Irene Papas as the widow in search of her goat in the kephenion in "Zorba The Greek

The Cretan Widow Looks For Her Goat In The Kephenion

Scroll down once there.

Final advice for the unit 3 English Literature exam for Wednesday!

For section A of Unit 3 - The unseen poem

Remember where the marks are for each assessment objective: AO1 10 marks and 30 marks for AO2. So language form and structure are all important here.


Read the poem least twice to try to understand it. Look for where the first sentence ends to get a leg up on its meaning.  What and where is the poem's central tension? (Its contradiction - stretching - the interplay of conflicting elements?)

Think about titles careful as they will help you with your understanding of the poem. Are they literal, ironic, etc.?

For words/phrases you do not understand, read around them their contexts should give you clues as their meaning.


Use CAAP to try to get hold of the poem's meaning: Context, Attitude (tone/s) Audience and Purpose.


Then use FLIRT (Form and Structure, Language, Imagery, Rhythm and Rhyme, Theme(s) and Tone) to annotate the poem.  Some of these may be more appropriate than others.


Make a plan! So you can add to it when necessary as you write.


Remember to use the Point - Evidence - Comment   or  Assert - Quote - Comment  approach when writing  your answer.


Begin with an introduction which sets out what the poem is about and how it is communicated. (i.e. first or third person and nominate its form, if you can do so.)


Write a proper conclusion in which you sum up or restate your main ideas by answering the question again.


Proof read for errors in meaning, punctuation, apostrophes, capital letters, etc.

For Section B

Go over those booklets I gave you. There is lots of terminology and ideas in them!

For the Gatsby, Corelli, Duffy question you need to read the prompt carefully as the AOs will be targeted in its words and phrases. Read the rest of the question and make sure you pay careful attention to the AO 1 - 10 marks ( Understanding the texts, writing the essay and using appropriate literary terms.) Annotate the question: circle or underline key words. Use marker pens if necessary to make things stand out.

The key AOs and marks for this question are:
AO2 -  10 marks    Language, Forms and Structure.AO1     10 marks    Understanding the text, writing about them and using literary terminology.

AO3 -  20 marks  Comparing and contrasting, using your own arguments/ interpretation of texts and showing awareness of other readings. Modern readers, etc.

AO4 -  Modern readers and how these texts would have been read by others over time. Historical and cultural contexts, includes, philosophy ideologies, etc.

As the question is so far away from where you are expected to begin your answer in the booklets, write out the key exam theme and how it is focused:

Relationships: texts which confront the reader with powerful emotions.

Read the prompt carefully and deconstruct it for its AOs Notice that it often has an AO2 words and  phrases like "presentation" or "how successful is the writers in engaging" is inttended to get you to to think about the writers' techniques in evoking these powerful emotions in parts/passages of the texts you have studied. You should then cross over from AO2 to AO3-4 by using the AO2 words, etc. as a springboard into your AOs 3-4 points. By  noticing that CCM is a polyphonic novel you are commenting on its structure (AO2) but by arguing how its use of polyphony is postmodern and that its structure represents a more complicated sense of reality for readers, you have crossed over into AO4.  "Historiographic fiction" is an AO2 term for the novel's form; but you can cross over into AO4 by explaining how for modern readers this is a popular form which blends real events with fictitious characters to arrive at the a "truthful representation of reality." The "truth" in "The Great Gatsby" is mediated through one narrator, Nick Carraway, who filters it through several frame narratives within his own narrative. Note how he says he is writing about Gatsby early in Chapter 1. Similarly, characters who are writing (Dr (Ianis, Pelagia, history and the past, Carlo's testament, Mandras' letters) are also present in CCM. Truth and reality is arrived at in different ways through each texts'  readers. Also for AO4, early readers of The Great Gatsby in 1925 had no idea that there would be a a depression just a few years later. The early reviews suggest as much.  In our time, we are only too familiar with the consequences of credit, corruption and waste. Indeed the theme of waste connects the texts: wasted lives and love, wasted wealth, corruption; what the Greeks are going through today influences how modern readers will read these texts. They will also be aware of the consequences of the pressures now on our own banks not just in this country but throughout the world. We are living with the consequences of greed, power-hungry melgamaniacs (rich bankers) has left us with: 1930s style austerity and poverty.

