breadth of the country. English is an
extraordinarily important subject. It is an arts
subject, the gateway through which the majority of
our students access literature, drama, writing and
film. English teachers are the guides, and the
mentors, and the threshold guardians, and the
keepers of the flame the ones who know where the
Golden Bough is to be found. At a time when public
and policy discourse is increasingly influenced by an
economic-led view of education, I wanted to tap into
a richer, more mythic version of teaching, one that
associates the enterprise with that of Odysseus or
Aeneas. So I salute you, teachers of English, you
heroic adventurers, and I applaud the journeys you
undertake each year. And the end of the journey?
Well, there is no end. Theres only a rest period
before the next call to adventure. As Eliot says in
Little Gidding:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
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EXPLORING MACBETH
Abbey Theatre Workshop for Teachers
Friday 26th February 2010
Theres something invigorating for a teacher to
be meeting at the stage door of the Abbey, the
national theatre, for a workshop on Macbeth.
The fellow participants arrive from places as far
flung as Limerick and Waterford, all filled with a
similar feeling of expectation. After the
gathering, our group of ten head over to the
rehearsal space in Marlborough Lane to begin our
session with Andrea Ainsworth, the voice
director with the Abbey.
If it were done when tis done, then twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
Wed jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poisond chalice
To our own lips. Hes here in double trust;
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heavens cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which oerleaps itself
And falls on the other "
Andrea gives a brief introduction and sets the
scene for the next few days. The ambition will be
to encourage each of us to speak the words of the
play and to catch hold of Shakespeares language
and rhythm. The workshop will invite us to
consider the meaning of the words and explore
the intentions or desires which the words serve.
Through getting hold of the words we will get
hold of the play. Over the weekend were going
to unpick, animate and put back together a few
key moments from the play.
We begin with some breathing exercises followed
by vocal exercise and then we put sounds to
gestures. Its an energetic and playful beginning.
We make meaning through gesture and non-verbal
sounds. And then we move on to words. We look at
Macbeths soliloquy from Act I, Scene VII:
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The soliloquy has twenty eight lines. We begin
without much ado, standing in a circle, reading in
the round, each participant reading to the next
pause, as signalled by the punctuation. Were all
concentrating, making sure we get our cues and
hand the speech on to the next person. And
because we are concentrating so intently on each
word, I begin to hear words that had never struck
me before, like here or this. And I notice that
reading these small units of speech removes the
fear that often attends reading Shakespeare. And
when we have read the speech a few times, with
different people leading, we pause and review
how far we have travelled. Sitting on the floor,
we talk about words and phrases that have
entered our consciousness; how, for example, the
word assassination removes the dirty deed in
your own backyard quality from the prospective
killing. Having spoken the words and felt the
rhythm of the speech we are more conscious of
how the language is heightened and the imagery
becomes more elaborate as Macbeth seeks to
persuade himself from the proposed action; how
he builds himself up to proceed no further.
captured the drama of self-talk, how a soliloquy is
a dialogue of self-persuasion.
We are pleased with yourselves. But in this
workshop, there is no resting on your laurels. The
final exercise of the evening session follows after
a discussion of the soliloquy is terms of what
Macbeth wants: the kingship; what he must do
to have it; and the consequences that will follow
from acting to acquire it. Then we discuss the
reasons which dissuade Macbeth from pursuing
his desire.
Then we are on our feet again and Andrea directs
us in an exercise that translates the movement of
thought, and the pauses between each thought,
into physical movement. We stand still to speak
and when we reach a pause, we gauge how long
it is and walk what we think is a commensurate
distance. It is a simple exercise yet it is
extraordinarily effective in capturing the way the
movement of thought moves forward in fits and
starts, or hesitates and falls back.
After an hour or so, the thought occurs to me
that we are not at all concerned with whether the
play is readable a perennial preoccupation for us
teachers but are deep into exploring how these
lines might be played.
We are in the realm of abstract concepts and
ideas: desires; actions; consequences. Andrea
asks us to consider how to make these
abstractions more real, more tangible, more
playable. So we search for physical objects to
represent a particular concept, drawing on the
imagery of the speech to guide us but also
selecting, in an arbitrary way, from the bits and
pieces to hand: a chair represents the kingship
Macbeth desires; a plastic bottle represents the
consequences, the poisond chalice he will have
to drink; a notebook stands for Duncans virtues.
