Level: Year 12 (SACE Stage 2) English Studies, 2014

Task: Individual Study

Draft: Term 3 Week 10

Final Copy: Term 4 Week 6-ish

Topic:

TASK

Choose two texts for individual consideration. These texts may include novels, plays, anthologies of verse by single poets, or film.

The critical essay, in which the two texts must be discussed in relation to each other, allows students to demonstrate their ability to generate and sustain a critical opinion. When designing a question, students should consider how to demonstrate a critical understanding in their examination of the texts.

Length: maximum 2000 words: take-home, edited (please include word count), plus regular consultations with the teacher.

Level: Year 12 (SACE Stage 2) English Studies, 2014

Task: Individual Study

Student Name:

Topic:

Assessment Design Criteria / Performance Standards for Stage 2 English Studies

Knowledge and Understanding Analysis Application Communication

A Knowledge and understanding of a widerange of ways in which authors usestylistic features and languagetechniques to communicate complex andfamiliar ideas, and to influence thereader’s response.Detailed knowledge and understanding ofthe ideas, values, and beliefs in familiarand unfamiliar texts.Knowledge and understanding of theways in which creators and readers offamiliar and unfamiliar texts use a rangeof textual conventions to make meaning.

Analysis of complex connectionsbetween personal experiences, ideas,values, and beliefs, and those explored infamiliar and unfamiliar texts.In comparative exercises, a perceptiveanalysis of connections between texts,based on analysis and synthesis ofsimilarities and/or differences.Perceptive analysis of a range of ways inwhich authors use language techniquesto influence opinions and decisions infamiliar and unfamiliar texts.

Use of a wide range of language skills and techniques to create sophisticated and coherent texts that address the meaning and intention of the task.

In comparative exercises, a perceptiverecognition of connections between texts,through responses that integratediscussion of texts and move easily between them.

Detailed and appropriate use of evidencefrom texts to support responses, withtextual references incorporated fluently indiscussion.

Skills in using the textual, structural, andconventional features of text types for arange of familiar and unfamiliar contexts,audiences, and purposes.

Fluent and precise writing and speaking,using appropriate style and structure fora range of mainly unfamiliar audiencesand contexts.Appropriate use of form and register toconvey mostly complex meaning in arange of unfamiliar contexts.

B Knowledge and understanding of theways in which authors use stylisticfeatures and language techniques tocommunicate complex and familiar ideas,and to influence the reader’s response.Knowledge and understanding of someideas, values, and beliefs in familiar, andsome unfamiliar, texts.Knowledge and understanding of theways in which creators and readers ofmainly familiar texts use some textualconventions to make meaning.

Analysis of some complex connectionsbetween personal experiences, ideas,values, and beliefs, and those explored infamiliar, and some unfamiliar, texts.In comparative exercises, a clearanalysis of connections between texts,based on analysis of similarities and/ordifferences.Analysis of a range of ways in whichauthors use language techniques toinfluence opinions and decisions infamiliar, and some unfamiliar, texts.

Use of a range of language skills andtechniques to create clear and coherent texts that address the meaning and intention of the task.In comparative exercises, recognition ofconnections between texts, through responses that compare and contrast texts in an integrated way.Appropriate use of evidence from texts tosupport responses, with textual references incorporated in discussion.Skills in using some of the textual, structural, and conventional features of text types for a range of mainly familiar, and some unfamiliar, contexts, audiences, and purposes.

Mostly fluent and precise writing andspeaking, using appropriate style andstructure for a range of mostly familiaraudiences and contexts.Appropriate use of form and register toconvey complex and simple meaning in arange of familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

Knowledge: A B C D EAnalysis A B C D EApplication: A B C D ECommunication: A B C D E

Final Grade:

Knowledge and Understanding Analysis Application Communication

C Knowledge and understanding of anarrow range of ways in which authorsuse stylistic features and languagetechniques to communicate mainlyfamiliar ideas, and to influence thereader’s response.

Knowledge and understanding of someideas, values, and beliefs in mainlyfamiliar texts.

Knowledge and understanding of someof the ways in which creators andreaders of a range of familiar texts usetextual conventions to make simple orfactual meaning.

Analysis of simple connections betweenpersonal experiences, ideas, values, andbeliefs, and those explored in familiartexts.In comparative exercises, analysis ofconnections between texts, based onsome understanding of similarities and/ordifferences.Descriptive analysis of a number of waysin which authors use languagetechniques to influence opinions anddecisions in familiar texts.