 

Select passages or events from chapters and make a plan. If you include Duffy you could make a chart-like plan. Otherwise a like down the middle on a page will help  you compare. You can use passages, evidence from elsewhere in the texts to show you have an overview but it should not be at the expense of your overall argument. It is that overall argument which should have your overview. Use themes to help you compare and contrast: i.e. honour, love, waste, position of women, etc.


Consider relevant themes which will help you compare and contrast each text. For example, various forms of love, change, honour, education, the position of women, the past, writing in its various forms, the underlaying Greek mythology and Christian imagery which underpins the CCM. Remember that the newly rich, former Roman slave, Trimalchio, lays behind the representation of Jay Gatsby. Other themes can be found be looking at past posts on this blog. See the Corelli link on the right for past posts.

If you go for the blunderbuss approach by trying to say lots of mini arguments you may risk depth at the expense of breadth.

You need an overall argument and three or four supporting arguments to back it up.

Use terminology where appropriate. For example, third person narrator, imagery, lexis, contrast, parallel characters, foregrounding,  etc. Much of this will  carry over into AO2.

Assert - Quote - Comment    should be your method.  Always ask yourself, "Have I proved my point?)

Don't allow yourself to end up telling the story. The authors have done it much better than you can! If you are doing that you are not arguing and using evidence. Check that your points are relevant to the question.

Revisit the prompt and its key words, regularly and use them to show that that your answer is relevant in a frequent manner.

Use the anchor text method by beginning with your favoured text and then comparing from that. Do this if it helps you.

A brief introduction is fine but set out your lines of argument and identify the passages or events you intend using to construct your argument. You could, perhaps lead with the theme that connects the texts from your question. Be prepared to evaluate - "how far you would agree," etc. You can contradict to an extent if you wish.  Use a third person approach. Avoid "I" until the end of your essay where it might find its way into your conclusion.

Write a proper conclusion which sums up your main argument.

Proof read for sense, punctuation, apostrophes, spellings, capitals, etc.

This is your chance to prove  what you know and can do. It is a test of your skills as an A2 student of English Literature and you are expected to give and analytical - and emotional response.

Good luck and enjoy.

Frank

What have the Romans ever done for us?

Key terms for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (Chapter 1)

In what ways is the novel Postmodern? (AOs 2+4)

The post modern setting – on the fringes/margins of Greece and the Western World.

Prompt: what have the Romans ever done for us?
The scene is from Monty Python's film, "The Life of Brian" (1979). Reg., of The People's Front of Judea, rails against the big government of the Romans and how they have done nothing but cause problems.

Prompt: what have the Greeks ever done for us?

Philosophy – Architecture – The Gods, Poetry, Drama, Great Stories, Culture, Democracy – Greek culture is an integral part of our own: BT vans and Pan playing his pipes.

This novel’s form – historiographic fiction – a mix of historical facts and real settings with fictitious characters.

Polyphonic novel – “many voices” (viewpoints).

De Bernieres experiments with viewpoint, language, playscript, chapter titles, form, characters, settings, etc. (i.e. the title for chapter 1 is set out in an eighteenth century style.) He also teases the reader by holding back the entrance of Captain Corelli until page 191 (new edition).

Of course, there are other ways in which this novel is postmodern.

An extraordinary tale of escape from a British submarine that had sunk off War time Kefalonia

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15959067

Louis de Bernieres investigated Capes's story. It can be listened to for the next five days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017mx3x

The ancient Greek subtext for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Also the Roman influence in The Great Gatsby. Both act as historical-literary contexts (AO4)

The ancient Greek subtext for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Also the Roman influence in The Great Gatsby. Both act as a historical-literary contexts (AO4)


Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is replete with references to ancient Greece with several characters’ actions paralleling characters from Homer’s grand narratives, The Odyssey and The Iliad.

For instance, Mandras’s harsh journey home from fighting the Italians and German parallels that of Odysseus . Structurally De Bernieres text is built upon several parrallels through characters, chapters, and the Greek, classical past.

