Moot (Affirmative): Popular literature invites the reader to find essential truths. What defines popular literature? Popular literature includes those writings intended for the masses and those that find favour with large audiences. It can be distinguished from artistic literature in that it is designed primarily to entertain.  Popular fiction mediates social conflicts. It acts as a […]

Texts: King Lear – William Shakespeare (his family treated him poorly and abandoned) Black Swan – Darren Aronofsky (obsession with being perfect – her mother tried to live her dream through Nina) Nosedive – Joe Wright (wanting acceptance and approval from other) Oedipus Rex – Sophocles Link: we feel sorry for all of the tragic […]

Critically analyse how Aronofsky manipulates the traditional conventions of tragedy for a particular purpose. “Ambition is vital but dangerous: it is a keen motive and a driving force, but over what edge can it drive the artist?” – Eric Maisel. At some point in our lives, we’ve experienced a form of ambition. A passion plunging us […]

Critically analyse how Aronofsky manipulates the traditional conventions of tragedy for a particular purpose. conventions: Plot, Character, Thought, Diction, Song and Spectacle. What is Aronofksy trying to teach/warn the audience about the desire to be perfection and destructive ambition – and how? Plot – How the incidents are arranged/Aristotle’s tragedy/ Nina doesn’t have an Anagnorisis […]

MERIT The word emotion is difficult to define. It is generally described as a feeling, behaviour, or more scientifically as a psychological change we experience when influenced in a particular situation. For thousands of years, literature has portrayed the ‘side effects’ emotions tend to inflict on humanity whether they are positive or negative. Take for […]

5. The moments in a text that criticise society are those that teach us the most. Samantha & Kirsten INTRODUCTION Women in all industries have been over-sexualised for as long as I could remember. Taken advantage of, harassed and coerced into believing they can only succeed by impressing powerful men. Women have suffered at the […]

Define These Sentence Types: SIMPLE A simple sentence requires the most basic elements to make it a sentence: a subject and a verb. Simple sentences consist of only one clause. The dog barked. She opened the door. & I danced. are all examples of simple sentences. COMPOUND A compound sentence has two independent clauses joined […]

Aristotle believed that the melody should contribute to the unity of the plot. Black Swan steps this up several notches.  Discuss the way that sound is used to distinguish between reality and Nina’s delusional episodes. Be specific with your examples.  In Darren Aronofksy’s Black Swan sound became a huge part of communicating to the audience the state […]

“Every word is either current, or strange, or metaphorical, or ornamental, or newly-coined, or lengthened, or contracted, or altered.” Look back over your viewing notes and select 5 key quotations from the film. For each, evaluate their significance in relation to aspect of the tragedy genre. ‘Perfection is not just about control. It’s also about […]

“Character is that which reveals moral purpose, showing what kind of things a man chooses or avoids.” Explore Nina’s tragic flaw (hamartia). What is it and by what means is it developed in the film? Comment on the role of hubris in relation to Nina’s character. Compare it to the male heroes we have evaluated this […]