Q&A

1. Q&A Paper 2

2. What examples of oppression are their in each of the texts? • Gender – women must wear the veil, sovereignty of body / possession of self • Social class – citizens of Iran oppressed by the shah and regime. • Religious oppression • Freedom of expression – Marjane can’t wear what she wants to wear to develop a sense of individuality

3. How long should the introduction be? • 150 words + • Catchy intro • Texts and authors • Question definition • Summarise ideas • Thesis

4. What is the main focus of ideas in the WoB? Prologue • Power - Sovereignty of the body and who has power over women. Illustrated through the Wife’s stories about the success and failure of her past marriages. • Sex – a way to gain power but also a sign of purity. The Wife is happy that she does not conform to this stereotype. She enjoys her life too much. • Women & Femininity – as above. The Wife is, however, an antifeminist stereotype in that she promotes deceit and manipulation to gain control. • Social class – the Wife has been able to transcend the social ladder because she has married well. She has also made her own wealth through selling fabrics. This is possible because she is part of the merchant class that developed in medieval period.

5. What is the main focus of ideas in the WoB? Tale • Power - Sovereignty of the body and who has power over women. Illustrated through story of the Knight and the hag. He must find out the answer to this question to save his life. • Rape is seen as a crime punishable by death. Taking away the power of a woman over her own body. • Women & Femininity – the world is reversed where women are in control. They have judicial power. • Gentility – what makes someone nobel and good? The knight believes it is social class, however, the hag illustrates that is is actually one’s actions. ANY OTHER QUESTIONS???

6. How to structure the essay to make it effective? Look at the weebly! • There are 3 different templates to follow on the Paper 2 page.

7. How many examples from each text are needed? • No set number, but at least one per paragraph to illustrate your PIE point. The more you can develop and reference though, the better your mark will be.

8. What literary devices are used in the WoB? General Chaucer’s style of poetry in WoB was experimental for the time. Before this, poetry tended to be alliterative. Using rhyming couplets and iambic pentametre was innovative. Confession = Prologue Sermon = Tale Intertextuality – the referencing of other texts within a text. Eg. The WoB discusses ideas of morality and uses references from the bible to support or refute the Wife’s opinions.

9. What literary devices are used in the WoB? Prologue Metaphor (Biblical) • Women as bread (white FLOUR is pure, barley FLOUR is nutritional) • Women as FLOWERS – fertility and growth Tone • Enthusiastic – the Wife LOVES life (and sex)! • Joyous and colourful Writing style • Iambic pentameter • Alliteration • Rhyme

10. What literary devices are used in the WoB? Tale – Symbolism • The knight is a symbol of the sovereignty of men • The queen and the loathly lady represent the sovereignty of women (justice and education) Storytelling / Fairytale – the inversion of the ‘real’ world where women are in control of justice and education. Writing style • Iambic pentameter • Alliteration • Rhyme

11. What are Marjane’s views on social and gender inequality? • Marjane believes that the government does not represent the people • As she is young, she doesn’t really understand social inequality until ‘The Letter’ where she learns from her maids brief love encounter the importance of social class. • She is saddened and outraged by the gender inequality and the treatment of Iranian women by the Islamic government. She learns about this from her mother’s fear and stories such as Niloufar.

12. How do you highlight the difference between men’s power of women and antifeminism? • It is all about sovereignty of the body. Whois in control of whose body? The Wife is clearly in control of her own, and she uses it to control her husbands. • The knight must learn that women want control of their own body to save his life. This is promoting ‘equality’ in this domain between men and women, though the ending where he gets the hot young woman kind of wrecks it all! • Antifeminism is when men believe they are better than women. By encouraging when to lie and manipulate their husbands the Wife is encouraging the anti-feminist stereotype, at the same time as encouraging the opposite. • There is uncertainty about what the Wife actually is - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003hycq (last 4 minutes). • Proto feminine OR Misogynistic nightmare?

13. What is the purpose of The WoB prologue and how does it link to the tale? • It introduces the character of the Wife and the idea of the power relationship and struggle between men and women. • Sermon – moral lesson

14. What are the differences between Persepolis and WoB in terms of expressing ideas as women? • Persepolis illustrates the oppression of women under a religious regime. You need to understand Islam (which we have researched) to really get this. • See previous slide for WoB.

15. Do we need a clear distinction between the prologue and tale? • No • You don’t have to talk about everything but you must select your ideas to make them relevant to the questions. It would be best to say if it comes form the prologue or tale, but if you say it from the WoB that should suffice. The ideas are different though so there shouldn’t be any confusion.

16. Q&A Paper 1

17. Must we follow the guiding question? Or can we use the big 5 structure? • It is highly recommended that you use the guiding questions, but you can use a Big 5 structure as well. You can address the guiding questions in the paragraphs you select. Big 5 • Audience & Purpose – this should be address in the introduction • Content & Theme • Tone / Mood • Stylistic devices • Structure