Each participant assembles his or her own set of
physical properties to represent the key moral
ideas. And then each of us, on our own,
experiments with focussing on the appropriate
object - holding it, sitting on it, looking at it - as
we speak the words of the soliloquy, and we
succeed in giving physical expression to ideas,
desires and qualities. And as I play with the words
In quick succession, we do two further exercises.
It the first, we work in pairs. We read the
soliloquy, passing the speech back and forth to
each other as the punctuation dictates,
incorporating the different kinds of pauses we
have now explored. We stand close and speak
quietly, concentrating on catching the meaning of
each word and speaking each section so that our
partner can pick up the meaning and continue. We
do the exercise a number of times alternating who
begins the speech. More than any commentary or
explication could convey, we understand how the
soliloquy is a dramatic dialogue in which Macbeth
debates with himself. In five minutes we have
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prophecy of the kingship to come. We consider
the circumstances of that meeting - the general
coming victorious from the bloody field, the
feeling of luck and blessedness that goes with
surviving a battle. When the witches speak to
Macbeth, they speak to that feeling of luck. Is it
this state of being, this state of luck and
blessedness, that opens Macbeths mind to
consider the possibility of something he would
never have thought possible before? More
generally, what circumstances stimulate states or
feelings that make a character believe that the
impossible is possible?
and the objects, I realise how much the chair, the
kingship, holds my attention and exerts an
almost magnetic influence.
What strikes me in this, and in the other
exercises, is the way in which the workshop has
us concentrating, focussing and playing with the
words. We havent covered a great deal of the
text of the play, but we have uncovered many
things. Thats something worth bringing from the
rehearsal room to the classroom.
Saturday 27th February, 2010
Morning
We assemble on Saturday morning bright and
early and review the workshop from the night
before. Everyone is eager to contribute. We all
have become more aware of how the soliloquy
follows its own internal momentum. Andrea asks
us to consider the points or points where the
energy in the speech changes or renews itself and
why this might be. This leads to a lengthy
discussion that draws on the insights from the
evening before. In particular we pick up on the
idea of the soliloquy as an act of self persuasion.
What has Macbeth to persuade himself from
doing? Why does he need to do this, in the first
place? For the first time, we bring in the backstory, the meeting with the witches, the
Its an interesting discussion that looks to find a
key that will help an actor play the part. Its also
the kind of discussion that would help a student
make sense of the tensions and inner conflicts
that beset Macbeth. We have begun exploring
the play at a point of energy and have now
backtracked to help us explain the nature of that
energy. It makes sense and it works to begin in
this way, not at the beginning of the play, but at
a key moment that is easily got at.
Having considered the question of why Macbeth
is contemplating murdering Duncan, we go back
to the movement and momentum of the
soliloquy. We discuss how Macbeth has to make
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Enter LADY MACBETH
How now! what news?
LADY MACBETH
He has almost suppd: why have you left the
chamber?
MACBETH
Hath he askd for me?
LADY MACBETH
Know you not he has?
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honourd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
Duncan unkillable; how he has to persuade
himself that the deed is undoable and how this is
reflected in the language, imagery and rhythm of
the speech. And we reflect on how the see-saw
moments in the speech, the pauses for thought,
the gathering of energy, and the decisive leap
forward, are guided by the punctuation. I dont
think I have ever paid more attention to
punctuation marks in my life. I dont think I have
ever worked harder at trying to describe the
effect of a mark: the comma which slows down
without stopping the momentum; the semicolon
which looks back to what precedes it as much as
looks forward to what is to come; and the colon
which is really a gathering of energy before
leaping forward. Wow! And its only 11 oclock on
Saturday morning.
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteemst the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i the adage?
MACBETH
Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
After our coffee break, we read the soliloquy again,
standing in a tight circle and we concentrate on
committing ourselves to each word, not pulling
back, and each person works to land his or her
phrase so that the next person can take pick up it
up, carry on and do the same for the next person.
We do this a few times, and both the pace and the
energy of our reading increase and there is a real
sense of playing off each other, and for each other,
and speaking as one. And the speech comes alive.
