ENGLISH EXTENSION 2 — Short Story

Exemplar Sample Title: Voicings: A Postmodern Short Story MARKING CRITERIA Textual Integrity • The short story demonstrates it is highly original in a number of ways. It

juxtaposes the fictional and the realistic characters to comment on the links between music and literature. The combination of the ideas and the setting of New Orleans and Jazz and the two time periods are highly imaginative. It is highly original in the way it uses the lens of Japan, a culture not typically associated with

jazz and is in some ways antipathetic to this musical form, in order to illustrate the essential nature of this musical genre.

• This short story is highly original in its treatment of the medium; it does not slavishly accept the conventions of postmodernism, but rather plays with them in the way it comments on its use of the authorial intrusion and intertexts.

• The short story demonstrates its fluent integration of meaning, values and form in the way it conflates the character’s search for a musical voice with the writer’s own search for a voice to tell his own story.

• The short story is clearly sustained and coherent because even though it uses fragments there is a clear sense of purpose that drives the entire text. The choices of fragments are deliberate, relevant and pertinent. An example of this is the second epigraph about the ripples on the Thames and the candidate’s discussion of this in the Reflection Statement.

Quality of insights and concepts, developed through independent investigation, and communication of developed ideas • The investigation is explicit in the short story and in the Reflection Statement. The

student has clearly researched jazz, New Orleans and Japan. The reader immediately feels the world of the text is authentic, particularly in the evocation of Japanese corporate and workplace culture. Yet while the investigation of New Orleans in the 1920s is explicit, the student manages to playfully undercut their adherence to the postmodern convention of incorporating intertexts in his

assessment of a history of New Orleans jazz: “Who writes this stuff honestly?” (p 20)

• The candidate communicates the developed ideas with flair (‘flair’ meaning style and perceptive understanding) and demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of postmodernism, not a reductive view which ticks off conventions. The student has reflected on what they have learnt about postmodernism and not accepted a glib definition which is then routinely applied in a work of fiction. The work still offers those more traditional aspects of fiction that the student finds satisfying, such as the centrality of the plot and strong characterization, but can still accept and explore the ambiguity of fiction in the oddly discordant but resolved conclusion. Part of the text’s sophistication is how such an ending follows the conventions of jazz music; a key concept for the Major Work.

• The focus of work is clearly articulated and sustained, especially in the Reflection Statement. “Voicings is a postmodern story, which for me, is about the earnest search for origins and identity in a postmodern world. It is also about how the search itself, rather than the outcome, is of ultimate value.”

Manipulation of features that shape meaning and response, and quality of engagement • The work demonstrates a highly effective manipulation of language, technical

skills, conventions and medium for the intended audience and the purpose: the epigraph tells the reader that they will have to be active and will have to “participate”, the authorial intrusion beginning on p 29 is integral to the purpose of the short story, and not a self-conscious trick. The student decides to revert to a single voice and the discordant result reflects “the only way to end a Jazz piece.”

• The work demonstrates conscious and successful shaping of meaning to engage an audience on p 32. Here the student uses specific and detailed imagery to describe a Japanese shrine and then undercuts itself in a self-conscious intrusion. “How grandiose. And that’s more than enough of this pompous poetry.” The sense of humour and the use of an intensely personal first person voice work to engage the reader ie the anecdote of the sale of the three guitar picks where the customers then angle for a discount.

• The short story is inventive in the variety of forms it employs from advertisements, to photographs, journal entries, highly image-driven description and the invented album notes.

The quality of the Reflection Statement • The Reflection Statement addresses all the criteria from p 31 of the syllabus in an

intellectual and sophisticated manner.

• The Reflection Statement articulates audience in a sophisticated manner by explaining how different audiences have constructed different meanings from the fragments (p 39).

• The candidate confidently and concisely articulates how concepts are realized in the final product. They explain on p 30 how they have followed the example of recent postmodern writers of questioning certain postmodern values by asserting strong story lines and offering some sense of closure. “This sense of conflict is reflected in the Narrator’s decision to revert to a single voice and in John McLaughlin’s return to traditional jazz with the help of Mr Tanaka.”

The Reflection Statement is highly self-referential and the student demonstrates that they are incredibly self aware about process, which leads to a rich and sophisticated reflection. The candidate on p#41 explains how they have illustrated their view of the legitimacy of postmodernism and modernism through McLaughlin’s initially unproductive obsession with Barthgate’s 1934 recording.