• context of the play: set in 1970s, Australia. Vietnam War is the backdrop. Social workers are becoming more prevalent and ‘madness’ is seen as a curable illness.
• the semi-autobiographical nature of the play (it is loosely based on Nowra’s own experience of directing a play in a mental asylum)
• Nowra’s intention with the play: to look at how experiences past adolescence can shape an individual’s view of the world and of other people

Having read Scene One, Act One we reflected on the distinctive characters introduced so far by Nowra. Those that have been the most interesting for our class are Lewis the uni-student director, Henry with the paralysed arm, Cherry ‘the fat one’ and (of course) Doug the pyromaniac who literally burnt cats – 5!

We also started thinking about the way in which stage directions add to the narrative of the play and how these can also be used to develop characters.

Finally, we were briefly looking at some of the themes of the play that can be identified so far. These include: the role of art in bringing people together or as therapy, the importance of the theatre, the individual nature of madness, love and fidelity.

TASK: Write a very brief 25 word description of each character. For each character select one quote that you believe effectively captures his/her character.

In preparation for your study of Cosi (a play set in a mental institution) you are to complete some research into the history of ‘madness’. What does it mean to be called ‘mad’? Has our understanding of ‘madness’ changed over the last 2000 years? Is it ever really possible to be called ‘sane’? Is it possible that the world is one big asylum populated by mad people?

TASK 1

In the play Cosi Nowra represents both male and female characters suffering from mental illness.

The following activity will help you to answer the question: Is madness gender-defined?

Visit the website: Women’s Mental Illness

Your answers to the following questions need to by typed and ‘turned-in’ via edmodo in response to the TASK ONE assignment.

Mental Illness During the Victorian Era

a. What were mental asylums like before the 1850s? How did they treat patients? Why?

b. What were mental asylums like after the 1850s? How did they treat patients? Why?

c. What was the cure for Hysteria in women according to early ‘doctors’?

d. What is nymphomania? What is your reaction to this diagnosis in women and the reason for women being labelled ‘nymphomaniacs’?

Mental Illness During the Twenty-first Century

a. How many women suffere from  depression according to this article? Why do you think there are so many more than men? What does the article suggest is the reason for this? Do you agree? Why or why not?

b. Suicide, Schizophrenia and Eating disorders are identified as significant mental health issues for women in the 21^st century. What are the causes of these according to the article?

c. What do you think ‘learned-passivity’ is? How does it impact the mental health of women, according to this article?

Task 2

The methods used to treat ‘madness’ have changed drastically over the last 1000 years.

a. Do some research into the types of treatment mental patients have received between 1000 and 2010.

Here are some websites that may be handy:

Asylums and Care for the Insane

Bedlam

The History of Mental Illness

A Brief History or Mental Illness

b. Create a time-line of the methods for treatment of the ‘insane’. The time-line is to be presented on a glogster poster – www.glogster.com (you will need to register and log-in) and post it to our class group on edmodo.

Due: Friday, Week 1

Task 3

2. Use the internet to find a definition of the following:

* bedlam

* asylum

* lunatic

* madness

* insane

* psychosis

* bi-polar

* lobotomy

* electro-convulsive shock treatment

These definitions should be typed into a Word Doc and saved as ‘Madness_Definition_(yourname)’. This is to be sent to be ‘turned-in’ via edmodo. The Assignment is called ‘Task 3′.

Task 4

Choose three of the words above and include them in a 100 word micro-story exploring the concept ‘madness’. Be creative – try to engage your reader’s senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing. Focus on using strong verbs and shorter sentences.

This is to be posted to our class edmodo group. Due: Wednesday, Week 2.

The play’s title ‘Cosi’ is drawn from the opera ‘Cosi-Fan-Tutte’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

About the playwright:

• Louis Nowra was born on 12^th December 1950. He was born in Melbourne as Mark Doyle but he changed his name in the 1970s. He still lives and works in Australia.
• He is one of Australia’s most successful and prolific playwrights, having written over 32 plays. He has also written novels, screenplays, memoirs and even libretti (this is the written text for an opera).
• His early plays were set in obscure places outside of Australia and dealt with dark and often ambiguous themes such as spirituality and renewal.
• Nowra’s more recent works have featured more local settings, often in familiar Australian landscapes such as suburbia. These works often include compelling lead characters, many of whom are women or more traditionally silenced characters such as Aboriginal people.
• Key themes in the works of Louis Nowra include the power of love to restore hope, the ability for individuals to transform themselves, the nature of madness, the importance of creative expression and resistance.

Type of text

Louis Nowra writes plays. Cosi is a drama text.

Context of text

• The play Cosi is set in Melbourne, Australia in the early 1970s. This was a time marked by a youthful rebellion where Australia’s young people were taking to the streets to protest Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. It was also a period of ‘free love’ where the traditional morals and ideals were being questioned, and often rejected by the younger generation. Women had access to the new contraceptive pill and this made it easier for women to engage in sexual relations outside of marriage. This brought about a questioning of the need for marriage and fidelity.
• During this time period mental illness was still viewed as something ‘other’ that was not spoken about publicly. People suffering from mental illness were tagged as ‘mad’ and ‘loonies’ and state run institutions were put in place to provide care for most of these people.
• By the 1970s drug use was prolific amongst young adults, particularly those who formed part of the counter culture movement referred to as ‘hippies’. This is evident in the character Julie, who is a heroin addict, and the character of Zac, who is addicted to pharmaceutical drugs.

Audience

This play is written mainly for a young adult and adult audience as it deals with mature themes such as sex, drugs and the nature of love and insanity.

Purpose

The purpose of this text is to entertain the audience through comedy, but also to inform the audience about the ineffectiveness of categorising people as being ‘mad’. The play also encourages the audience to reconsider the value of love and fidelity in a modern world.

