HSC Prescriptions 2015–20

English Stage 6

Area of Study and texts for the common content of

Standard and Advanced courses
The Area of Study must be considered in the context of the relevant description in
the syllabus and the course objectives, outcomes and content. (Refer to the English
Stage 6 Syllabus, pp 29, 32–35 and pp 46, 49–52.)

Area of Study 2015–18

(The Area of Study will be reviewed for the 2019 HSC.)
In the Area of Study, students explore and examine relationships between language and text,
and interrelationships among texts. They examine closely the individual qualities of texts while
considering the texts’ relationships to the wider context of the Area of Study. They synthesise
ideas to clarify meaning and develop new meanings. They take into account whether aspects
such as context, purpose and register, text structures, stylistic features, grammatical features
and vocabulary are appropriate to the particular text.

Area of Study 2015–18: Standard and Advanced

Area of Study: Discovery

This Area of Study requires students to explore the ways in which the concept of discovery is represented
in and through texts.
Discovery can encompass the experience of discovering something for the first time or rediscovering
something that has been lost, forgotten or concealed. Discoveries can be sudden and unexpected,
or they can emerge from a process of deliberate and careful planning evoked by curiosity, necessity
or wonder. Discoveries can be fresh and intensely meaningful in ways that may be emotional, creative,
intellectual, physical and spiritual. They can also be confronting and provocative. They can lead us to new
worlds and values, stimulate new ideas, and enable us to speculate about future possibilities. Discoveries
and discovering can offer new understandings and renewed perceptions of ourselves and others.
An individual’s discoveries and their process of discovering can vary according to personal, cultural,
historical and social contexts and values. The impact of these discoveries can be far-reaching and
transformative for the individual and for broader society. Discoveries may be questioned or challenged
when viewed from different perspectives and their worth may be reassessed over time. The ramifications
of particular discoveries may differ for individuals and their worlds.
By exploring the concept of discovery, students can understand how texts have the potential to
affirm or challenge individuals’ or more widely-held assumptions and beliefs about aspects of human
experience and the world. Through composing and responding to a wide range of texts, students may
make discoveries about people, relationships, societies, places and events and generate new ideas.
By synthesising perspectives, students may deepen their understanding of the concept of discovery.
Students consider the ways composers may invite them to experience discovery through their texts
and explore how the process of discovering is represented using a variety of language modes, forms
and features.
In their responses and compositions, students examine, question, and reflect and speculate on:
• their own experiences of discovery
• the experience of discovery in and through their engagement with texts
• assumptions underlying various representations of the concept of discovery
• how the concept of discovery is conveyed through the representations of people, relationships,
societies, places, events and ideas that they encounter in the prescribed text and other related
texts of their own choosing
• how the composer’s choice of language modes, forms, features and structure shapes
representations of discovery and discovering
• the ways in which exploring the concept of discovery may broaden and deepen their understanding
of themselves and their world.

9
 HSC Prescriptions 2015–20
English Stage 6

Area of Study 2015–18: Standard and Advanced

Students explore the concept of discovery through at least one of the following:

Prose fiction (pf) or nonfiction (nf)

• Bradley, James, Wrack (pf)
• Chopin, Kate, The Awakening (pf)
• Winch, Tara June, Swallow the Air (pf)
• Bryson, Bill, A Short History of Nearly Everything (nf)
• Guevara, Ernesto ‘Che’, The Motorcycle Diaries (nf)

or

Drama (d) or film (f) or Shakespearean drama (S)

• Gow, Michael, Away (d)
• Harrison, Jane, Rainbow’s End from Cleven, Vivienne et al, Contemporary Indigenous Plays (d)
• Lee, Ang, Life of Pi (f)
• Shakespeare, William, The Tempest (d/S*)

* In order to satisfy the text requirements of the different English courses, The Tempest is classified as a drama text
for the Standard course and as a Shakespearean drama text for the Advanced course.