Use of language skills and techniques tocreate texts that address the meaningand intention of the task.

In comparative exercises, recognition ofsome connections between texts,through responses that compare andcontrast texts, usually in a sequentialrather than an integrated way.

Competent use of evidence from texts tosupport responses, with some use oftextual references in discussion.

Skills in using some of the textual,structural, and conventional features ofsome text types for familiar contexts,audiences, and purposes.

Generally fluent and functional writingand speaking, using appropriate styleand structure for familiar audiences andcontexts.Appropriate use of form and register toconvey simple meaning in a narrowrange of familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

D Knowledge and restricted understandingof some simple stylistic features andlanguage techniques used by authors tocommunicate mainly familiar ideas, andto influence the reader’s response.

Knowledge and understanding of somefamiliar ideas, values, and beliefs infamiliar texts.

Knowledge and understanding of arestricted number of ways in whichcreators and readers of a narrow rangeof familiar texts use some textualconventions to make simple or factualmeaning.

Reference to simple connectionsbetween uncomplicated personalexperiences, ideas, values, and beliefs,and those explored in familiar texts.In comparative exercises, answers thatmake partial comparisons and contrasts.Reference to some ways in whichauthors use a range of languagetechniques to influence opinions anddecisions in familiar texts.

Use of some language skills andtechniques to create texts that partly address the meaning and intention of the task.

In comparative exercises, someawareness of connections between texts,through partial responses that mainlydeal with texts separately.

Some use of evidence from texts tosupport a response, with use of a narrowrange of textual references.

Skills in using some of the textual,structural, or conventional features of atext type for a familiar context, audience,or purpose.

Achievement of a level of fluency inwriting and speaking, in a mainlyappropriate style.Occasionally appropriate use of formand/or register to convey simple meaningin familiar contexts.

E Knowledge and understanding of arestricted range of simple stylisticfeatures and language techniques usedby authors to communicate familiarideas, and to influence the reader’sresponse.

Identification of an idea, a value, or abelief in familiar texts.

Knowledge and understanding of theways in which a creator or reader of ahighly familiar text uses textualconventions to make factual meaning.

Recognition of a simple connectionbetween a straightforward personal,experience, idea, value, or belief, andthat explored in a highly familiar text.In comparative exercises, answers thatmake a simple comparison or contrast.Reference to the way in which an authoruses language techniques to influenceopinions and decisions in a highly familiartext.

Attempted use of a restricted range oflanguage skills and/or techniques to create a text or texts that attempt to address the meaning or intention of the task.In comparative exercises, identification oflimited connections between texts, through fragmented responses that deal with texts separately.Restricted use of evidence from texts tosupport a simple response, with limitedtextual reference.

Skills in using the textual, structural, orconventional features of a text type for ahighly familiar context, audience, orpurpose.

Emerging development of fluency in anoccasionally appropriate style.Occasionally appropriate use of form andregister to convey literal meaning inhighly familiar contexts.

Comments:

General Introduction

Your Individual Study involves reading and critically analysing two “texts” independent of those studied as a class.

“Texts” may include novels, plays, poetry anthologies, films, graphic novels, short story collections and so on.

My recommendation: Be careful of choosing a film as a text to analyse. Many who choose a film as a text analyse it poorly and merely treat it as a narrative (story). Film texts are not easy to critically evaluate and require a great deal of analysis of film technique.

If permitted, you may choose a film text as your SECOND text. Another recommendation is to choose two texts of different format, such as novel/play or perhaps

play/poetry or novel/film, if only to help you focus on the similarities and differences between them. You may choose texts by authors studied in class. A further recommendation: do not choose your second text until you have finished your first. This

should widen your options instead of locking you into a certain frame of thinking. Your FIRST TEXT must be chosen by Term 1 Week 2, in close consultation with your teacher. Texts must be connected in some way – thematically, preferably not by author. The Individual Study is designed to promote your awareness as a reader and should enhance your

ability to detect and analyse the textual devices employed by the authors. It is much more than understanding plot, characters and themes.

Timeline

Term 1: Read and annotate TEXT 1. Term 2: Read and annotate TEXT 2, making comparisons with TEXT 1. Term 3: Draft your 2000 word Critical Essay, which compares your two texts. End of Term 3 Week 10: First “draft” of Critical Essay due. Term 4: Editing process. Term 4 Week 6: Final Copy of Critical Essay Due (after/during exams). Finally, more details are on the sheet entitled What to take notes on as you read…

A Brief Reading List by THEME

Year 12 English Studies Individual Study

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend.Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.

