mhogg91 said:
Hey
,
My school is doing "Alienation" as our area of study. I have a speech due on Monday. Text is Sally Morgan's 'My Place'. Anyone done anything similar?
I'm doing My Place (you poor soul, it's boring as shit). My AoS is journeys, but I can see what you'd have to do. Talk about how the discovery of her aboriginality alienates her, because in a sense she doesn't belong in either Australian or Aboriginal culture...
quotes:
"I was a grubby five-year-old in an alien environment." (p12) - this is in the hospital. I'd talk about this incident in terms of institutions (hospitals, schools, etc) being a symbol of white culture; they are places she feels uncomfortable, even before her discovery, because she hasn't found a sense of belonging yet. You could also contrast this setting to the swamp behind her house, a place where she feels comfortable and her nan/mum hear the music of the corroboree, because of the connection with nature in Aboriginal culture.
"She was right, she wasn't white. Well, I thought, logically, if she wasn't right, neither were we. What did that make us, what did that make me?" (p87)
"It's a terrible thing to be Aboriginal." (p92)
"my new found heritage" (p137)
"a language needs to be used to be remembered" (149) - Daisy's alienation
"Too black for the whites, too white for the blacks." (p336) - Arthur's alienation
techniques:
- anecdote
- tone
- first-person narration
- descriptive language
- authorial interpolation
etc, talk about how these represent/convey alienation.
You'll do fine, the AoS can sometimes take a while to wrap your head around but it's simple once you understand it. If you have any other questions about My Place just post them and I'll attempt to help you
Yeah, we do - our theme is Identity, though.
That's a pretty good one, too. There are plenty of texts out there about cultural identity in particular.
Heads up for related text, Homeland by Anna Maria Dello'oso is good for both identity and alienation. If you can find it, it's bursting at the seams with techniques.