And I think each of us has a better appreciation of
this key speech than at any time before and we are
more attuned to the nuance of each word. This has
been achieved without any single person having
the responsibility or the burden of reading the
twenty eight lines through on his or her own.
Theres a lesson in that for the classroom.
LADY MACBETH
What beast wast, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their
fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluckd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
And so we move on to the next part of the Act
I, Scene VII where Lady Macbeth seeks her
husband out.
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MACBETH
If we should fail?
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?
LADY MACBETH
We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And well not fail. When Duncan is asleep
Whereto the rather shall his days hard journey
Soundly invite himhis two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?
MACBETH
I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth
know.
We bring chairs and sit in a wide circle and the
conversation fills the circle. We begin by setting the
scene, making it clear whats going on. Duncan has
come to stay with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They
are hosting a banquet for the king. Macbeth has left
the table, thereby abandoning his guest of honour.
Lady Macbeth comes to find him to bring him back.
We read through the scene quickly and discuss some
of the things which jump out at us. For example,
there is a comment on the false note that Macbeth
strikes when Lady Macbeth enters, How now! what
news! Hes covering his tracks, diverting her but she
will not be put off and asks directly, Why have you
left the chamber? He ignores the question and then
announces his decision, in the way that a Managing
Director might make an announcement on company
policy, We will proceed no further in this business.
Comment is made on the use of the word bought by
Macbeth in reference to good opinion and honour.
Surely these are earned, not bought? We note the
way the drunk/hangover imagery is used by Lady
Macbeth and the shifting of the ground from the
impersonal use of this business by Macbeth to her
Such I account thy love.
MACBETH
Bring forth men-children only;
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
When we have markd with blood those sleepy
two
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
That they have donet?
LADY MACBETH
Who dares receive it other,
Andrea asks us to remember what is happening
off stage. Theres a banquet going on. The host
and hostess cant be away for too long. They
dont have much time for this discussion, so
theres a sense of urgency about it. Moreover, if
they are to kill Duncan, proceed with the
business, it will have to be done that night, so
theres an urgency about this that is reflected in
words like time, now and do. We reflect on the
force of Lady Macbeths words, their effect and
their implication: If I had made the promise, this
is what I would have done to fulfil it. Thats how
much I am committed to you and to this joint
enterprise. So, how much are you committed to
me? At what point in the scene do we become
aware that the energy and power has shifted
from one to the other? At what point do we
realise that Macbeth will surrender to her will?
We look back to the soliloquy which precedes this
scene. Now it is clear that the imagery Macbeth
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meets an obstacle; when an intended act is
blocked or meets resistance or refusal. Andrea
observes how playing an action is more effective
on stage than playing a state; how language
serves the action which in turn creates the state.
This leads to a thoughtful silence as we, nonactors, think this through. So, Andrea sets up a
scenario where we can experience for ourselves
what she is talking about. In pairs we are going to
play with the idea of action and reaction. We
have two words to play with, Yes and No and
two actions: attraction and repulsion.
What follows is an interesting game of cat-andmouse, a pas de deux. My partner and I
experiment taking turns to begin the chain of
action and reaction. By inflexion, facial
expression and movement, we give meaning to
each No or Yes, each trying to react to what has
gone before and influence what will come next in
the game; to cajole, block, dissuade or persuade.
Its an intriguing and dramatic game of chess, of
movement and counter-movement. Both of us
agree that the exercise brings home the way in
which characters play off each other, and how
the successful blocking of one avenue of advance
leads to a new approach, a different action.
created to convince himself, the elaborate,
ornamental imagery of angels and cherubim, was
artificial and the thing he desires is still alive and
is re-fuelled by Lady Macbeth.
We take a short break and when we come back
together, we dispense with the chairs and stand
in a circle, but its a looser circle to the one we
formed when we read the scene earlier in the day.
By now Ive become accustomed to the way we
change positions standing, sitting, loose circle,
tight circle, going off to a corner of the room to
work on ones own, finding a space to work with
a partner and the relationship between our
configuration and the nature of the work in
which we are engaged. For example, the loose
circle suits the speculative, free-ranging
discussion of interpretation while the tighter
circle suits the focused reading of a scene. Every
configuration brings its own kind of energy and
carries an invitation to participate in the
workshop activity in a different way. How might
this be replicated in the classroom?
