Creating+Wiki+Pages

You are going to provide the content for several of these wiki pages, so it might be a good idea to establish some sort of expectation. Remember the basic rule: this is a collaborative task, thus YOUR contribution affects EVERYONE! What that means, in practice, is that you need to ensure that the content you provide is actually of use to everyone, that it is presented in a professional, helpful manner, that it has been proofread and checked and so on. A simpler way to think of it is that there needs to be some actual work put into these pages... A good starting point would be a look at the study guides available on this site for practically every text.

=If you are writing about a CHARACTER:=

What facts do we know about the character? How are they described on their first appearance? What key events are they involved in? Are there any symbols or motifs associated with them? Are they believable characters or ciphers? Are they associated with any particular theme? Are there some key quotations which you could include and explain the significance of? IF YOU ARE WORKING ON WORLD LIT OR PAPER 2: are there characters from the other text which bear comparison or contrast? How?


 * AN EXAMPLE:**

//STANLEY KOWALSKI: Two men come around the corner, Stanley Kowalski and Mitch. They are about twenty-eight or thirty years old, roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes. Stanley carries his bowling jacket and a red-stained package from a butcher's.'//

By itself, this is useless. It needs some explanation. Let's try again...
//STANLEY KOWALSKI: Two men come around the corner, Stanley Kowalski and Mitch. They are about twenty-eight or thirty years old, roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes. Stanley carries his bowling jacket and a red-stained package from a butcher's.'//

Stanley's first appearance: he is accompanied, thus sociable, perhaps as a contrast to Blanche's lonely entrance into the play. Dressed in clothes associated with manual labour; working class. Bowling is a motif associated with Stanley; a typically masculine pastime, it establishes the representation of him as a 'man's man''. The bloody package emphasises further his masculinity, taking it to the point of caveman-like savagery; he is a hunter. Possibly foreshadows his propensity to violence and his later 'hunting' of Blanche. The red - again, bright colours are often associated with Stanley - contrasts with the white associated with Blanche, suggesting both that Stanley has more passion, vivacity, energy and danger, and that there will be some sort of conflict between the two. His name, 'Kowalski' hints that he is of recent immigrant stock; again, there is a contrast with Blanche's old-world French name. Note also that his name is given in full ('Stanley', not 'Stan' - unlike Mitch, whose boyish name suggests his immature attitudes, perhaps.) Stanley is clearly going to be a dominant male character in the same vein as Oedipus or Othello, who are also given authority in their opening scenes.

This would be of use!
=If you are witing about a THEME:=

Which characters are associated with the theme? How do they help to convey it? Is the author's standpoint on the theme evident? Does one of the characters, perhaps, offer the authorial voice? Which key quotations help convey this theme? Again, they need explaining. Does the theme, or something similar (or contrasting) appear in any of the other World Lit or Paper 2 texts? How could they be compared?

=If you are writing about a point of STYLE:=


What key examples of this particular stylistic feature can you offer and analyse? Are certain characters associated with it? Does the style help reinforce the themes or establish character? Can we draw comparisons or contrasts with any other World Lit or Paper 2 texts?

