English Theses

Deliberate selection from recollection and fact is often represented in texts you have studied.
How effectively has this been portrayed?

Deliberate selection involves purposeful and intentional representations of history and
memory. This includes choosing specific events in an individuals memory or synthesising
particular facts and historical details to support fallible memory. This is required to make the
commemoration of a historic event more memorable or accurate from the perspective of the
individual or historian. Historical investigation can be focused on making an event
chronological or contextualising an event by distinguishing fact from unchronological
memory. Similarly, memory can be channelled and deliberately crafted, to imbue an
individuals identity with more credibility. A conscious preference for history as an
authoritative source of information leads to a greater emotive commemoration of historical
sites. The autobiography The Fiftieth Gate by Mark Baker portrays how purposeful selection
of history can support the gaps in his parents memories and lead to a greater factual and
personal understanding of the Holocaust. The AWM website enables a personalised and
purposeful search through Australias war history through a multimedia platform.

Analyse how Frankenstein and Bladerunner portray individuals who challenge the
established values of their time.

Individuals in texts can seek to challenge the contextually permissible values that are
grounded in their respective texts. The Gothic science fiction hybrid novel Frankenstein, by
Mary Shelley, presents individuals who challenge the conventional values of her time. The
values that are contended in Frankenstein include harmony with nature, the moral restraint of
a Creator and the nurturing responsibilities of a Creator to their Creation. Victor subverts the
compassionate Creator image to become an individual on a relentless pursuit of power and
ambition. He also challenges the Romantic ideals of order in nature and disrupts it by
creating a creature through unchecked scientific endeavour. Comparatively, Ridley Scotts
film Bladerunner presents the Replicants as individuals who contradict the contextual
notion of paranoia towards technology which was a concern in the 1990s. Similarly to
Frankensteins Creation, they challenge the sinister view of technology by possessing an
innate sentimentality and human-like responses which evokes sympathy in the audiences of
their times. Thus individuals in both texts are seen to defy the concrete values of their own
contextual eras.








Belonging is the cornerstone to finding identity in an individual. To what extent is this true of
your texts?

The identity of an individual encompasses their social status, appearance and family history.
Belonging assists in developing identity through family ties and friendship. Yet, if belonging
is to be the cornerstone to finding an individuals identity, it has to be the key expression of
ones status and appearance. However, these texts show that when formulating an
individuals identity, a sense of belonging is only a partial factor and not the cornerstone to
accomplish this creation of identity. Finding ones identity through belonging often requires a
degree of conformity. The consequence of this is that the formation of ones identity
translates into an identity which may not be the most accurate representation of an individual.
Thus identity is seen in these texts to be shaped by a degree of conformity, the family home
and through friendships. The poetry anthology Immigrant Chronicles expresses the
importance of the family environment and cultural ties to shape an individuals awareness of
their identity. The film Les Miserables by Billy August reveals the power of conformity to
negatively impact on the identity of the protagonist Valjean which in turn affects his familial
connections to his daughter Cosette.