When everyone has completed the exercise and
given some informal feedback, we break for
lunch.
We reconvene and bring our chairs into a circle.
We discuss the actions both Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth wish to complete in this scene, the
various objectives they wish to accomplish. From
the exercise before lunch we are aware that every
objective or action is likely to produce a reaction
or encounter resistance. In response to the
questions, What does he want in this scene? and
What does she want in this scene? we throw out
loads of suggestions:
He wants to call a halt.
He wants to take charge.
He wants to divert her, stall her, ignore her
demands.
She wants to challenge him, rebuke him,
accuse him, undermine him.
He wants to stick to his guns.
She wants to confront him.
She wants to make him feel guilty.
Andrea leads the discussion inviting us to name
what it is that Lady Macbeth wants. The
suggestions come thick and fast: She wants
Macbeth back out at the banquet; she wants to
know whats going on; she wants him to come
back to the plan… From here we discuss the
kinds of actions she takes to get what she wants:
she questions; she undermines; she infantilizes;
she mocks; she goads. There is discussion on the
way something new is tried when an action
After a lively exchange of views, were on our
feet again and form into pairs. Andrea asks us to
play the opening of the scene but instead of
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reciting the lines, we communicate what we
want in a non-verbal way. We can make sounds
but we cannot use words. The emphasis now falls
on gesture and stance and movement. Again it is
a pas de deux, with one partner turning this way
and that and the other following. It becomes a
drama of flight and pursuit, of confrontation and
evasion. Everyone is working with a different
partner to the one from the earlier exercises, so
there is a new dynamic at play in the room. We
swap roles and discover numerous possibilities of
playing the lines without speaking the words:
Enter LADY MACBETH
How now! what news?
LADY MACBETH
He has almost suppd: why have you left the
chamber?
MACBETH
Hath he askd for me?
LADY MACBETH
Know you not he has?
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business:
We come back to the larger group and compare
notes. And now we run right through the full
scene, translating the entire text into a series
of first-person-pronoun verb second-personpronoun statements, of the kind I interrogate
you, I challenge you. As in other brainstorming
sessions, the emphasis is on moving things along,
not encouraging people to second guess
themselves. The result is a compendium of
suggestions and some inventive word play and
neologisms. My favourites are:
in a close circle and read it in the round, twice in
succession, moving from speaker to speaker as
the punctuation dictates, working from one
punctuation mark to the next. Then we read it
twice more, though this time each speaker is free
to read beyond the punctuation mark and pass on
to the next person when he or she deems it
appropriate. You can hear and see how the work
weve done on the scene has given each
individual the confidence to deliver the words.
I high-horse you.
I full-stop you.
I guilt-trip you.
Other phrases which stay in my mind are: I
licence you; I embolden you; I bolster you. I
notice the alliterative patterns in some of the
streams of statements or the onomatopoeic
quality that creeps in as the litany gathers force
and energy. If the soliloquies were exercises in
self-persuasion, this scene plays as an episode in
mutual delusion.
Having explored the scene in this way, we stand
We go back to pair work and do two exercises in
quick succession. The first centres on the
following exchange:
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business:
He hath honourd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
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Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.
Then, in pairs, we play the whole scene, putting
movement and gesture to the words, and there
are five games of pursuit and fight in the room.
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteemst the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i the adage?
Now full of energy, we from a tight circle and
read in the round, reading from pause to pause,
bringing every shred of understanding to each
word. Its an electrifying reading and a fitting end
to the days work.
Sunday 28th February, 2010
Its tea and coffee to begin and we chat about
what weve experienced so far and how different
this way of exploring the play is to the way most
of us have taught it in the classroom. Theres
general agreement that we want to bring more of
this kind of exploration into our classroom. Today
the focus has shifted. We have moved on to Act
III, Scene I, and Macbeths soliloquy, To be thus is
nothing…
Its a brilliant exercise. One person plays
Macbeth, the other Lady Macbeth. As Macbeth
says his lines, Lady Macbeth picks up on
individual phrases and repeats them back,
undermining all that is being said. The person
reading Macbeth can repeat the phrase, reassert
its power, before moving on. When Lady
Macbeth delivers her lines, a similar process is
repeated. Once we have run through the exercise
a few times and develop our own way of playing
it, we understand how it reinforces the push and
pull in the scene, the play of power between
them.
