Year 11 English Advanced

Module A: Narratives That Shape Our World

Narratives of the Other

Introductory Booklet

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Module A: Narratives that Shape our World

In this module, students explore a range of narratives from the past and the contemporary
era that illuminate and convey ideas, attitudes and values. They consider the powerful role of
stories and storytelling as a feature of narrative in past and present societies, as a way of:
connecting people within and across cultures, communities and historical eras; inspiring
change or consolidating stability; revealing, affirming or questioning cultural practices;
sharing collective or individual experiences; or celebrating aesthetic achievement. Students
deepen their understanding of how narrative shapes meaning in a range of modes, media
and forms, and how it influences the way that individuals and communities understand and
represent themselves.

Students analyse and evaluate one or more print, digital and/or multimodal texts to explore
how narratives are shaped by the context and values of composers (authors, poets,
playwrights, directors, designers and so on) and responders alike. They may investigate how
narratives can be appropriated, reimagined or reconceptualised for new audiences. By using
narrative in their own composition’s students increase their confidence and enjoyment to
express personal and public worlds in creative ways.

Students investigate how an author’s use of textual structures, language and stylistic
features are crafted for particular purposes, audiences and effects. They examine
conventions of narrative, for example setting, voice, point of view, imagery and
characterisation and analyse how these are used to shape meaning. Students also explore
how rhetorical devices enhance the power of narrative in other textual forms, including
persuasive texts. They further develop and apply the conventions of syntax, spelling,
punctuation and grammar for specific purposes and effect.

Students work individually and collaboratively to evaluate and refine their own use of
narrative devices to creatively express complex ideas about their world in a variety of modes
for a range of purposes and critically evaluate the use of narrative devices by other
composers.

Narratives of the Other

The figure of “The Other” has been of interest to composers for centuries and
representations of this figure offer responders insights into the values of different contexts.
By considering this from a variety of perspectives, students come to recognise common
tropes and metanarratives associated with non-Eurocentric figures resonate in texts
throughout time.

Students investigate how Shakespeare uses narrative and dramatic forms and features to
creating character and setting, raising questions about the way in which character types are
situated within narrative structures and how audiences view the figure of the Other. They
evaluate how embedded metanarratives permeate through other texts and how archetypal
narrative structures perpetuate cultural values and assumptions. Through the study of film,
students analyse the way that the cinematic form, particularly within the Australian context,
shape meaning and create an understanding of the way the telling of indigenous stories

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continue to be influenced by Eurocentric narrative structures. They reflect on the power of
the narrative in these texts to examine ideas of power and humanity.

Students work individually and collaboratively to evaluate and refine their own use of
narrative devices to creatively express complex ideas about their world in a variety of modes
for a range of purposes and critically evaluate the use of narrative devices by other
composer. This may involve experimentation with critical, discursive, persuasive and
imaginative responses.

Essential questions:
1. How are cultural values and assumptions communicated through narratives?
2. How do narrative structures perpetuate perceptions of people?
3. How has the figure of the Other been represented in different forms, contexts and
narratives?
4. How has the metanarrative of the Other evolved over time?
5. What role does storytelling and narrative play in our understanding of complex texts?

Prescribed Texts
William Shakespeare – Othello
Rachel Perkins – Jasper Jones (2017)

You will also study a variety of shorter texts that contribute to our understanding of the
ongoing narrative of the Other.

Assessment
Yearly Examination – 40%
Section 1: Reading Task
Section 2: Comparative Essay

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 Theories of Metanarratives

The rationale for Narratives That Shape Our World is rooted in postmodernist thinking that
theories that a society, its culture, power structures and art is underpinned by what he refers
to as “grand” or “metanarratives”. What this means is societies and cultures formulate
“narratives” to make sense of history, events and the way things are. According to the New
World Encyclopaedia:

Metanarrative or grand narrative or meta narrative is a term developed by Jean-

François Lyotard to mean a theory that tries to give a totalising, comprehensive
account to various historical events, experiences, and social, cultural phenomena
based upon the appeal to universal truth or universal values. In this context, the
narrative is a story that functions to legitimise power, authority, and social customs. A
grand narrative or metanarrative is one that claims to explain various events in
history, gives meaning by connecting disperse events and phenomena by appealing
to some kind of universal knowledge or schema.