To a degree Captain Corelli also parallels Odysseus’s voyages when he goes abroad for so long after leaving the island.




Penelope weaving a shroud for her father-in-law, which she picked apart at night, to keep her unwanted suitors at bay

  Penelope and Pelagia (puh-NEL-uh-pee) noun: faithful wife.
Like Odysseus’s wife, Pelagia is left behind waiting for her lover to return. Penelope waits for Odysseus (Roman name, Ulysses) for decades!

De Bernieres uses element from Greek tragedy in his form and structure of his novel. For instance, Pelagia’s lament in Chapter 67 the long soliloquies of Greek characters from ancient tragedies in which Pelagia considers her situation. In Greek tragedy the action stops and the character’s problems are discussed directly with themselves. Of course, audiences and the reader shares what is going on in the character’s mind. Pelagia’s Lament pastiches this aspect of Greek tragedy.

If you wish to go further into this look for a translation of a Greek tragedy: Euripedes’ Medea for example, or Aeschylus’s Agamemmon, and look particularly at the speeches of Medea and Clytemnestra. Then compare the style of their speeches with Pelagia’s in Chapter 67.

Etymology
From Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus in Greek mythology. She waited 20 years for her husband's return from the Trojan War (ten years of war, and ten years on his way home). She kept her many suitors at bay by telling them she would marry them when she had finished weaving her web, a shroud for her father-in-law. She wove the web during the day only to unravel it during the night

Odysseus
Odysseus is the hero of The Odyssey, the classic tale by the ancient bard Homer. The Odyssey tells of Odysseus's 10-year struggle to return from the Trojan War to his home in Ithaca. A manly warrior at Troy (he was among those who hid in the famous Trojan Horse), Odysseus is cunning and resourceful, but also loaded with his share of pride and human failings. On his travels he survives encounters with many of ancient literature's most famous characters, from the monstrous one-eyed Cyclops to the tempting (and deadly) Sirens. He is by turns aided and thwarted by the whimsies of Zeus, Poseidon and other Greek gods. After 20 years away (10 for the war and 10 for the trip back) he returns to his long-waiting wife, Penelope, and slays the greedy suitors who have besieged her. Odysseus's mighty deeds and all-too-human weaknesses have made him a favourite with scholars and storytellers down through the years. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses was one of the best-known poems of the 1800s, and James Joyce's groundbreaking novel Ulysses used Homer's adventures as the inspiration for a modern-day tale set in Dublin. Of course, de Bernieres parallels this character first with Mandras and then with Captain Corelli.

A modern painting of The Feast of Trimalchio in which he is disinterestedly looking away on the left

The Great Gatsby and Trimalchio
There is a single mention of Trimalchio in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby as his showy parties and background parallels that of Gatsby. Trimalchio and Trimalchio in West Egg were among Fitzgerald's working titles for the novel. Chapter Seven begins, "It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night - and, as obscurely as it began, his career as Trimalchio was over."

Trimalchio is a character in the Roman novel The Satyricon by Petronius. He plays a part only in the section titled Cena Trimalchionis (The Banquet of Trimalchio). Trimalchio is a freedman who through hard work and perseverance has attained power and wealth. His full name is Gaius Pompeius Trimalchio Maecenatianus; the references to Pompey and Maecenas in his name serve to enhance his ostentatious character. His wife's name is Fortunata, a former slave and chorus girl. Trimalchio is known for throwing lavish dinner parties, where his numerous servants bring course after course of exotic delicacies, such as live birds sewn up inside a pig, live birds inside fake eggs which the guests have to 'collect' themselves and a dish to represent every sign of the zodiac.

The Satyricon has a lengthy description of Trimalchio's proposed tomb (71-72) which is incredibly ostentatious and lavish. This tomb was to be designed by a well-known tomb-builder called Habinnas, who was among the revellers present at Trimalchio's feast. He sought to impress his guests—the Roman nouveau riche, mostly freedmen—with the ubiquitous excesses seen throughout his dwelling. By the end of the banquet, Trimalchio's drunken showiness leads to the entire household acting out his funeral, all for his own amusement and egotism.

