Comparative Study Stuff

billythewhizz

When writing an essay on cultural context in the comp study, is it sufficient to just mention 2 aspects, eg. religion and class structure, or would you be expected to include three?

whassupp2

ya i wonderin that too. How many topics should you compare nd contrast under (eg theme or issue of violence) or should you usemore than just violence????

Assmaster_Kronk

two well, or three if you have time i think

Sawa

billythewhizz wrote:

When writing an essay on cultural context in the comp study, is it sufficient to just mention 2 aspects, eg. religion and class structure, or would you be expected to include three?

I would do way more than three, i would do 6 or 7,
religion
class
power/law
social settings(what they do for fun)
values/morals
time frame

billythewhizz

6 or 7?! im worried about not having enough time to do 2! surely it would be better to do 2 aspects well rather than just skimming through several of them?

Pez

how exactly do u go about starting the cultural context? like do u say... 'theres differences in their class and their options bcoz of what people expect of them' and all tht?

NADA

What I do is study one theme and issue (Loyalty and Betrayal) and compared the three texts under this heading. It's easy.

Sawa

Pez wrote:

how exactly do u go about starting the cultural context? like do u say... 'theres differences in their class and their options bcoz of what people expect of them' and all tht?

More like, how their world affects them, I suppouse it's ok to do a few points if you knew them well enough but if you do a few, it could show you know the texts better because you are showing different aspects of it rather than just two aspects, the examiners just want to know you know your texts really well

Funkstard

The notes I got said to basically follow this structure, although I didn't do it;

Say you pick Love as your theme/issue. You talk about i)how love is shown in the text ii)what obstacles are placed in the path of love, iii)how the main character or society or whatever overcomes the obstacle.

Further, it looks well, and also seems to be pretty important, to say how the main character/society changes by the end of the film, how your theme/issue/cultural context has influenced them in this change.

Eg. for the end of my theme/issue I have an outlook of my three texts in general. It goes something like this: 'HMMTB offers a pessimistic outlook. We see the inevitable disintegration of the family structure, and Alec ultimately failed to escape the suffocation of his class and his mother. Both he and Jerry, his only friend, end up dead. I do not believe there is any redemption in the heroics of Alec's last act - he failed to overcome his problems. In contrast, both JTP & OTW offer more positive views. Juno in JTP finally strikes the courage to leave her hopeless husband to start anew with her daughter and unborn child. The disintegration of the family structure echoes that of HMMB, however in contrast Juno overcomes the limitations it entails.

Likewise, Terry in OTW overcomes the mob - gaining not just a personal victory, but victory for all the workers as the mob are ruined by the end of the film. He, with the help of Edie & Fr.Barry overcame the destitution and crime of the docklands.

Of the three, I preferred the film in this respect. It presented me with a completely believable microcosm of society, and succeeds in it's main aim, which is the main theme of the film anyway - that every society can grow, regenerate and improve itself'

Something like that anyway. Don't forget they're still looking for a personal piece, so have 'In my opinion', 'I believe' and 'I' in general in use throughout the essay.

Rockerette

my teacher said that for cultural context its grand just to do 2 things, once your develop them really well, and know what youre talking about

same with poetry, say for Eliot, you could answer an entire question based on Prufrock.

it doesnt matter how many "things" you cover, just what you do is relevent to the question, and well developed

Funkstard

I'm only doing two things in my cultural context....loyalty & role of women. I'm doing 8 pages on just those two, so there's not a chance of me 'fitting in a third' like my teacher said

bunty_singh

three.

Faerie

Rockerette wrote:

my teacher said that for cultural context its grand just to do 2 things, once your develop them really well, and know what youre talking about

same with poetry, say for Eliot, you could answer an entire question based on Prufrock.

it doesnt matter how many "things" you cover, just what you do is relevent to the question, and well developed

Be carefull with the poetry. Normally you have to do three poems in depth but if you deal with Prufrock you only have to do one other poem in depth. You can't do it on its own though! My teacher is an English paper corrector and has been for years, and he says that examiners will look for the three poems in depth and two or three other poems mentioned.

For comparative I would say about three themes or three aspects of cultural context should be dealt with. The comparative essay should be very structured too. Make sure to have clear paragraphs and use plenty of comparative phrases.

Rockerette

Faerie wrote:

but if you deal with Prufrock you only have to do one other poem in depth. You can't do it on its own though! My teacher is an English paper corrector and has been for years

hehe, my English teacher is the same, has been marking papers for years, and says that he has come accross some excellent answers just on Prufrock, and that there was nothign wrong with them, and they got As


theres clearly some conflict among the ould Dept. English markers tho



he says its pretty much the only poem on the course you could even consider doing it on..
cos if you can go through that and pick out everything and develop your own thoughts on it, you'd be pretty well sorted


personally i wouldnt, cos i love the rest of Eliot's work so am happy to write about whatever..

Raphael

You couldn't get an A at higher level on one poem. At ordinary level, you're trying to explore a theme in a poem, but in higher level you have to be able to show how that theme is present in a number of poems. If you answered with 2 pages on prufrock then 2 more paragraphs showing how the same themes were present in other poems, you could get an A.

Rockerette

it depends what the question is surely?

obviously "you have been asked to do a reading of 4-6 poems.." yadayaaaa.. is different to "T. S. Eliot, a personal response".


a personal response
"there was only 1 poem i liked... i found the others monotonous.. or whatever... The Lovesong.. was the one that caught my imagination.."

etc etc etc..
what you liked about it

conclusion: "this poem is a masterpiece.. none of his other work compares to it.. hence why i like it.. and like Eliot... etc etc etc"




all im saying is thats what my english teacher said.. he's been marking for a helluvva a long time, and thats what he told us.. that he has corrected essays just on Prufrock..


and i trust him with ANYTHING to do with english..!



but this is all speculation.. cos i doubt Eliot will even come up!

Funkstard

There's such discrepancies when it comes to marking English. I've heard 3 different things from 3 different people who correct English papers - one said 3 was enough poems to look at, another said less than 4 and he wouldn't give an A, then yet another said you have to have 6 poems discussed. What the hell are we supposed to do when given such conflicting information

brid_m

My teacher said that two developed well would be ok, but just to cover yourself do 3 really well and then maybe mention a few others.

bunty_singh

It's best to mention three.

What cultural context are you doing? And what texts?

Funkstard

Me? I'm doing How many Miles to Babylon, Juno & the Paycock & On the Waterfront. I'm discussing loyalty and the role of women in my essay.

You're after getting me a bit scared now...I didn't even think twice about only doing 2..