Narratives That Shape Our World – The Narrative of the Other

What this means for us is that over the course of this module, you will evaluate how
particular metanarratives associated with the concept of “otherness” are represented in a
classic (Shakespeare’s Othello) and a contemporary text (Rachel Perkins’ 2017 Australian
film Jasper Jones). Both texts represent characters who exist on the margins of dominant
power structures in a society, which are typically patriarchal and Eurocentric, and whose
voices or perspectives on the world have traditionally been dismissed or silenced.

Based on this information, spend some time thinking about and answering the following:

1. What metanarratives do you recognise in our own society?

 Secondary Sources in history
 History books (the first fleet colonising the world  the experience of indigenous
Australians is not necessarily voiced about)


2. Within this context, what do you think the following terms might mean?
 Dominant Narrative: A story that is told in the service of the dominant social
group’s interests and ideologies.

 Counter Narrative: Offers alternative perspective

3. In your opinion, do literary texts merely reflect broader narratives in the society from
which they emerge? Or do texts play an active role in shaping broader cultural
metanarratives?

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 Narratives, Values and Art

There is so much to unpack in this module, from understanding what a narrative is and how they
shape culture and our world to the notion of grand and metanarratives. Then there is the figure of the
Other. There is much to get our heads around!

This is not a unit on representation. We are not focusing on how “Other figures” are represented in
texts. This is more complex. Instead, we are evaluating how the presentation of these figures function
both inside and outside narratives and the structures and mechanics of storytelling. We will be looking
at the positioning of characters who might be classified as “Others” within narrative texts and how this
reflects wider values and contextual concerns.

Before we begin, we are going to analyse three artworks which contribute to a narrative involving
indigenous relations and European colonisation of Australia. They are as follows:

1)
The Founding of Australia
Algernon Talmage (1937)
This is held in the State Library of NSW and is a classical, romantic depiction of the arrival of Arthur
Philip and the First Fleet in 1788.

2)
The Conciliation
Benjamin Duterrau (1837)
Held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, this iconic work is considered the first
historical painting in the Australian colonies. It is an idealised depiction of the British 'Protector of the
Aborigines', George Augustus Robinson, at the centre of a group of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. It
refers to Robinson's role as a 'conciliator' between the Aborigines and white settlers during the period
of 1829-1834, where the aim was to 'civilise' and 'Christianise' the Aboriginal population.

3)
The National Picture
Geoff Parr (1985)
Also held in Hobart, this appropriation of Duterrau’s controversial work attempts to represent a
different perspective on the narrative of European/indigenous relations in Tasmania. Parr is an
indigenous rights activist, who attempts to reposition the dominant narrative of the treatment of
indigenous people in Tasmania during the early colonial period, which indigenous people refer to as
“The Killing Times”.

You can make notes in response to the following on the back page of this boolet

 Spend a few minutes annotating each of the images. Analyse its visual features
(colour, salience, composition, symbolism, vectors etc).

 Evaluate how artworks 1 and 2 contribute to an overarching narrative of Australia that

reflects a dominant set of cultural values. Then, consider how artwork 3 provides
insights ito the ways in which narratives can be rewritten and evolve over time.

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1)
The Founding of The image is depicting the colonisation of Australia, by the first fleet. The
Australia Flag symbolises British Colonisers. This is a dominant narrative, as it does
Algernon Talmage not show an image of the indigenous Australians involved during this
(1937) event. The colours of red and navy, can signify dominance, and power.
The holding of the flag symbolises victory.

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2)
The Conciliation
Benjamin Duterrau
(1837)

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3)
The National Picture
Geoff Parr (1985)

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 Notes and Thinking

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