Infocus

Infocus is a service from the State Library of New South Wales that links HSC students with HSC relevant articles from its collection.

See library staff for copies of the following articles:

 Emily Dickinson

2781 Dickinson’s A Narrow Fellow in the Grass
This article examines Emily Dickinson’s “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” and the language tools employed in this poem.  Discussion centres on the vivid description of a snake and the ambiguous attitude toward it from the subject which are shaped through Dickinson’s creative and complex use of language.

1465 The Gothic mode: ‘Tis so appalling – it exhilarates-’
Emily Dickinson’s Gothic poems explore the realms of death, the influence of people’s subconscious desires, and the socially approved role of women. In dealing with these subjects, Dickinson questions the social and moral order of the world in which she lived. This article examines many of Dickinson’s Gothic poems including ‘l Years had been from Home’, ‘Because l could not stop for Death’ and ‘I heard a Fly buzz – when I died’.

1466 Death
Death influenced Emily Dickinson’s life from an early age and this is reflected in her poetry. Her attitude towards death is one of curiousity as she observed its influence on both herself and the people around her. This extract focuses on the representation of death in Dickinson’s poetry. It includes references to many of her poems, including ‘l heard a Fly buzz – when l died’.

1468 Doing without: Dickinson as Yankee Woman Poet
Emily Dickinson led a restricted life, and she distilled her attitudes of economy into her poetry. This article focusses on the social and cultural limitations that she lived within and explores how this influenced her poetry.

 Peter Skrzynecki

1825 Spiritual Questions/Peter Skrzynecki talks about death, religion, nature and the use of poetry
A collection of two articles about the Australian poet Peter Skrzynecki. The first is a review of Easter Sunday, a collection of poems. The second article is an interview with Skrzynecki in which he describes how changes in his life have influenced his poetry.

1824 Poets Today/Immigrant Chronicle
The first of these two articles discusses up and coming poets in 1970 including Peter Skrzynecki, Bruce Dawe and Roger MacDonald. The second article is a 1976 review of Skrzynecki’s collection of poems, Immigrant Chronicle.

Mark Raphael Baker – ‘The Fiftieth Gate’

2278 Review of the fiftieth gate
This detailed review includes comments from the author about his writing process combining interviews with his parents and historical research about the Holocaust.

2279 A collage of memory
This review of The fiftieth gate criticises Mark Baker’s use of Jewish symbolism but gives credit for his mixture of ‘intergenerational voices’, comedy and suspense. Bloch compares this book to other memoirs of the Holocaust in Australian literature.

Jane Yolen – Briar Rose

1268 Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Briar Rose entwines the two stories of Sleeping Beauty and the holocaust. This review discusses the structure of the novel and finds it to be ‘poignant, passionate and personal … beautifully composed, precise and painful in its delivery.’

The Castle

1859 “The Castle”, the garbage bin and the high voltage tower
Coming from a working class background Lorraine Mortimer was suspicious that The Castle would treat its subjects with condescension. She compares The Castle with other Australian ‘surburban grotesque’ films including They’re a Weird Mob, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Sweetie, Strictly Ballroom and Muriel’s Wedding. Much of the pleasure she found in watching The Castle lay in the familiarity of the characters portrayed in the film.

1858 Mr Kerrigan’s Castle
Critic Evan Williams ponders on the success of “The Castle” and examines why so many people identified with the film.

Billy Elliot

2218 Lives transformed by leaps and bounds
In the coming of age film Billy Elliot, the eleven year old son of a coalminer finds self-expression and freedom through dance. This review examines the exploration of masculinity and father-son relatonships as portrayed in the film. Also discussed is Bootmen, another film where dance is a means of transcending working-class backgrounds and difficult circumstances.

2219 Billy Elliot
This article reviews Stephen Daldry’s film Billy Elliot which tells the story of a young boy growing up in the industrial north of England who dreams of becoming a dancer. It discusses the film’s exploration of contemporary masculinity and also draws comparisons to other British films with similar themes such as The Full Monty.

2220 Everybody out and on to the floor
In this review of Stephen Daldry’s film Billy Elliot, the author establishes the view that the film is a hybrid of realism and the classic feel-good movie. He discusses the political and social background of the story as well as addressing the question of Billy’s sexuality. He also comments on the use of music and choreography in the film.

Richard III

2713 Richard III
This extract discusses solitude as an integral theme in Shakespeare’s Richard III. Discussion centres on the character of Richard III including his physical appearance and relationships. The language used throughout his soliloquies is also analysed. The author argues that Richard’s rejection of a social and moral code leads to his downfall and the heroic individual status he aspires to is never fully achieved