Below is a modern painting called, “The Feast of Trimalchio.” It captures the nouveau rich Trimalchio throwing an unusual party trying to impress other freedmen.

Some references and text extracts were also drawn from Wikipedia for this post.

An essay chart with assessment objectives for "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "The Great Gatsby"

I had to make this into a Gif file which leaves it a little unclear.

N.B. The chart was mainly intended for the following question - but I added to it so the chart would be generic enough to take in some other questions, too. However, you should be aware that it is your knowledge of the texts and your ability to select suitable chapters/passages/events that is more important than any chart. The essay questions will test your skills in answering the assessment objectives and 3-4 carry double marks!

June 2010

3  Relationships: texts which confront the reader with powerful emotion

(a) “Writers are at their most interesting when they present readers with emotionally
      intense relationships.”

How far do you agree with this statement? In your response, you should comment
on and analyse the connections and comparisons between at least two texts you
have studied.

You must ensure that at least one text is a post-1990 text, as indicated by * in the
list above.

Note that you should demonstrate what it means to be considering texts as a
modern reader, in a modern context, and that other readers at other times may
well have had other responses.

Click on the chart to enlarge

Final advice for the prose question in for Edexcel's Unit3 Exam

The texts we studied were: Captain Corelli's Mandolin, The Great Gatsby and, to a much lesser extent, Rapture.

Remember, that the weighting of marks are for the last two assessment objectives:

AO1 - 10
AO2 - 10
AO3 - 20
AO4 - 20

Do not go for the blunderbuss approach by trying to write about everything. You would be much better selecting chapters and then passages from those chapters for comparing and contrasting these texts around the theme of "Relationships." Remember that the theme isn't simply "Relationships" but it is "Relationships which confront readers with powerful emotions." This last part should be your clue to reading the question(s) carefully and finding chapters or passages which enable you to do just that! The chapters can be short.  And you can choose passages within your chosen chapters. There's nothing wrong in choosing a letter by Carlo or even the poem at the beginning of the novel, if it fits what you need to write about.

You could also briefly justify your choices by referring to particular events how they affect characters, etc. in the novels, poems.

Whatever you do BE RELEVANT. Tie your points every time to the question's key words or phrases.


There is nothing to stop you ranging across the texts for your quotations but when you use focussed pieces of text, of say several paragraphs, you will something meaty to discuss. It is far easier to discuss the writer's method's (AO2) when you are focussing on a passage from a chapter. Then, you can discuss the question's key words and phrases with the text's form, viewpoint, imagery, language, symbolism, lexis, etc AND then develop your points using the POINT - EVIDENCE - ANALYSIS/COMMENT method. In some analysis/comments you may be able to discuss how OTHER READERS might interpret the passage; in other ANALYSIS/COMMENTs you may be able to write about HISTORICAL CONTEXTS; sometimes you may even be to put both together and examine how modern readers might read/interpret your chosen passages.

Modern Readings of the Texts - over time (AO4)


When The Great Gatsby was published around 1925 only the most perceptive readers would have seen excessive consumerism for what it was: deadening, leading the cynicism. Newspaper reviews when the novel came out were lukewarm, at best. The novel didn't sell and the Great Crash and Depression which followed were still years away. Readers in our time might draw parallels with the run-up to the crash in 2008, when house prices and the stock market rose and along with it conspicuous consumption. There are fewer stories around now of city slickers spending £300 a bottle on champagne and burning cash in restaurants.
But our coming depression may be even greater than that witnessed in the 1930s.  Modern feminist readers will draw their own conclusions over the representation of women in Fitzgerald's text.

Serbia apologises for the Srebrenica massacre

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (1993)
Time hasn't simply moved on since this novel was published: the world has changed utterly since. The reason the Italians and their "whores" were massacred in the novel was because no one saw fit to intervene. The western powers did not want to lose anyone in coming to the rescue of up to 10,000 Italians who, only a little while before, were on the opposing side. If you go to the Cephalonia today there is a never ending stream of Italian visitors who drive up to the hill-top memorial of their compatriots. A similar massacre took of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs less than two years after the novel was published in 1995, Srebrenica_massacre . Many of the town's women were raped and the the little Dutch force of "peace-keeper" were ineffective. Everyone in the West knew that when this enclave was overrun by the Serb this would atrocity would happen. But the West let it happen because it did not have the will do DO anything about it. No one wanted to risk their soldiers lives for ethnic muslims in Bosnian. Today one of the main perpetrators, the Serb commander Ratko_Mladić has only recently been caught and sent for trial to the Hague, ironically, part of Holland.

After 9-11 the West lost its taste for non interference around the world and losing soldiers and was less likely to allow people to be massacred. Earlier, during this Arab Spring, the people of Benghazi faced being massacred by Colonel Gaddafi's forces. Readers of de Bernieres novel today would bring these experiences to their reading, if they were informed about events around them today.

There's so much more but no time to discuss it all. For instance, de Berneries and Carol Ann Duffy's representation of gay love would have been impossible before the 1990s. Even so, some think that de Bernieres's representation of Carlo in some respects is somewhat stereotypical.

For AO4 the Greek and Roman literary contexts for De Berniere's and Fitzgerald's texts should be meat and drink for comments on passages from the texts where they are significant. I'll upload my recent handout on these contexts tomorrow.

Benito Mussolini on Fakebook for "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"

Benito's page on Fakebook

But on Facebook the republican figure who was the political inspiration for Dr Iannis: EleftheriosVenizelos 

"Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and "The Great Gatsby"

Remember that the share of the  marks for the Edexcel Exam for Unit 3 are as follows:

AO1 - 10 marks.  Understanding the texts, using key terms and producing a coherent, written argument in your essay.

AO2 - 10 marks.  Applying Language Form and Structure as relevant to your argument.

AO3 - 20 marks. Making connections and comparisons between the texts; applying your own and different interpretations of the texts to your chosen passages/chapters/poems, etc. as appropriate.

AO 4 - 20 marks. Applying the historical and literary contexts and the ability to examine how the texts were received by different readers over time from when  published to our time.

These are links to posts which address several AOs on Captain Corelli's Mandolin and The Great Gatsby .


Themes and ideas which connect the novels:

http://goforgold-dog.blogspot.com/search?q=captain+corelli%27s+mandolin

The modern context for CCM

http://goforgold-dog.blogspot.com/2011/01/captain-corellis-mandolin-ao4.html

Various posts on CCM

http://goforgold-dog.blogspot.com/search?q=captain+corelli%27s+mandolin

More notes with concept maps for CCM

http://goforgold-dog.blogspot.com/search?q=captain+corelli%27s+mandolin&updated-max=2009-01-22T21%3A16%3A00Z&max-results=20

Even older notes for CCM but still relevant, even if for the old syllabus

http://goforgold-dog.blogspot.com/search?q=captain+corelli%27s+mandolin&updated-max=2007-09-06T01%3A08%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=20

The Great Gatsby notes and links to other resources
http://goforgold-dog.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Great%20Gatsby

Themes and ideas around relationships in Captain Corelli's Mandolin and The Great Gatsby for AO3

Themes and ideas which connect the novels

The theme of relationships and its sub themes


Remember that when you select appropriate chapters and passages from these chapters you need to focus on relationships which confront readers with powerful emotions!  Consider emotive climaxes or passages in which characters reflect on events in which emotions are running high.

• honour/dishonour
• education (Tom and Nick - New Haven (Yale - like a club/status and self education for Dr Iannis/Pelagia and Mandras
• cynicism and shallowness - maintained in conversations early in Gatsby
• education
• various forms of love and friendship
• music and having fun
• betrayal and deceit
• the high moral tone of both Carraway and de Bernieres’s third person narrator
• the position of women
• communities
• change and characters. Nick Carraway develops and changes as he approaches 30 and uses different symbols.
• writing
• waste - Correlli’s and Pelagia’s relationship/ Gatsby and Daisy’s. Unfulfilled relationships. Whether Daisy was worth what Gatsby was prepared to do for her.
• death and loss
• wealth and deprivation and the effects of each
• idealism and materialism and how they affect characters
• patriotism
• gangsterism/  death from outside: Hitler/
• geography of place
• the mystique of the eponymous characters
• the narrators who admire and describe them.
• modernism and post modernism.
• what others have you noticed?

