English

2011 HSC Paper 2 Module A Advanced: Comparative Study of Texts and Contexts

Elective 2: Texts in Time

In what ways does a comparative study accentuate the distinctive contexts of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Room of One’s Own?

Sample response: Drama and non-fiction

Prescribed texts: A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf, 1928 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee, 1962

|Establishing the thesis of the response: |At first glance, Virginia Woolf’s 1928 critical essay, A Room of One’s Own and Edward Albee’s |
|that the different contexts affect the |1962 play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, have nothing in common but a name. They do, |
|ways that common content is explored and |however, share a number of features. They are both concerned with exposing deep-seated |
|presented |problems, they both examine relationships between men and women, they both comment on academia|
| |and the role of education and they both do these things in an entertaining, ironic and often |
| |humorous way. By comparing the content and style of each text, we can see how the different |
| |contexts result in differences in approach. |
|The purpose of the play |Both texts want to “shatter the shell of false reality”, Artaud’s description of the Theatre |
| |of Cruelty style that Albee adopts in his play. The false reality that Albee wants to expose |
| |is the myth of the American Dream, with its complacent materialism and lack of genuine |
| |communication and feeling. Post-World War II comfort and affluence mask the underlying |
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