1. Approaching the A Level unseen question: American Literature 1880-1940
Thursday, 08 November 2018

2. Focus of the Question: The passage from an unseen text
Links to wider reading in the genre.
Contexts: Literary and Socio-Historical
No reward for critics.
10-15 minutes reading time should be taken…

3. AOs

4. Hopefully you will recognise the author as a start to working on contexts….
Author: Dates? Gender? Class? Race?
Time period: Frontier/pioneer? Gilded Age? Jazz Age? Depression….
Characters: Gender? Race? Class? Behaviour?
My example:
Kate Chopin: Female, 19th Century, Louisiana, emergence of identity of women, societal criticism, wealthy leisured classes…

5. The Awakening, Kate CHopin
Edna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to the beach with Robert, she should in the first place have declined, and in the second place have followed in obedience to one of the two contradictory impulses which impelled her.
A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,-the light which, showing the way, forbids it.
At that early period it served but to bewilder her. It moved her to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which had overcome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears.
In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight-perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.
But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!
The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.

6. What would I do?
Read the passage and briefly annotate on first reading for points of interest.
Use the SCASI mnemonic to organise my thoughts
The Awakening
S: beach, sea,…
C: torn between desire and action, male/female clash, Voice of the sea?
A: in the mind. Refusal to go swimming.
S: omniscient narrator, poetic, repetitions, person shift, addresses reader – complicit.
I: Development of an individual mind – Title of Novel.
Remember to take an objective, third person position as you read the text…. This is not the place for subjective flights of fancy.
Write about what is there, not what you want to be there….

7. Read the Passage
Is the physical setting significant?
As you read, make notes using SCASI to establish links between passage and core text…
Opens with character name – forefront of the text. Formality. Who is speaking?
A dilemma. The name Robert suggests this may be a moral dilemma
Edna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to the beach with Robert, she should in the first place have declined, and in the second place have followed in obedience to one of the two contradictory impulses which impelled her.
A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,-the light which, showing the way, forbids it.
Common metaphorical allusion. Links to title of novel
Strong lexis, powerful contradiction

8. Use the mnemonic to structure your thoughts
One problem with unseens is that they can seem very open-ended. They aren’t.
If in doubt use SCASI to help
‘ The immediate reference to the ‘beach’ suggests that the setting for the dilemma being experienced by Edna Pontellier is a liminal one – one which provides a physical boundary to be transgressed as well as moral one…’
Quotations embedded from outset
First focus
Establishes an area of discussion for the next section
Technical lexis engages with criticism

9. Then write a commentary on this passage
Then write a commentary on this passage! This passage is purposely short – it’s your first go!
Edna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to the beach with Robert, she should in the first place have declined, and in the second place have followed in obedience to one of the two contradictory impulses which impelled her.
A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,-the light which, showing the way, forbids it.
At that early period it served but to bewilder her. It moved her to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which had overcome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears.
In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight-perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.
But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!
The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.