English Literature and Extension Resources AI2 - English and Literature Extension Teacher Resources

What is a complex transformation?

Task description from syllabus

2.5.2 Summative internal assessment 2 (IA2): Extended response — complex transformation and defence (20%) Description

Students select a literary text suited to the demands of the assessment instrument* (and different from the text selected for internal assessment 1). They select and apply aspects and strategies from text-centred and world-context-centred theoretical approaches to intervene in this selected base text, or part of the text, to create a complex transformation. In a complex transformation, the rewritten text invites alternative and/or resistant readings other than those the base text seems to invite. Alternative and resistant readings require students to move beyond merely inverting the base text’s ideologies*. Transformations must relate to repositioning the reader in a purposeful way* and must be theoretically defensible.

Notes:

1. suited to the demands of the assessment instrument* My reading of this is that the the text should be short and underpinned by readily identifiable 'unjust' ideology in terms of race, gender, class, the environment, age, sexuality etc.

From IA2 sample QCAA instrument instruction: Carefully consider your choice of literary text, or part of a literary text, (e.g. short story, fairy tale, poem, scene from a play, graphic novel) to ensure it is suited to the demands of this assessment instrument, and identify aspects of the base text that allow opportunities for intervention.

2. Alternative and resistant readings require students to move beyond merely inverting the base text’s ideologies* My reading of this is that students should not just invert binaries by making a man weak and a woman strong, for instance. The transformed text should be underpinned by socially just ideology which is theoretically defensible (in terms of race, gender, class, the environment, age, sexuality etc.)

From QCAA high-level annotated sample response :

Deconstructive theorist Rob Pope (2001) maintains that: The role of deconstructive thinkers is not simply to invert hierarchies… but to reopen the play of differences around these terms. (p.131) His case is strengthened by Margery Hourihan’s (1997) argument that “subversion not inversion is the more socially responsible path for textual intervention work” (Hourihan in Johnson, 1997, p.52). To create meaning independent from binary thinking, Derrida puts the binary “under erasure”, allowing the privileged term to remain in place, but partially undermining it to affect a shift in reader positioning (Derrida in Pope, 2001, p.190).

From a student response:

I needed to use careful consideration when altering the binary oppositions within the text. ‘Flipping’ the binaries to make the previously marginalised discourse dominant (Johnson, 2001) has an adverse effect to the transformation process. Hourihan (1997) states that “If you simply turn it (a binary opposition)on its head, it is still a dualism”. Thus, I needed to ensure that I did not simply depict the male as destructive and the woman as rational, as this would still privilege one gender over another.

FOR EACH SAMPLE IA2 RESPONSE BELOW, CONSIDER WHETHER A COMPLEX TRANSFORMATION HAS BEEN ACHIEVED.

3. a purposeful way* My reading of this is in a socially just way which is theoretically defensible.... what do you think?

For further insights see "What is a complex transformation" and Writing a complex transformation" in documents below. Be aware these were created in response to the 2011 syllabus.

Text and World-centred theories - Key Quotations from Sara Suyen.docx2021 IA2 Draft.pdf

IA2 contributed response 2020 (2).pdf

IA2 contributed response 2020.docx

IA2 Sample 1 old syllabus.pdf

IA2 Sample 2 old syllabus.pdf

IA2 draft response old syllabus.docx

Exemplar IA2 student response from 2014.docx

Task 2 exemplar BGGS old syllabus.docx

QSA Task 2 exemplar old syllabus.pdf

IA 2 Introductory Lessons.docx

What is a Complex Transformation.docx

Invited, Alternative and Resistant Reading.docx