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Original poster

Set texts at school

110 replies

MillyR · 08/09/2011 21:31

Sorry that this is a bit of a thread about a thread, but in education there is a thread discussing Of Mice and Men still being a set text at GCSE. Nobody has mentioned in that thread that it is a book about a man killing a woman. As Steinbeck wrote:

She is 'not a person, she's a symbol. She has no function, except to be a foil ? and a danger to Lennie.'

This is in addition to 'Atonement' and "To Kill A Mocking Bird' both being set texts. In both of these a woman makes false accusations about who is the rapist. So in all three books a woman is harmed but we are pushed towards sympathising with a male character.

I am just wondering if this has a bit of an impact. When I was at school we did 'The Color Purple' and it had a major impact on me. I know these books must be looked at critically in schools, but criticising the books doesn't really cancel out the impact of the stories. Of Mice and Men is particularly sentimental and melodramatic so designed to move the reader to care about the killer.

Did anybody study these books at school, or teach them?

OP posts:
Takver · 09/09/2011 09:42

Looks much improved from my A level days at least, UMS - IIRC we studied:

Conrad (Nostromo)
Milton
the Metaphysical poets (mainly Donne)
Ben Jonson (Volpone)
and Chaucer

can't get much more DWM that that.

To be slightly fair, because of timetable problems, I ended up studying English at the local boys' school, but you would think even 18 y/o boys could have coped with one female author.

(Actually, to be even more fair, I loved the selection apart from the Conrad, and as someone who spent most of her teen years reading feminist books was grateful to have read books I would never have come to on my own.)

UsingMainlySpoons · 09/09/2011 09:30

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UsingMainlySpoons · 09/09/2011 09:29

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Original poster
MillyR · 09/09/2011 09:09

UMS, I'm confused about whether you are listing A level or GCsE texts.

NormanTebbit, I agree with LRD. I don't want DS to sit around reading sexist books and then study them from a feminist perspective. I just want him to get to read some books that are not sexist and some that are about women.

Not sure who posted about this, but 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings' is already on the WJEC set text list for GCSE. Having said that, WJEC is known to be a more difficult exam board, and so is less popular with state schools in England. You might be right that it is too difficult for many pupils at GCSE.

OP posts:
ThePosieParker · 09/09/2011 09:07

Quotas
Quotas
Quotas

LRDTheFeministDragon · 09/09/2011 08:48

What do you think what has an impact on? (Sorry, I'm just not awake yet!).

For me - when I read that - we weren't taught to ask why Steinbeck wrote it like that, and I wish we had been. Later on we did texts where we were asking why you'd write texts they way they were, and I think that's a really good skill for a feminist to have. I think the fact Steinbeck writes Lenny and makes you sympathize with him far more than with Curly's wife is quite scary, in retrospect, but I didn't realize it when I was 13 or so.

HeifferunderConstruction · 09/09/2011 08:33

I was in tears in mice and men

tbh hes a severley mentally disabled man I felt more sorry for george having to kill him

what do yoiu think it has an impact on?

LRDTheFeministDragon · 09/09/2011 08:29

I had amazing English teachers (I owe them a lot).

We did Wife of Bath, Duchess of Malfi, Antony and Cleopatra, the Colour Purple and Oranges are not the Only Fruit (and Snow Falling on Cedars, which I think we all agreed was crap). IMO it worked ok that there were more male than female authors because the female characters are so important and interesting and central.

I agree with UMS that Bronte, Austen, and Elliot are a bit dry at that age. I think it's important to do texts about women, as well as texts by women, especially if they're texts that are really good to study.

UsingMainlySpoons · 09/09/2011 08:15

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PortBlacksandPort · 09/09/2011 08:07

We did Persuasion - yawnsome for a 15 year old - quite like it now - but to study it chapter by chapter is quite hard when bugger all happens.

We also did the Mayor of Casterbridge - who sells his wife in a card game but it's ok because he was drunk and he never touches the bottle again ....

Meanwhile at home i was reading Orlando - which i would love to have studied at school ....

Greythorne · 09/09/2011 08:07

normantebbit
Frankly, whilst it would be fascinating to study Of Mice.... From a feminist lerspective, based on my own experience twenty five years ago and based on what we know about 15 and 16 year olds, it seems unlikely that at GCSE level that a teacher with 30 kids is going to be able to get byond the immediate themes to discuss with appropriate depth the "she asked for it" angle which I imagine comes up pretty readily.

UsingMainlySpoons · 09/09/2011 08:01

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UsingMainlySpoons · 09/09/2011 07:49

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UsingMainlySpoons · 09/09/2011 07:46

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LRDTheFeministDragon · 09/09/2011 00:06

'Well you can take any piece of literature and analyse it from a feminist perspective. So it doesn't really matter what text you study.'

I don't follow. IMO it's not really ok to accept studying texts that, when analysed from a feminist perspective, give the consistent message that women lie about rape and their being abused or killed isn't really terribly important and certainly not sufficient to merit widespread outrage?

bucaneve · 08/09/2011 23:43

Surely 'I know why the caged bird sings' would be a bit too much for GCSE age, A level maybe?

We did An Inspector Calls, Of Mice and Men, Some Shakespeare and some WW1 and 16/17th poems for GCSE.

Didn't do A-Level English BUT did do A-Level Italian and the set text for that was by a female author (Lara Cardella). It talked about a teenage girl growing up in rural Sicily in the 70s and experiencing abuse from pretty much every man she encountered. (Unfortunately I don't think Italian's one of the more studied A level languages)

NormanTebbit · 08/09/2011 23:15

Oh and Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison. I loved my eng lit A level

NormanTebbit · 08/09/2011 23:14

And I certainly studied more than three texts for a level - we studies Wuthering Heights, shelagh Delaney, and Sylvia Plath among the more traditional Shakespeare, Arthur miller, Chaucer, Great Gatsby, Tennessee Williams etc

NormanTebbit · 08/09/2011 23:10

Well you can take any piece of literature and analyse it from a feminist perspective. So it doesn't really matter what text you study.

LRDTheFeministDragon · 08/09/2011 23:01

I did The Color Purple too (and Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, same year), and it made a huge impact on me too - our teacher brought in some of Walker's writings about Womanism, too.

It's a real shame it's 'lucky' to do a text like that - but it is.

I think there would be no problem with, say one of the texts mentioned in Milly's OP - it'd be good to discuss what's disturbing there and why. But three?! I agree, that is really not good.

Original poster
MillyR · 08/09/2011 22:36

And now I've just looked up DS's set texts for year 10 and he will be doing both To Kill A Mocking Bird and Of Mice and Men!

OP posts:
MitchiestInge · 08/09/2011 22:27

(I mean loads to choose from not loads studied for gcse)

MitchiestInge · 08/09/2011 22:21

Toni Morrison too

actually there are loads of good ones aren't there?

Greythorne · 08/09/2011 22:21

God, my spelling is appalling tonight.
Chord. Not cord.

Original poster
MillyR · 08/09/2011 22:21

I've just had a look and 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings' is a set text for WJEC, but I don't know if a lot of schools choose it.

OP posts: