MODULE C: Language and Values
Elective 2: Language and Gender
In this elective students explore through texts drawn from a range of media the idea that part of the role of language is to express and create the social identity of the speaker, of which gender is an important element. Students investigate, challenge and evaluate the ways in which language can be used to construct, perform or conceal masculine or feminine aspects of identity and their associated values through characters, voices and contexts. Language may express gender, but it also may provide a means of escaping strict limitations of conventional roles and values. There is a dynamic spectrum of possibilities and great flexibility in texts, as composers create voices and characters, and as characters themselves explore and challenge language and gender codes. Texts provide a playful and experimental space in which composers explore questions of identity through their language.
In this elective students are required to study at least three of the prescribed texts as well as other texts of their own choosing. In their responding and composing they explore, analyse, experiment with and critically evaluate their prescribed texts and a range of other examples in this elective. Texts should be drawn from a range of contexts and media and should reflect the interrelationships between language, gender and value