Groucho Marx

Science & Ethics

Honk if You Are Jesus (Peter Goldsworthy)Sixth Day (film)Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)Bladerunner (film)The Island of Dr Moreau (H. G. Wells)Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)Gattaca (film)I Robot (film)Never Let Me Go (Kashuro Ishiguro)Solar (Ian McEwan)The Island (film)

Conflict/Contrast between Technology & Nature

Fly Away Peter (David Malouf)Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)1984 (George Orwell)Avatar (film)

Landscape / Nature

Dirt Music (Tim Winton)Death of a River Guide (Richard Flannagan)Blueback (Tim Winton)Three Dog Night (Peter Goldsworthy)Poetry (Judith Wright)Drylands (Thea Astley)An Imaginary Life (David Malouf)The Drowner (Robert Drewe)The Road from Coorain (Jill Kerr Conway)We of the Never Never (Aneas Gunn)Surfacing (Margaret Atwood)The Riders (Tim Winton)The Shipping News (Annie Proulx)

Personal / Spiritual Journey

Maestro (Peter Goldsworthy)Radiance (Rachel Perkins)Hiam (Eva Sallis)The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)The Shipping News (Annie Proulx)The Piano Tuner (Daniel Mason)Shirley Valentine (Willy Russell)The Mosquito Coast (Paul Theroux)Box the Pony (Leah Purcell and Scott Rankin)Odyssey (Homer)Truce (Primo Levi)Journey to Ithaca (Vicky de Lacy)Life of Pi (Yann Martel)Dirt Music (Tim Winton)The Riders (Tim Winton)

A Place Like This (Steven Herrick)Salt of Broken Tears (Michael Meehan)The Death of a River Guide (Richard Flannigan)The Accidental Tourist (Anne Tyler)Keep It Simple Stupid (Peter Goldsworthy)Portrait in Sepia (Isabel Allende)Atonement (Ian McEwan)Fury (Salman Rushdie)An Equal Music (Vikram Seth)Navigating (Katherine Thomson)The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)Sweet Road (Debra Oswald)The Portrait of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)Oscar & Lucinda (Peter Carey)Disgrace (J. M. Coetzee)Rabbit Proof Fence (film)Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)Night Letters (Robert Dessaix)The Good Thief (Hannah Tinti)The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)Mao’s Last Dancer (film)Slumdog Millionaire (film)The Sea (John Banville) Batman Begins (film)The Road (Cormac McCarthy)Away (Michael Gow)Educating Rita (Willy Russell)Life As a House (film)Metro 2033 (Dmitry Glukhovsky)Les Miserables (Victor Hugo/Tom Hooper)

Meaning of Life

The Meaning of Life (film)Animal Dreams (Barbara Kingsolver)East of the Mountains (David Guterson)Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)The Loved One (Evelyn Waugh)Veronika Decides to Die (Paulo Coelho)Sophie’s World (Jostein Gaarder)Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)Life Is Beautiful (film)Rhinoceros (Eugene Ionescu)

Disintegration/Destruction of Culture/Humanity

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)The Death of a River Guide (Richard Flannigan)Vinegar Hill (A. Manette Ansay)The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee)Lord of the Flies (William Golding)The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene)Avatar (film)

Future

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)1984 (George Orwell)Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)Utopia (Thomas Moore)We (Yevgeny Zamyatin)The Chrysalids (John Wyndham)Fool’s Errand (Robin Hobb)2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke)Gattaca (film)A.I. (film)I Robot (film)Never Let Me Go (Kashuro Ishiguro)Children of Men (film)Wall.E (film)The Island (film)The Road (Cormac McCarthy)Metro 2033 (Dmitry Glukhovsky)The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins/Gary Ross)

Discrimination

The Elephant Man (Ashley Montagu)The Seven Stages of Grieving (Deborah Mailman & Wesley Enoch)Philadelphia (filmscript)Stolen (Jane Harrison)The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)An Instant in the Wind (Andre Brink)A Lesson Before Dying (Ernest J. Gaines)Once Were Warriors (Alan Duff)The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (Thomas Keneally)Rabbit Proof Fence (Doris Pilkington Garimata or Phillip Noyce)Merchant of Venice (William of Shakespeare)Disgrace (J. M. Coetzee)Animal Dreams (Barbara Kingsolver)To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)Ballad of the Sad Café (Carson McCullers)Cry Freedom (J. Briley)I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)The Color of Water (James McBride)Merchant of Venice (William Shakespeare)The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (John Boyne)District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)