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin AO4 Historical Context

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin  AO4 Historical Context

The international context in the early 1990s

The brutal wars in the Balkans, particularly in Bosnia-Herzogovina are relevant, as were the attitudes of Western governments towards them. Rape camps were established by Bosnian Serbs and the war between the Muslim populations was greeted with wringing of hands  by the West, even though the Serbs were behaving like nazis with “ethnic cleansing”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82AAh0SUUno   There were also reports of some counter massacres by Bosnian muslim troops, too.

The UK context of the novel in the 1990s.

A context closely aligned to the theme of relationships is the decline of community. In the early 1990s when de Bernieres wrote his novel there was a  sense of nostalgia for a more innocent past in which communities thrived and people knew each other. In the UK home-ownership was increasing but the country was in the throws of a recession with house prices going down and many were in negative equity and under pressure to leave their homes.

People had become more selfish and selfishness was seen as a good thing by the Tory government as they promoted business and small businesses. The sense of  community was in decline: “there is no such thing as society,” Margeret Thatcher.

In the novel there is a strong sense of community at the beginning of the novel. It is close-knit and is seen in a particularly naive way with Velasarious and his cannon. Dr Iannis treats diverse members of his community in the opening chapter. They may be divided politically but the war unites this community against the enemies of Greece. The community actually grows with the Italians and La Scala and Corelli joining Pelagia and Iannis becoming a member of their family, especially when he and Pelagia fall in love. Carlo is accepted, too.

The novel then charts the erosion of this community through the death of Carlo, who is buried as if he was a Kefalonian Giant with Dr. Iannis, ironically adopting the role of ancient priest, reading a moving oration over Carlo's body. With this, the novel delves deep into its parallel, ancient Greek literary context. Other characters also signal  the fading of community: Corelli has to leaven his new-formed family and other characters die or are killed off: Mandras wanders wounded into the ocean and Kokolios and Stamatis are killed during the Civil War;  a changed and broken Dr. Iannis  later dies saving his family in the 1953 earthquake, while there is a real and symbolic destruction of the community in the village; later Dresoula’s death severs remaining ties with old values of the past. 

Younger characters, such as Antonia and her husband, are later seduced by the privileges and wealth that their education gives them as they become successful business people and leave their early political ideals of socialism behind. 

The position of women changes on the island from the description of them in the early chapters, especially Dr Iannia’s first chapter, to the later chapters. They become much more independent and break free more the cultural binds that holds them in check in the early part of the novel. Drusoula, for instance, becomes a tavern keeper. 

One of the main features of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel is the growing independence of women, as long as they have the money and connections to finance being flappers, etc. Jordan Baker, whose name is a combination of impressive automobiles from the period is an example of an independent woman of the 20s who is described as being like “a young cadet’ and willing to cheat a little in golf and in life to get her own way. 

Only Alekos who was part of the original community and even then was apart, looks down, Olympian-like and ageless who has seen the changes in everyone, but has seemingly not changed himself.

The execution scene from "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"

I like the song that babenewport has chosen to go with this extract. It suits so well.

captain corellis mandolin  - why -
Uploaded by babenewport. - Explore more music videos.

The different sounds of the mandolin by John Mullan on "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"

This article from 2007 is certainly worth reading.
John Mullan's article from The Guardian on de Berniere's "Polyphonic novel".

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - A Podcast Review (AO3)

This review tongue-in-cheek and fun. Yet the review is spoken by Tom Hewitt and Patrick Walsh,  just after their A Level studies, who obviously loved the book. This will help with understanding the text, especially for the chapter in which the Italian soldiers are massacred. I liked their banter, honesty and judgement.
Ex students review the novel.

"Eleftherios K. Venizelos" the main political influence on Dr. Iannis

In Chapter 9 of Captain Corelli's Mandolin Dr. Iannis describes his political views as being "Venizilist;"by this he means he follows the liberal politics which are not extreme. He is a follower of "Eleftherios K. Venizelos" Stamatis is a Monarchist and on the right; Kokolios is a communist and on the left. Both men's politics could and did lead to totalitarian dictatorships.

