The MAgAzine for ADvAnCeD LeveL engLish Issue 61 sePTeMBeR 2013 englIsh and MedIa CenTRe David Crystal on Language Change The Pastoral Creative Writing – a Poem’s Progress The White Devil Dialect and Discrimination Metaphor Arcadia Contents 04 19 This magazine is not EnglishOutThere A Midsummer Night’s Dream – photocopiable. Why not Patterns of Patriarchy subscribe to our web package A feminist reading of A Midsummer Night’s which includes a downloadable Dream by Emma Kirby. and printable PDF of the 06 current issue or encourage Twenty Years that Changed the your students to take out their English Language 22 own £12 subscription? Professor David Crystal takes a look at the World Englishes, English as 18th-century self-appointed arbiters of Lingua Franca, Global English... For full details, see good grammar, received pronunciation and Professor Jane Setter guides us through the www.emagazine.org.uk exemplary etiquette. many ways in which English has taken on a life of its own around the world. About us 09 emagazine is published by the English Noises Off –‘Tragedy Played 25 and Media Centre, a non-profit making at a Thousand Revolutions per Larkin and the Pastoral organisation. The Centre publishes a wide Second’ range of classroom materials and runs Graham Elsdon explores Larkin’s depiction courses for teachers. If you’re studying Simon Bubb explains how Michael Frayn of pastoral spaces. uses the key features of farce to parody and Media or Film Studies at A Level, look out deconstruct the genre. for MediaMagazine also published by EMC. The English and Media Centre 18 Compton Terrace, London, N1 2UN Telephone: 020 7359 8080 Fax: 020 7354 0133 Email for subscription enquiries: [email protected] Website: www.englishandmedia.co.uk 28 Editors: Barbara Bleiman & Lucy Webster Metaphor – a Figure of Thought? Editorial assistance: Joel Sharples Dr Graeme Trousdale introduces conceptual 13 metaphor theory, to show how metaphor is Magazine website: Zelda McKay Creative Writing – A Poem’s deeply embedded in our ways of thinking. Design: Sam Sullivan Artwork production: Sparkloop Progress Print: S&G Group Dr Jane Bluett reflects on the process of writing one of her poems, from first Issn:1464-3324 inspiration to publication. Established in 1998 by Simon Powell. Cover: ‘La Critique’ © The Art Archive/ Alamy How to subscribe Four issues a year, published September, December, late February and late April. 32 Centre print-only subscription: £34.95 We Must Hurry if We’re Going to Dance – the Nature of Stoppard’s Centre website package: £99.95 includes Arcadia print magazine, full website access and an 16 Dr Juliet Harrison explores the significance online PDF version of the current issue. World War 1 – Getting Beyond of the garden in Arcadia, in relation to the Poetry Classical and Renaissance representations of Additional subscriptions for students, Dr Andrew Green introduces a wartime the Arcadian landscape. teachers or the library can be added to diary and a work of literary non-fiction by either the print-only subscription or the Ernst Junger, a German infantry officer, as website package for £12 a year. alternative perspectives on WW1. 2 emagazine September 2013 36 Doing English – Literary Critical Practices Professor Robert Eaglestone discusses what the discipline of English involves and what it means to adopt its practices. 55 39 ‘Excellent Devil’ – Vittoria’s emagplus Gender, Madness and National Victorious Villainy and Devilish Identity in The Wasp Factory Defence Neil King on The White Devil An examination of the compex question Isabel Houston argues that Banks’ novel Isabel Swift argues the ambivalence of of the play’s genre. is an allegory for Scotland’s struggle for Webster’s portrayal of Vittoria makes her a national identity. typical revenge tragedy anti-hero. Mike Haldenby on Edward Thomas An exploration of the tensions and contradictions in the poet’s life and how 58 they impact on his poetry. Frankenstein – Order, Narrative Malcolm Hebron on Melancholy and Chaos A continuation of the piece in this issue, looking at melancholy in modern texts Professor Judy Simons explores how Mary from Milton to the Modernists. Shelley’s narrative style was both influenced by and transcended 19th-century epistolary A Selection of Criticism on and Gothic fiction. Northanger Abbey 42 The editors’ choice of critical extracts on the novel, with an activity to help you In Praise of Melancholy – make the most of them. Literature and Emotion 61 Malcolm Hebron traces the theme of Carol Ann Duffy’s Dislocating melancholy in literature from classical theory Language to Radiohead, via Hamlet and Poe. Nigel Wheale explores the themes of emag web archive migration and passing time in Duffy’s poetry. Look out for the links to recommended articles in the archive, listed at the bottom 46 of each article. Stream of Consciousness 63 Nick Phillips