War / Morality

All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque)Selected Poems (Wilfred Owen)Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (Louis de Berniere)The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)Miracle at St Anna’s (James McBride)Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick’s filmscript or novel by Humphrey Cobb)

Private Wars (James McLure)Regeneration (Pat Barker)The Hand that Signed the Paper (Helen Demidenko)Schindler’s Ark (Thomas Keneally)The Reader (Bernard Schlink)Cabaret (film)Life is Beautiful (film)Johnno (David Malouf)Maus (Art Spiegelmann = graphic novel)My Brother Jack (George Jonhston)Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut Jr)Reading in the Dark (Seamus Deane)If This Is a Man (Primo Levi)The Dark Room (Rachel Seiffert)Night (Elie Wiesel)Apocalypse Now (film)War Horse (Michael Morpurgo) (or film)The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan)Metro 2033 (Dmitry Glukhovsky)Glory (Edward Zwick)

Culture Clash

Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)A Passage to India (E.M.Forster)Poor Man’s Orange (Ruth Park)The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)The Sound of One Hand Clapping (Richard Flannigan)Six Degrees of Separation (John Guare)Our Country’s Good (Timberlake Wertenbaker)No Sugar (Jack Davis)Stolen (Jane Harrison)Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)The Colour of Water (James McBride)Disgrace (J. M. Coetzee)Animal Dreams (Barbara Kingsolver)The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)The Death of a River Guide (Richard Flannigan)Once Were Warriors (Alan Duff)The Piano Tuner (Daniel Mason)Heat and Dust (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)Deadly Unna? (Phillip Gwynne)The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (Thomas Keneally)Dangerous Love (Ben Okri)Fight Club (film)Monsoon Wedding (film)The Chosen (Chaim Potok)Avatar (film)Billy Elliot (film)Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) (or film)The Secret River (Kate Grenville)The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

Abuse

The Colour Purple (Alice Walker)Black Rock (Nick Enright)A Property of the Clan (Nick Enright)Candelo (Georgia Blain)Willow Tree and Olive (Irini Savvides)Sleepers (film)Property (Valerie Martin)

Redemption

Shawshank Redemption (Steven King)Magnificent Obsession (Lloyd C. Douglas)The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)Atonement (Ian McEwan)Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan)Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe)The Divine Comedy (Dante)Paradise Lost (John Milton)That Eye the Sky (Tim Winton)The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene)The Riders (Tim Winton)Fly Away Peter (David Malouf)The Inferno (Dante)The Crucible (Arthur Miller)The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)Away (Michael Gow)One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey)The Road (Cormac McCarthy)I Am Legend (film)Metro 2033 (Dmitry Glukhovsky)Les Miserables (Victor Hugo/Tom Hooper)

Family / Childhood

Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)The Small Poppies (David Holman)Our Town (Thornton Wilder)Away (Michael Gow)Equus (Peter Schaffer)The Colour of Water (James McBride)That Eye the Sky (Tim Winton)The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)Billy Elliot (film)American Beauty (film)The Gathering (Anne Enright)

Good and Evil

The Devil and Miss Prym (Paul Coelho)Sophie’s World (Jostein Gaarder)Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe)The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)The Crucible (Arthur Miller)Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (John Berendt)

Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien)Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)Third Man (Graham Greene)High Fidelity (Nick Hornby)How to Be Good (Nick Hornby)High Noon (film)Lord of the Flies (William Golding)Elizabeth [The Golden Age] (film)Metro 2033 (Dmitry Glukhovsky)

The Past

Candelo (Georgia Blain)Three Dog Night (Peter Goldsworthy)The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)The Kitchen God’s Wife (Amy Tan)Navigating (Katherine Thomson)The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams)The Sea (John Banville)The Gathering (Anne Enright)The Finkler Question (Howard Jacobsen)

Role of Women

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)The Edible Woman (Margaret Atwood)My Place (Sally Morgan)The Poet and the Women (Aristophanes)Lysistrata (Aristophanes)The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)Lilian’s Story (Kate Grenville)A Doll’s House (Henrik Ibsen)The Piano (film)Shirley Valentine (Willy Russell)The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)Brilliant Lies (David Williamson)Fortune’s Rock (Anita Shreve)Wild Swans (Jung Chang)Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare)The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)Veronika Decides to Die (Paul Coelho)The Wife of Martin Guerre (Janet Lewis)Emma (Jane Austen)Bridget Jones’ Diary (film)Mona Lisa Smile (film)Property (Valerie Martin)Girl with a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini)Elizabeth [The Golden Age] (film)Miss Julia (August Strindberg)

Stories about Stories (Meta-Narrative?)