or

Poetry
• Dobson, Rosemary
‘Young Girl at a Window’, ‘Wonder’, ‘Painter of Antwerp’, ‘Traveller’s Tale’, ‘The Tiger’, ‘Cock Crow’,
‘Ghost Town: New England’
• Frost, Robert
‘The Tuft of Flowers’, ‘Mending Wall’, ‘Home Burial’, ‘After Apple-Picking’, ‘Fire and Ice’,
‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’
• Gray, Robert
‘Journey: the North Coast’, ‘The Meatworks’, ‘North Coast Town’, ‘Late Ferry’,
‘Flames and Dangling Wire’, ‘Diptych’

or

Media
• Nasht, Simon, Frank Hurley – The Man Who Made History
• O’Mahoney, Ivan, Go Back to Where You Came From – Series 1, Episodes 1, 2 and 3
and The Response

Specific editions of the set texts are listed at the end of this document. If the specified
edition is unavailable, however, schools may use any suitable edition of the text
selected. Where a text is quoted in an examination question, it will be from the
listed edition.

10
 HSC Prescriptions 2015–20
English Stage 6

Electives and texts for the English (Advanced) course

Electives in the English (Advanced) course must be considered in the context of the
module descriptions and the course objectives, outcomes and content. (Refer to the
English Stage 6 Syllabus, pp 47–52.)

Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Context

This module requires students to compare texts in order to explore them in relation to their
contexts. It develops students’ understanding of the effects of context and questions of value.
(Refer to the English Stage 6 Syllabus, p 47.)

Advanced, Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Context

Elective 1: Intertextual Connections

In this elective, students compare texts in order to develop their understanding of the effects of context,
purpose and audience on the shaping of meaning. Through exploring the intertextual connections
between a pair of texts, students examine the ways in which different social, cultural and historical
contexts can influence the composer’s choice of language forms and features and the ideas, values
and attitudes conveyed in each text. In their responding and composing, students consider how the
implicit and explicit relationship between the texts can deepen our understanding of the values,
significance and context of each.
Students choose a pair of texts from the following list:

Shakespearean drama and film

• Shakespeare, William, King Richard III
AND
• Pacino, Al, Looking for Richard

or

Prose fiction and film

• Woolf, Virginia, Mrs Dalloway
AND
• Daldry, Stephen, The Hours

or

Prose fiction and nonfiction

• Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice
AND
• Weldon, Fay, Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen

or

Poetry and prose fiction

• Tennyson, Alfred Lord
‘The Lady of Shalott’, ‘Tears, idle tears’, ‘In Memoriam A.H.H.’ – Cantos XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX
AND
• Anderson, Jessica, Tirra Lirra by the River

or

16
 HSC Prescriptions 2015–20
English Stage 6

Advanced, Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Context

Poetry and drama

• Donne, John
‘The Sunne Rising’, ‘The Apparition’, ‘A Valediction: forbidding mourning’, ‘The Relique’,
‘This is my playes last scene’, ‘At the round earths imagin’d corners’, ‘If poysonous mineralls’,
‘Death be not proud’, ‘Hymne to God my God, in my sicknesse’
AND
• Edson, Margaret, W;t

OR

Advanced, Module A: Comparative Study of Texts and Context

Elective 2: Intertextual Perspectives

In this elective, students compare the content and perspectives in a pair of texts in order to develop
their understanding of the effects of context, purpose and audience on the shaping of meaning.
Through exploring and comparing perspectives offered by a pair of texts, students examine the
ways in which particular social, cultural and historical contexts can influence the composer’s choice
of language forms and features and the ideas, values and attitudes conveyed in each text. In their
responding and composing, students consider how the treatment of similar content in a pair of texts
can heighten our understanding of the values, significance and context of each.
Students choose a pair of texts from the following list:

Shakespearean drama and nonfiction

• Shakespeare, William, Julius Caesar
AND
• Machiavelli, Niccolò, The Prince (translated by Tim Parks)

or

Prose fiction and poetry

• Fitzgerald, F Scott, The Great Gatsby
AND
• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Sonnets from the Portuguese – I, XIII, XIV, XXI, XXII, XXVIII, XXXII, XLIII

or

Prose fiction and poetry

• Joyce, James, Dubliners
AND
• Heaney, Seamus
‘Digging’, ‘Blackberry-Picking’, ‘Mid-Term Break’, ‘The Given Note’, ‘The Strand at Lough Beg’,
‘Casualty’, ‘Granite Chip’, ‘Clearances III’

or

Prose fiction and film

• Orwell, George, