events
Artworks
Banksy. Various works. Banksy is an anonymous grafitti/street artist (or collective?) whose work has commented on themes as diverse as the Israel/Palestine wall and the definition of Art. Usually spray-painted through a stencil, his works are deceptively simple twists on the everyday which invite us to discover the world in a new way, revealing inequality and hypocrisy through humour. In addition to investigating the context of the artwork you have chosen, discuss the use of contrasting styles and his symbolic use of colour. You can view Banksy's artworks online [https://www.canvasartrocks.com/blogs/posts/70529347-121-amazing-banksy-graffiti-artworks-with-locations] and read a "biography" at The Smithsonian [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-behind-banksy-4310304/] Advanced students might choose to discover what has happened to these artworks as they are increasingly commodified and reduced to a part of the system (right down to merchandise in a gift shop!) he originally resisted.
novels
Drinkwater, Carol. Twentieth Century Girl. This diary-style novel depicts English women’s fight to discover her political identity – by voting. Discuss the way the author uses sensory description, rhetorical questions and colloquial dialogue to create a personal and emotional connection to the historical facts, allowing an audience living over a century later to re-evaluate the contribution of these courageous women. Recommended for standard students only.
Speeches
Speeches Bush, George . (2001). Axis of Evil. This speech is the original response to September 11 disaster. It presents a coherent argument for going to war against terrorists, but contains all the imagery used today to create racism and fear of “foreigners”, including the implication that people in Islamic countries need Americans to bring the values of freedom, education and prosperity. Very useful if your text has an "us and them" mentality. It would work very well with Go back to where you came from but would also stand up to more complex analysis of the speech as political propaganda from a postcolonial perspective.
King, Martin Luther. (19). “I have a Dream”. The speech demonstrated the need for black American solidarity to discover a path to equality in the United States where King made the speech. It was so significant to the civil rights movement! King is calling black Americans to unite to achieve equal rights/belonging in their own country.
Scroll through this page to get general notes on King: http://www.e-rudite.net/speeches.htm
And this to get a deconstruction of the speech for techniques: http://www.e-rudite.net/speeches_deconstruction.htm
Nonfiction
Nonfiction Bird, Carmel The Stolen Children: Their Stories
Poems
Armitage, Simon. (2008). "Out of the Blue" online at Scottish Poetry Library [http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poetry/poems/out-blue-12]. This heart-wrenching poem commemoratesthe 5th anniversary of 9/11. Because it is told from the point of view of a man waving a shirt from high up in the building, it highlights the irony that the attention he is attracting cannot save him because it is the attention of TV viewers far from the site. This poem allows you to discover the power of the media representation of an event, as well as the powerlessness of media/viewers to change a situation - or, from an alternative perspective, the ruthlessness of media's quest for a story that will "sell". Focus on the first person narrator, the endless rhetorical questions and use of the present particle (-ing verbs) and gerund (-ing nouns) to put you inside the narrator's mind. An analysis of this poem can be found at BBC Bitesize [http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetryconflict/outoftheblue1.shtml]
Documentary The War that Changed us