The Piano Tuner (Daniel Mason)Atonement (Ian McEwan)Eva Luna (Isabel Allende)Veronika Decides to Die (Paulo Coelho)The Devil & Miss Prym (Paulo Coelho)The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

Passion/Obsession/Desire

The Collector (John Knowles)Three Dog Night (Peter Goldsworthy)Oscar & Lucinda (Peter Carey)Enduring Love (Ian McEwan)Perfume (Patrick Suskind)Hannibal (Thomas Harris)Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams)Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby)Chocolat (Joanne Harris)Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence)Oedipus Rex (Sophocles)Equus (Peter Schaffer)Of Human Bondage (W. Somerset Maugham)Macbeth (William Shakespeare)Wanting (Richard Flanagan)West Side Story (film/musical)Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

Secrets / Lies /Deception

A Doll’s House (Henrik Ibsen)Secrets and Lies (film)Pack of Lies (Hugh Whitemore)Brilliant Lies (David Williamson or film)Reading in the Dark (Seamus Deane)Hamlet (William Shakespeare)Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare)The Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare)A Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)The Crucible (Arthur Miller)Othello (William Shakespeare)Lantana (film)

Power / Conformity

Equus (Peter Schaffer)One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey)1984 (George Orwell)The Removalists (David Williamson)Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence)A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams)Lord of the Flies (William Golding)The Promise (Chaim Potok)The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)

Dead Poet’s Society (film)The Matrix (film)High Noon (film)We (Yevgeny Zamyatin)No Sugar (Jack Davis)Rhinoceros (Eugene Ionesco)The Crucible (Arthur Miller)A Doll’s House (Henrik Ibsen)The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)Chocolat (Joanne Harris)Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquival)A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis)Animal Farm (George Orwell)Mona Lisa Smile (film)Property (Valerie Martin)The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)Chocolat (film)

Healing

Away (Michael Gow)Dirt Music (Tim Winton)The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) The Messenger (Markus Zusack)Three Dog Night (Peter Goldsworthy)Sweet Road (Debra Oswald)

Change / Human Nature

Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw)Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)Educating Rita (Willy Russell)Bladerunner (film)Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)Positronic Man (Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg)Sixth Day (film)Perfume (Patrick Suskind)Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)Dogville (film)Confessions of Zeno (Italo Svevo)Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett)The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene)If This Is a Man (Primo Levi)Lord of the Flies (William Golding)Metro 2033 (Dmitry Glukhovsky)

Illusion / Reality

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Tom Stoppard)The Real Inspector Hound (Tom Stoppard)Hamlet (William Shakespeare)King Lear (William Shakespeare)Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare)The Matrix (film)The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams)The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)Inception (film)Atonement (film)

Satire / Criticism

Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)American Beauty (film)The Plague (Albert Camus)The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)Animal Farm (George Orwell)One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey)1984 (George Orwell)Private Wars (James McLure)Ubu Roi (Alfred Jarry)Lord of the Flies (William Golding)The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)Dead Poet’s Society (film)We (Yevgeny Zamyatin)No Sugar (Jack Davis)The Crucible (Arthur Miller)The Loved One (Evelyn Waugh)Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky)Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee)Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)The Chrysalids (John Wyndham)The Meaning of Life (film)Equus (Peter Schaffer)Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller)The Crucible (Arthur Miller)The Catcher in the Rye (J.D.Salinger)Vernon God Little (D.B.C. Pierre)If This Is a Man (Primo Levi)Avatar (film)Chocolat (film)I Robot (film)Metro 2033 (Dmitry Glukhovsky)

Alienation / Isolation

The Sound of One Hand Clapping (Richard Flannagan)The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (Thomas Keneally)An Imaginary Life (David Malouf)Dances with Wolves (film)The English Patient (Michael Oondatje)Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)Once Were Warriors (Alan Duff or film)The Piano (film)Dirt Music (Tim Winton)The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)Vinegar Hill (A. Manette Ansay)A Doll’s House (Henrik Ibsen)The Outsider (Albert Camus)Oscar and Lucinda (Peter Carey)Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)