MACBETH
To be thus is nothing,
But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be feard. Tis much he
dares;
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety. There is none but he
Whose being I do fear: and, under him,
My Genius is rebuked; as, it is said,
Mark Antonys was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
When first they put the name of king upon me,
And bade them speak to him; then prophet-like
They haild him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrenchd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If t be so,
For Banquos issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murderd;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come fate into the list,
And champion me to the utterance! Whos
there?
And then we move on Lady Macbeths What
beast wast then…
We give each, single word its moment, its weight
and balance. We read in pairs, alternating every
word so that each gets its due. In Andreas phrase,
we unfix the speech, word by word, and discover
the power of even the smallest word. The
personal pronouns, the I-You relationship, really
jump off the page. I am struck by the force of
make and unmake; the various forms of the
verb do and the noun time. By really slowing
down the reading, by making your way one word
at a time, the scene reveals itself. I think of the
many students who have been struck dumb with
terror at the prospect of reading a large chunk of
Shakespeares language; how they stumble over
simple words as they skim forward trying to
anticipate the words that might trip them up.
Reading, as we have done, one word at a time,
takes away that fear.
At this stage, having played with the separate
parts of the scene its time to put the whole thing
back together. We again read in the round. This
time we read each speech in its entirety and get a
feel for the movement of the whole scene.
We stand in a circle and do a choral reading of the
twenty five lines of the soliloquy. Theres safety
in numbers and the voices rise and fall more or
less in unison, like the prayers at Benediction. We
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give a quick response. A number of words are
commented on, words which have some meat on
their bones, like stick in line three. This leads to
a discussion of the way in which Macbeth
tortures himself in the soliloquy and fills his mind
with a host of characters whose presence drives
him to distraction: Banquo; Banquos issue;
Duncan. The soliloquy is like a scene played
between Macbeth and a number of characters.
Taking up the idea of the people who populate
the speech, Andrea suggests that we find objects
to represent the most important characters
conjured in the speech. For the second time over
the weekend, each of us assembles a set of
properties from the odds and end around the
room and in our pockets and rucksacks. The idea
is that we will do the speech and speak or address
the important characters through the objects
which represent them. When Macbeth refers to
himself, we touch our heart or make a similar
gesture. Each person works on his or her own.
At first I find it hard to project anything onto the
odds and ends before me. However, as I read the
speech over, one thing becomes clearer and
clearer to me: the real anger and frustration in
the soliloquy is directed at Banquos issue, the
seed of Banquo. I experiment with reciting the
lines, with finding the point where the energy
quickens and intensifies. I use the punctuation
and the pauses to guide me. In one reading, I kick
out at the object representing Banquos issue
and repeat the action at the next four mentions
of them. The effect is staggering. I feel I have
uncovered the Macbeth whose murderers kill
Macduffs son. We pause to compare notes and
soon everyone is using a physical gesture to
match the fury of Macbeth. Before we know it,
shoes and runners are kicked around the room.
When we stop there is agreement that the
exercise has helped us to embody the anger and
darkness at the heart of the play. Its one thing to
talk about darkness and cruelty in a discursive
way; its quite another to find yourself lashing
out in anger at the object of your hatred.
the reaction of the group, like the reaction of a
crowd at a sporting event, spurs each person to
deliver each word as powerfully and tellingly as
possible. Standing in the middle, meeting the
eyes of those in the circle, you want to persuade
them, to convince them of the truth of what you
are saying. Its not all shouting, though there is
some. There is also low intensity, quiet fury and
murderous intent. In playing the soliloquy in this
way we see that Macbeth is his own rabble; I
rabble myself might be his dictum.
When we finish there is a terrific feeling of
shared accomplishment, of having made
something interesting and revelatory happen. I
suppose its the feeling that animates a company
when the playing comes together to produce
something that could not be produced by one
person alone. I hope its the feeling that you find
in classrooms when the class group generate
insights and understanding from class discussion
or interaction.