compares James Joyce and Saussure, Semiotics and the You can access these articles by logging Virginia Woolf’s attempts in Ulysses and Mrs onto the subscriber site of the emagazine Dalloway to capture the way we think. Nature of the Sign website, if your school or college David Hann explains the fascinating subscribes. contribution of Saussure to linguistic theory. Remember, the login details can be used 49 by any student or member of staff, both Mrs Dalloway – Class, Gender in the institution and from home. and Mental Illness 66 Angela Carter’s ‘The Werewolf’ – Lauren Barr considers the duality between Septimus and Clarissa as a critique of Ambiguity and Ambivalence society. Tony Cavender argues that Carter’s remoulding of the classic fairy tale challenges and mocks the reader. 52 ‘She’s Proper Good Innit’ – Why Dialect Discrimination is Unwise Shaun Austin and Professor Paul Kerswill describe a study on the use of prestige and localised accents and dialects. September 2013 emagazine 3 EnglishOutThere Britishisms with Google Ngram, which lets you search their entire collection of books to compare We’re all familiar with anxieties over the how frequently it has been used over the Americanisation of British English, with years in both American and British English. words and phrases constantly creeping in If you find anything interesting be sure to from TV series, music and Hollywood films. let Prof Yagoda know: http://britishisms. But Ben Yagoda, a professor of English at wordpress.com/ the University of Delaware, believes that it’s not just a one-way street. Whereas Brits A New Laureate have a tendency to turn their noses up at the perceived pollution of the English The new Children’s Laureate, Malorie language, in America borrowing from Blackman, has promised to champion across the Atlantic can add a certain cachet diversity in literature. Blackman says she or distinction to an article or speech, similar was 23 before she read a work of fiction to the effect that using French words featuring black characters and had to order such as ‘cachet’ does in British English! picture books from the US when she was Combined with the growing popularity of raising her own daughter because of the British TV shows like Downton Abbey and scarcity of depictions of black people in online news sources such as The Guardian, children’s literature in Britain. This was this means that so-called ‘Britishisms’ are a what originally motivated her to start common feature of the American lexicon. writing. I thought either I can whinge about it or try to do Yagoda writes a blog called ‘Not One-Off something about it. So that was a major reason Britishisms’ where he compiles words for me wanting to write books for children, and phrases he comes across that he because I wanted to write all the books I’d missed suspects have migrated westwards. One as a child. surprising recent addition is the word Despite only having taken over the post ‘ginger’ to describe red hair, which is widely at the beginning of June, Blackman attributed to the popularity of Harry Potter has already set out ambitious plans for Test Your Vocab and, of course, his flame-headed friend encouraging access and participation in The Test your Vocab website recently Ron Weasley. Fortunately for American literature for children. Her priority will be reached two million completions and the redheads the word ginger doesn’t carry the continuing the work of her predecessor, data they have compiled has yielded some negative connotations that it does in the Julia Donaldson, in campaigning to save interesting results. The website allows UK – indeed, according to Kory Stamper of public libraries from closure. She has also you to take a five-minute vocabulary test Merriam-Webster it makes people think of proposed setting up a website to host which then estimates the total size of your warm, comforting things like gingerbread. creative responses to books by young vocabulary. By asking a few questions about people. This would allow them to upload your age and reading habits they can use You can conduct your own research into music, art, film or writing inspired by their the results to analyse what determines where a word or phrase has originated reading. vocabulary size. One of the most interesting findings is how crucial regular reading during childhood is to overall literacy: by age 15 those who identified as reading ‘lots’ have vocabularies almost double the size of those who read ‘not much’. Another interesting finding was that reading fiction increases your vocabulary size more than non-fiction. The creative license that comes with fiction writing clearly allows the writer greater freedom in their choice of words and builds the reader’s vocabulary in richer ways. Joel Sharples is a freelance writer. 4 emagazine September 2013 T.S Eliot Prize for Poetry Shadowing Scheme 2013 The T.S.