How should you read this text?

• The reader must remember that this is a text written for the stage and because of this dramatic techniques should be identified when discussing how meaning is shaped by Nowra in Cosi.
• If possible the students should see a production of this play in performance as this will help develop a better appreciation of the physical comedy that forms the basis of the play. The play was made into a film in 1997, with Nowra having written the screen-play. Students should note that the plot has been altered in this version.
• Even though Cosi is a comedy following closely along the lines of a traditional farce, it has a more serious meaning underpinning the humour. Nowra desires to create a piece of art that captures the often ambiguous distinction between sanity and insanity in the modern world. Through humour Nowra encourages the audience to reconsider their own attitudes.
• It is important to remember that this play was written in a different context to the one in which it was set. The student should reflect on why Nowra chose the 70s to set his play and whether this was simply because of his own biography.

Below is a copy the Syllabus outline for this module:

Module B: Close Study of Text

This module requires students to engage in detailed analysis of a text. It develops students’ understanding of how the ideas, forms and language of a text interact within the text and may affect those responding to it.

Each elective in this module involves close study of a single text from a list of prescribed texts.
Students engage with the text to respond imaginatively, affectively and critically. They explore and analyse particular characteristics of the text, considering how these shape meaning. They also consider the ways in which these characteristics establish the text’s distinctive qualities. Composition focuses on meaning shaped in and through the text. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

Source: English Stage 6 Sylabus

Unlike the AOS and Modules A and C, this module only requires the study of ONE text. There are NO related texts for Module B.

Prescribed text: Cosi, Louis Nowra

Module B in ‘real words’

Close study of text, as the name suggests, requires students to look closely at the characteristics of one particular type of text. Students are to consider how the interaction of ideas, forms and language create meaning for the responder. The word ‘ideas’ refers to the subject matter, characters and themes. The word ‘form’ refers to the structural features and genre specific to the text form that is being studied; this may be a selection of poems, a novel, a film, a drama script or a non-fiction text. The word ‘language’ refers to the specific language features used by the composer to express ideas, typically the type of language used will be specific to the text form, for example the language of poetry, the language of film, the language of drama. A student must consider how each of these aspects of a text shape meaning and influence responses.

To be placed in the highest band students must:

• show extensive, detailed knowledge of how the meaning of a text is shaped and changed by context and the medium of production.
• demonstrate a highly-developed ability to describe and analyse the distinctive language forms, features and structures of the focus text.
• demonstrate an insightful understanding of the ways meaning is constructed in a text and how these decisions produce different responses to texts.

Students not only consider the meaning in the text made by the composer through a detailed analysis of the text’s particular characteristics, but also consider how meaning is shaped through the impact of the text on the audience.

Source: HSC Standard English

The most important aspect of this discussion was the need to re-read the assessment task outline/requirements and looking closely at the marking criteria. Doing this you will realise that your ability to make meaningful connections between your texts and your ideas about belonging and/or not belonging. It is also essential that your ideas are clearly supported by well-selected quotes and textual analysis. Your ideas need to be strong and well supported. You won’t be getting extra marks for glitter and stars, but you will get marks for clarity and logic of your links between thesis points, text and evidence.

It was great catching up for the first time this year, but now is the time for you to put your heads down and get some quality work done!

Ms Hewes

This is a beautiful poem, and we analysed it in detail to ensure that there is plenty to include in the essays and mind-maps.

Today we began discussing what makes a good creative response for Area of Study. We discussed some of the key elements of writing that must be mastered in order to create a great piece of writing.
The five elements of writing and how they work with the Area of Study:
1. PLOT: The plot should be simple, yet should explore complex notions of belonging. For the assessment task you are required to consider how an individual may challenge or enrich a group and as a consequence prompt a consideration of the notions of identity, understanding and acceptance. The structure of a traditional narrative plot is – orientation (being introduced to characters, settings and situations) complication (some kind of conflict is introduced. This could be between people, an individual and their environment of within an individual) and resolution (this is where the problem is overcome, a lesson in learned and life returns to relative normalcy).
2. SETTING: This is where the action takes place. The action in your story should only take place in one or two places. Make these familiar places- a restaurant, a bus stop, on a train, in a room, at a museum, at the movies, in a church.
3. CHARACTERS: You should have only one or two fully developed characters. Names are not necessary, What us important is who they really are. You can develop your character through: their actions, their dialogue, description of their appearance and environment.
4. THEME: The main message or idea of your story. This will relate to belonging. For example:
* an individual’s sense of belonging is affected by the way others treat them
* our identity can be affected by our feelings of belonging or not belonging
* developing an understanding of another’s perspective on life can create a sense of belonging between two unlikely characters.
5. WRITING STYLE: To get top marks in this task you need to show us that you can write well. The better responses will use the following:
* descriptive language (describe what a place/person/thing looks like, smells like, feels like, sounds like, tastes like)
* figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification
* a variety of sentence lengths to alter the pace and mood of a paragraph. Short sentences create a faster pace – drama, action – whereas longer sentences create a more reflective or philosophical mood.
* use dialogue sparingly – only to develop a character or further the plot

I hope these notes have helped.

Ms Woods

We also read the short story ‘A Clean, Well-lighted Place’ by Ernest Hemmingway. We began considering what the story revealed about the concept ‘belonging’ and HOW Hemmingway conveys these ideas through language and form.

TASK:
In at least 100 words, explain THREE ways in which the story ‘A Clean, Well-lighted Place’ by Ernest Hemmingway explores the concept of ‘belonging’ in a similar way to the film ‘Ten Canoes’ directed by Rolf de Heer.