Introduction
I take you through some exemplary text analysis, particularly useful for Year 7 to 10 students, on a passage from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But before And if you’re interested in some resources to help you navigate your HSC studies, check out our website, enable HSC. But for now, let’s get into today’s content. So in today’s video I’m taking a quote from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and I’m going to do an honest on the spot analysis of it for you guys.
But my point in doing this is to reiterate that anyone doing any textual analysis is mindful of the steps that actually need to be taken in order to clarify how meaning has been conveyed in a text. So, if you’re a younger student in particular, and you’re a little stuck with English and you’re wondering, well, what’s really the point in my English studies and what am I trying to convey in my writing? This video will be very useful for you.
Textual representation
Creating textual or written information. Making notes. Creativity and creative writing concept.
I’ll talk a little about what textual representation actually means, and then I’ll show you how to actively read a passage from a text to uncover how a composer uses these aspects of form and features in order to convey some sort of impact or importance to the respondent.
Okay, so when we think about texts and look at how ideas are conveyed in texts, are we really asking how representation works in that text? Now, what it means is how does the composer use form and feature to convey meaning? Now, I’ve highlighted this arrow here because I’m trying to show that as a student, you can’t just claim that meaning has been conveyed in the text.
If you’re saying here that a composer has explored this particular theme, or this quote evokes that idea, you’re not actually justifying the claim you’re making. You have to get into the habit. And indeed, it should be second nature to you to assert how the composer has used a technique or aspect of form to induce his correspondent to appreciate that idea being conveyed. Okay, that’s what I’m going to demonstrate as I read the passage below.
Techniques
As we go along, I will actively pick out the techniques the composer used in this passage and how it affects me as a reader to show you how when writing your own analysis forms, get into the habit of extracting from the text or a quote from text, identifying the technique or aspect of the form and then say what the effect of this is. OK, but before we get to that effect, you have to go back and ask yourself what technique or aspect of form has the composer used? Let’s take a look at our excerpt.
By this time I had finished my dinner, and by my host, desire had drawn up a chair by the fire, and begun to smoke a cigar, which he had offered me at the same time by excusing himself that he did not smoke. I now had an opportunity of observing him, and found him of a very strong physiognomy. His face was equally strong, a very strong rabbit, with a high bridge of a thin nose and curiously arched nostrils, with a high domed forehead, and hair, which grew little about the temples, but abundant elsewhere. Okay, that’s the first read.
Dracula
Now, just to kind of orient you to the text, I’ve chosen Stoker’s Dracula because it’s quite a popular text for students in years eight, nine and ten, especially if you’re doing a unit on Gothic literature or the late Victorian period. And it’s just a really wonderful text to read in terms of how the composer has used forms and features to convey this real, exotic otherness of Dracula.
Now, going back to your orientation in the novel, at this point, our protagonist, who is Jonathan Harker, has arrived at the Earl’s property and begins to note some very strange Eastern European, if you will, exotic otherness about this location. , but especially in characterizing the count as almost animalistic or what we would call zoomorphic. So let’s read again and begin to unpack what techniques have been used in the passage.
Techniques used in extraction
Learn English concept. English dictionary book or textbook with flag of Great Britain and Big ben tower on the cove in the library. 3d illustration
So we have finished my dinner. Whenever you analyze and seek to claim that you, as the reader, have had a personal dialogue with the narrator, you can comment on the first-person narration. The eye invites us to an intimate dialogue with the composer, and from my host, the desire had pulled up on a chair by the fire and began to smoke a cigar.
This here is very effective in conveying the setting to the reader. The fire conveys a sense of images and began to smoke. A cigar also appeals to olfactory imagery, which is smell, to give us a strong sense of both the temperature and the smells that make up the environment, which he offered me while justifying himself for not smoking. I now had an opportunity to observe the opportunity and observe.
Exploring setting and characterization
The repetition of O is a form of alliteration, drawing our attention to how keenly Jonathan Harker watches the count and found him with a very strong physiognomy, a very strong C, the assertion in what is conveyed there and the level of certainty we have call it high modality. His face was a strong, very strong repetition there, reinforcing the strong nature of his face, aquiline with a high bridge of a thin nose and peculiar arched nostrils.
So again here visual imagery is used to convey the count’s appearance, with the high domed forehead and hair growing sparsely around the temples but abundant everywhere else. And the images continue there too.
Final words
We’ve got a strong sense of setting and a strong sense of Dracula’s characterization, and that’s through the techniques that Stoker used. Okay guys, that wraps up my analysis of this video. I hope what you took away from this is an emphasis on analyzing how composers used forms and features to convey meaning to correspondents.
And I gave you an example of this by reading this popular quote from Dracula. If you have any questions, please comment. And if you like our content, please also like and subscribe to our channel and click the notification bell.