This is almost like an identical assessment task I did for extension English-except ours was a bit tougher, it was like a 7 minute talk on a related text and another 7 minutes on creative-seriously the hardest assessment task of the year-but having said that, it is not impossible
well, I am not sure about the philosopher you are doing and I am not aware of the prescribed texts you are doing as well-but arguing the point 'we experience through touch' is definitely impossible to relate-after the bomb, at the heart of it, it is ways of thinking-philosophical, scientific, religious, economic-and your philosopher must relate to one of these areas and of course, must have a valid relationship to having influenced these thinking in Cold War era-i.e. it is no use proposing a Romantic philosopher like Rosseau because that is totally out of the context of the module
-I think a very good philosopher to do, but unfortunately, is also one that is likely to be done immensely by your classmates, are Jean Paul Satre-related to philosophical ways-you might potentially find a philosopher who influenced religious ways as well-but for Satre-basically had a very famous lecture called 'existentialism is humanism'-where his definition of existentialism had an immense influence on the Cold War literature-another philosopher you can consider is Albert Camus who wrote the famous short story/essay 'The Myth of Sisyphus'
existentialism is basically the philosophy that individuals confront a sense of confusion and disorientation in a meaningless/absurd world-meaningless because of the destructive nature of scientific developments such as nuclear weaponry which could destroy human existence in seconds-and as such, individuals must self-construct a significance for their existence-i.e. rationalise their existence-and one of Satre's most famous quotes 'existence precedes essence' encapsulates the existentialist philosophy(Hope I didn't get the quote the wrong way around-off the top of my head-might want to google it to make sure
) -and you can kind of interrelate this disorientation with the religious aspects-i.e. people lost faith in God-many did, some fervent believed-so there is like a strong secular divide, many questioned if God exist, why would he have led so many people suffer-and this compounded the anxiety to search for life-affirmation rather than deriving such affirmation through the simplistic belief in the existence of a benevolent divinity which has been destroyed by the amoral atrocities in WWII and in preceding conflicts
-So if you want certain marks-I significantly suggest even if you don't do the two philosophers I have suggested-you do a different philosopher-I think the fact you are not confident how this can relate heavily suggest you shouldn't do it
-presentation tips would depend on whether you use things like Prezi or you want to go with the more traditional power point presentation(I went for the latter one since I had only like 2 weeks to do the given assignment), regardless-particularly for the latter-my top tips are
1)make sure you have a consistent background or formatting-don't try to use different backgrounds for each slide and don't try to have different fonts for each slide-you can have variation on your transitions, but don't make it too diverse-otherwise people will get dizzy watching your presentation
2)make sure you have less text on the screen than you talk about in your speech-your screen should be an outline of your points-you are not supposed to put a speech transcript-but exceptions are when you put extract from philosopher-and you can talk about different parts of it in your speech
3) make sure you have a catchy opening and conclusion-better if they link-perhaps consider a long quote from the philosopher you are using that relates to the ways of thinking of after the bomb-so that you can have the first part at the start of your presentation and last part at the end...just an idea
4)remember to have pictures whenever possible-keep the audience engaged-whether it is clip art or actual pictures related to after the bomb...
5)make sure there is a strong contrast between your text colour and background so it is easy to read-also make sure you don't have curly text-far too difficult to read
tips to relieve your stress
1)you have plenty of time so don't stress-stop panicking and avoid procrastinating
2)anymore questions-welcome to pm me to ask
3)don't ask around to see what philosophers other people are doing-it will panic you unnecessarily-just focus on your choice and make sure you are doing the best you can
4)you will have an edge if you have a clear title for each of your slides-as well as illustrating some actual examples from the texts you have studied in class of examples where this philosopher has actually influenced literature of the time-and technique analysis might be considered-brief if it is a part of marking criteria
-for now, stop thinking about the essay, focus on your presentation-pm me for further details-but summarising, essentially in after the bomb essays you are focusing on how composers reflect, critique, respond to their context-expressed through different ways of thinking and techniques-so context is actually slightly more important than cramming techniques in-might want to check out my other recent post in after the bomb to help you further
Best wishes-don't panic-you will be fine
) I know you can do it-but you just have to start doing it
