Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Individual Oral
Individual Oral
- How is your
global issue
important on a
wide scale?
- How is your
global issue
transnational?
- How is your
global issue
something that
is felt in
everyday local
contexts?
List a maximum of 10 points that will show how your Individual Oral will be structured.
An official form will be provided later.
Global Issue
Texts Chosen
1
Introduce the global issue:
2
Introduce texts and add context about the global issue.
3
A thesis statement, linking both texts to the global issue.
4
Start to discuss the content of the texts.
5
Text 1: language and tone points
6
Text 2: purpose, language and tone points
7
Discuss the form of both poems
9
Comment on other texts by the authors.
10
Conclusion: what have these two texts helped us learn about the global issue?
Individual Oral - Transcript
7) The form of both poems is important. Duffy’s poem is irregular and disjointed. This
form reflects the anger and resentment felt by the speaker. The enjambments also
reflects these emotions. Duffy uses half-rhymes ‘terrified / eyes’ and internal rhymes
‘I know you’ll go’ does give the poem some unity, however. Structurally, the stanzas
are similar, apart from the single-line final one, which makes its message all the
more stark.
Dove’s advert is also irregular, in the sense that it goes against the normal tropes of
beauty advertising. By using older models, it is directly challenging the usual younger
models used, and by doing so suggests it is taking an ethical stance against the
representation of female beauty.
8
As a result of both texts, we can see how female beauty is often represented in a
simplistic, narrow way. The result, in Duffy’s case, is a man who buys into this desire
for someone ‘beautiful’ and abandons someone who truly loved him. With Dove, we
see how ‘beauty’ can have many faces and should not be limited to one narrow
definition.
9
This stance can also be seen in similar adverts in the same campaign. Dove uses
older models in other adverts – one asks if the woman is ‘wrinkled’ or ‘wonderful’,
while it also has images of imperfections, one questioning if blemishes are ‘beauty
spots’ or ‘ugly spots’.
In Duffy’s other poems, especially Havisham, she again portrays a female victim
dealing with the loss of a love, who blames men’s frailties. Other poems, however,
represent women in a far more powerful light – Mrs Aesop has the mocking line ‘By
Christ, he could bore for purgatory’, while in Anne Hathaway, Duffy allows the
speaker to take ownership of her more famous husband in an affectionate manner.
10
In conclusion, then, we can see how both texts allow us to learn something about the
global issue of female beauty and representation.
Both texts challenge the concept of traditional beauty and the possible misogynistic
values placed on it. Medusa angrily demands attention from her unfaithful husband,
who is interested in younger forms of beauty, while Dove highlights imperfections
and suggests they can be beautiful.
The texts themselves arrive at different conclusions. Duffy’s speaker furiously turns
everything to grey stone, reflecting her lost beauty and passions. Dove directly offers
more of an olive branch, embracing the ‘grey’ of older beauty, and suggesting it can
be just as stunning.
Medusa
grew in my mind,
yellow fanged.
Be terrified.
from home.
to the ground.
a housebrick
I looked at a snuffling
pig, a boulder rolled
in a heap of shit.
showed me a Gorgon.
I stared at a dragon.
Fire spewed