Youshall(not)pass

The amazing A Level English Literature and Language Blog.

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Resume Cheat Sheet.

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Being born a woman is an awful tragedy. Yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars—to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording—all is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. Yet, God, I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night.

Sylvia Plath (The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath)

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Here begins the transition of this blog to A2

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Dramatic Irony- When the audience is aware of something that the character isn’t. Example: Streetcar, Stanley listening in on Stella and Blanche’s conversation, Scene 4 after the poker night.

Pathetic Fallacy- When weather or surrounding features match the character’s mood. Kite Runner, Hassan...

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Comparing Prepared Speech with Spontaneous Speech

Unless the speaker is not fluent in English (second or higher language), in prepared speech there is an absence of non-fluency features like hedges, fillers, micro-pauses.

"um like this is probably like (.) like (0.5) no:::t a good example of (.) ah (.) yeah(.) prepared speech."

Literary features like metaphors and the rule of three should also be more common. Weasel words like "Virtually" and "Probably" are also very common in political speeches because they are vague enough to be able to support an opinion without giving proof for example

"Demisexual Genderfluid Transethnic Trees are probably having an identity crisis"

Most really important speeches are in received pronunciation which is like BBC English and it is generally agreed to be the sociolect of those in power politically. Since Text A is likely to be a conversation between two people with a wierd sociolect you can use this as a comparison point.

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Another example of speech.

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An example of spontaneous/prepared speech.

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A Framework For Spontaneous Speech Part Three

Non Verbal Features

These include fillers (Ah So Um) which often signify a pause for thought. Fillers are often conjoined with repairs so if you spot one in the exam you can possibly get two terminology marks in a sentence e.g. "I didnae wann - a::h I shouldn'tve said that". Fillers should not be confused with hedges.

Pauses are similar to fillers in the respect that they can signify a pause in thought. Pauses also allow the listener time to interject and are often used in conversations in order to establish adjacency pairs. Socially awkward people sometimes have problems identifying when to join a conversation and pauses along with use of the interrogative syntax can help integrate them into one. Pauses are also linked to utterances since an utterance is a unit of speech beginning and ending with a pause, utterances usually show outbursts of emotion.

Intonation is very important in spoken spontaneous speech but since in the exam the spontaneous speech is going to be in transcript form,  talking about it in depth would be a waste of time. Intonation is pretty much how the pitch of the voice changes as you speak, for example people generally speak in a higher pitch when they are surprised and a lower tone when they are serious.

Emphasis is used to draw attention to a word, this can be done subconsciously through use of alliteration or saying the word loudly so the listener knows it's important. A speaker might want to use emphasis if they wanted to get a point across quickly.

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Karl Malden, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh on the set of ‘A Streetcar named Desire’

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I love how awkwardly Mitch is sitting at the back "stop stanley, don't throw that radio out of the building. it costs money. stahp."

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A Framework for Spontaneous Speech Part Two

Ft. Vocabulary

Vocabulary features include, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and hedges.

Also consider the attitude and intention of the speaker and how it affects their vocabulary. 

Hedges soften the blow of conversation and are often used to disguise the intentions of the speaker.

Alliteration helps bring attention to phrases (Although this is more apparent in prepared speech, unless you're a poet or a rapper)

xXxX Style XxXx

This is pretty much how the speaker is represented and what makes them individual.

Accent representation is how an accent is represented through paper. To give an example here is a exchange of conversation from Irvine Welsh's trainspotting which represents the Edinburgh accent.

--The only difference is thit ye dinnae git shot at sae often bein a junky. Besides, it's usually you that does the shootin. --That, eh, likesay, seems a bit eh, f*cked up like man. Ken? --Naw but, listen the now. You jist think aboot it. In the army they dae everything fir they daft c*nts. Feed thum, gie the c*nts cheap bevvy in scabby camp clubs tae keep thum fae gaun intae toon n lowerin the f*ckin tone, upsetting the locals n that. Whin they git intae civvy street, thuv goat tae dae it aw fir thumsells.

Note the sociolect present in the speech signified by the unique terminology such as 'Ken' (which is used often as a hedge, it means 'know'), The common replacement of the vowel 'o' with an 'ae' which gives the speakers a slight drawl which is expected of the accent.

If you have any free time, I would recommend reading trainspotting because it is a very interesting read. But you don't have to. Because you know. Its your free time. ya know.

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A Framework for Spontaneous Speech Part 1

FAPC

The main things to consider when writing about spontaneous speech or any speech in general is: Form (How is it structured in terms of presentation?), Audience (Who are the participants?), Purpose (What is the goal of the main speaker?) and Context (Where is this and what is going on? Fancy word, Pragmatics.). Write about how these 4 points appear in the text that you are analyzing, I mean its an easy two paragraphs why shouldn't you?

Oh what? You need more things to talk about? K, I got this.

Structure.

You get to talk about turn taking and expected adjacency pairs which are when people talk one after each other (Although you shouldn't unless the adjacency pairs are being broken because its like saying water's wet if you get me.).

Another thing to discuss are repairs which are like when you repair a thing that you need to clarify. Which is to say, discuss the subject that you just or previously talked about in more detail. You can use repairs to show a speakers enthusiasm about a particular subject.

Interruptions are another feature of spontaneous speech structure that you could ment- They can be used to help identify the social standings of the speakers and can be vital in analysing the relationship between two speakers. This is kinda less important than the other two in a way though, mention it and write that it staggers the flow of the conversation and breaks adjacency pairs, but don't spend too long writing about the actual interruption. The breaking of adjacency pairs is slightly more pertinent in the majority of situations imo. 

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Visit Original Link

Yuna (Nocturnal, 2013)

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Reblogging this because the lyrics remind me a lot of Blanche 

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Stella Character Notes Part 2

Stella denies Blanche's accusations of rape near to the end of the play

Stella's denial of reality at the end of the play shows that she is somewhat similar to Blanche in the fact that she wants to believe that her life is better than it is, which is shown by her denying Blanche's rape accusations whilst going along with Blanches eccentricities. At the end of the play it is clear that Stella cares about Blanche very much because she's breaking down when she has to say goodbye to Blanche. But Stella is tied to Stanley because of the baby and monetary dependence. Much like how Blanche was dependent on the men of Laurel for food and shelter. “I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley.”, Stella's use of the modal verb "couldn't" suggests that on some level she believes Blanche's story but she can't acknowledge it because that would be the same as saying goodbye to her current life.

Stella needs to back off of Stanley

This is shown in scene 4 where Stella defends Stanley even though he hit her last night at the poker game assuring Blanche that he was 'as tame as a lamb' after she went down to him. Stella's use of simile in comparing Stanley to a lamb which suggests innocence and purity is completely contrary to how William's portrays him in the stage directions "He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them" . This suggests that Stella is blinded by love and devotion to Stanley and is too in love with him to see his faults.