Eleftherios Venizelos (full name Elefthérios Kyriákou Venizélos, Greek: Ελευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος; 23 August 1864 – 18 March 1936) was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century.Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932. Venizelos had such profound influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece that he is credited with being "the maker of modern Greece",and he is still widely known as the "Ethnarch" ( leader ).

From Wikipedia

"Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by John Mullan and The Guardian's Book Club Readers

Professor John Mullan's article from 2007 on The Guardian Book Club readers' meeting with Louis de Bernieres on Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Worth reading once you have finished reading the novel.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/sep/15/louisdebernieres

The widow seeks her goat in the Kephenion - from "Zorba The Greek" (1964)

"You know how they treat widows." spoken in coversation in the kaphenion in Chapter 9 of Captain Corelli's Mandolin.


Note how in Chapter 9 of CCM how politics is argued over and how it creates divisions between Stamatis, Kokolios and Dr. Iannis. What unites these characters of different viewpoints towards the end of this chapter and why are they united in this way?

The Widow (Irene Papas) looks for her goat which the "mangas" have sadistically hidden in the Kaphenion. The coffee house in "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" seems less threatening but it is still a place in which the men gather to drink coffee and smoke while talking politics, business, etc. Women are not expected to enter. And it seems, The Widow, like Pelagia, keeps at least one goat. Set in Crete, "Zorba The Greek" has several disturbing scenes which depict cruel, patriarchal attitudes in Greece, particularly on its islands, before growing commercialism softened them from the late 1960s.

Passages for deeper analysis from Chapters 5-6 of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Iannis Metaxas - Prime Minister April -August 1936 and dictator of Greece from August 1936 until his death in January 1941.

As a student of English Literature moving A2 you need to sharpen your analytical reading skills by practising on brief passages; this will enable you to analyse broader passages and chapters more skilfully on your own.
Where appropriate you could analyse the passages for any of the following:

• Narrative viewpoint and voice: the attitude(s) of the narrator/speaker and direct and reported speech.

• Tone – and whether the narrator is emotive, objective, reflective, judgemental, etc.

• Intrusive narrating – whether de Bernieres is giving his opinions and ideas about a character, event, etc.

• imagery: explore its deeper meanings.

• Dialogue and description – how used and the balance between the two.

• Language and its purpose, i.e. irony, for humour, to impress, to reflect mood, etc.

• Themes or ideas and how these are explored.

• How characters are developed or remain flat.

• The use of style – whether the passage is active or passive and the meanings you can deduce from that.

• Other stylistic devices such as syntax (sentence construction) repetition, rhetorical questions, motifs, foregrounding, references to other texts, etc.

• Structural devices such as parallel narratives, charactisation, etc.

• Form and historical fiction and how passages/chapters relate the attitudes, behaviour, culture and history of the past – but from a modern vantage point of 1993!

Passages for practicing your skills ( in pairs or on your own )

1. Chapter 5, page 33: “ He remembered . . . to the top of page 34, “ . . . an absurd little man”.
2. Chapter 5, page 34: “But I have done my best” to “ . . .evil times have passed”.
3. Chapter 5, bottom of page 34: “Was it not a form of irony” to page 35 “ . . .every subversive fart in Greece”.
4. Chapter 6, page 37: “ I, Carlo Guercio” to “ . . . my mother’s womb”.
5. Chapter 6, page 39: “We were all young together” to “ . . . against people who fought like gods.
6. Chapter 6, bottom of page 39: “ I am not a cynic” to “ Page 40 “ . . . make me sad”.

A recent article on the massacre of the Italians in Cephalonia

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/6973954/Investigation-into-massacre-which-inspired-Captain-Corellis-Mandolin-reopened.html

The novel is, of course, based on real events as well as fictional characters.

The Trailer for the film version of Captain Corelli's Mandolin

If you keep in mind that the film is Hollywood fluff and not true to the novel this trailer is not that bad. But the love-making part is pure Hollywood, so don't get taken in by that bit!


Russell Watson sings Pelagia's song. Notice also the speech about love by Doctor Iannis. This is faithfully rendered from the text in the chapter where the Doctor advises his daughter.