Ian McKellen King Lear SHAKESPEARE

Death and the Maiden (1994) Trailer

Wider Reading : American Play Memorializes "Comfort Women"

The play deals with the issue of women forced to 'comfort' Japanese soldiers during World War 2. The women were mainly form Korea and China. These countries had been invaded and brutally occupied during the Japanese expansion known as "The Empire of the Sun". This is an example of where literature and imaginative constructs meet History and Ethics in Theory of Knowledge. Does literature, eventhough it is fiction based on fact help us understand history or does it confuse us? Another interesting question is what are the differences between the way modern Germany has dealt with its Nazi past and the way Japan deals with its past? Are you aware of the controversy surrounding school textbooks in Japan and the way they deal with World War 2? A counter-claim might be that many Japanese people feel that they too are victims of the war because of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Another point might be that we only focus on the war crimes of the losers and if the allies had lost the war, there might have been war crimes trials for some of their actions in World War 2.  So complicated but interesting.

THE WHITE TIGER: Aravind Adiga, Winner of the Man Booker Prize2008

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

The Freytag Pyramid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi4p5Mwr1Zg

SAMPLE Exam Questions for PAPER 2 Drama Section

Answer one essay question only. You must base your answer on at least two of the Part 3 works you have studied and compare and contrast these works in response to the question. Answers which are not based on a discussion of at least two Part 3 works will not score high marks.
(Any two of these 4 texts: Amadeus, The Crucible, Master Harold, Romeo and Juliet.)

Time SL 90 minutes and HL 2 hours.

Note you are advised to spend 20 minutes making a bullet point plan for your essay.

Essays should have a clear logical structure with an introduction/development/conclusion.

SL papers will average about 4 sides to 6 sides of handwritten work.

HL papers will average about 6 to 8 sides of handwritten work.

(This will depend on the size of your handwriting.)

Skip a line between paragraphs and write neatly and legibly.

Drama

1.

Explore the ways in which dramatists have made use of monologues and/or soliloquies in at least two plays you have studied.

2.

Plays employ various kinds of structural divisions such as prologues and epilogues, act and scene

divisions, even carefully placed intermissions. Discuss the dramatic uses made of these divisions in

at least two plays you have studied.

3.

“A play should make you laugh or should make you cry.”

With reference to at least two plays you have studied, discuss the methods playwrights use to generate emotional response in their audiences.
4.
Compare and contrast the ways in which dramatists have made use of stage directions to increase the dramatic impact of the play on the audience. Discuss at least two plays you have studied.