We leave our individual work and reform as a
group. This time we set up a wider circle. We are
going to read the soliloquy in the round, going
from pause to pause but there are some
additional elements to the way we will read it.
For starters, each person will step into the centre
of the circle to deliver his or her portion of the
speech. Secondly, the rest of the group will make
some verbal response to whats been said. In
other words we create a chorus or a rabble and
The workshop has almost come to an end. Before
we conclude, Andrea goes back to the different
sections that make up a speech: the units of
punctuation, the sentences and the verse lines.
We discuss how the punctuation - the commas,
semi-colons, colons and full stops influence and
control the movement of thought. Andrea talks
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my class room, I ask myself. You can guess the
answer. Yet, anyone speaking Shakespeares
language cannot be unaware of the underlying
verse structure. I am interested to see how an
actor or a voice director approaches
Shakespearean verse. Andrea suggests that the
verse line is a way of organising thought within a
soundscape of five beats and five off-beats. Not
every line conforms to the iambic pattern. Some
lines may begin with a stressed beat followed by
an unstressed, a trochee as opposed to an iambus,
or the five stressed syllables may not be evenly
stressed. In some places there are more than
beats in the line and the line seems to push
against its own structure. However, for all those
variations, the underlying pattern is clear and the
trace of the iambic pentameter underscores the
language of the play.
about punctuation in a way which I suspect will
be rehearsed in all our classrooms. She raises a
number of questions; offers some definitions.
What is a comma? Its not a stop. Its more like a
speed bump on the road which slows you down
but which you cross over. In terms of the
movement of thought, it slows it down without
really altering the course. The semicolon is a
pivotal point, like the one on a see-saw which
rocks one way then the other. A semi-colon
contains within it the notion of equivalence:
what goes before it is as important as what
comes after. A semicolon gives pause for
thought. The colon has the effect of pushing both
the speaker and the thought forward into the list
or the definition which follows it. The colon
creates a jump forward. The full stop brings you
to a halt. Its not a temporary pause; its not a seesaw moment; its not a leap forward: its a full
stop. Each of us takes the soliloquy To be thus
is nothing… and experiments with different
ways of marking the pauses. We are all on out
feet and try to mirror in a physical way the effect
of the punctuation marks. For example, a comma
is marked by a small change in the rate of
walking; a semi-colon is signalled by a re-tracing
on your steps before moving forward; a colon
brings a leap forward; the full stop brings you to
a standstill. The exercise is fun to do, inventive
and instructive. Each person works out their own
way of marking the pauses. However, what is
abundantly clear is that everyone is interpreting
the movement of Macbeths thoughts through
the punctuation. The punctuation is key to our
interpretation. Would my classroom was as
creative a space as the rehearsal room!
To experience this, we read some lines and clap
the stressed beats. Andrea directs us to use a
spring movement of the hand rather than a
clapping one to catch the lift and thrum of the
beat. For those using their foot to tap out the
beat, they are instructed to mark it with the foot
coming up off the floor rather than treading
down. The effect is to energise the line rather
than beat it into submission. We follow this
exercise with a reading of the soliloquy To be
thus… where we take a breath at the end of
every line of verse. In a way I had not anticipated,
this way of reading observes sense even as it goes
against common sense. Of course the effect of
trumpeting the verse structure over the
grammatical sense is to create an artificial way of
speaking the language. However, Andrea argues
that it is possible to play the sense and honour
the verse line even as you push against it. The
experiment of pausing at the end of every line
leads to a discussion of the caesura. There is
general agreement that this pause can mark the
acceleration of thought as much as its slowing
down. However, before we accelerate into
further discussion, the workshop comes to an
end. The clock has beaten us.
As we gather our belongings we all determined to
bring as much of the spirit of the workshop into
our classrooms: the spirit of fun and
inventiveness; the spirit of interrogation; the
spirit of communal learning and discovery. And
as I make my way home, I wonder if it is too late
to change careers?
Kevin Mc Dermott
The final part of the workshop is giving over to
some consideration of the verse line and the
necessary tension that exists between the
language as structured by the logic of the
punctuation and the language as structured by
the blank verse. How often has this featured in
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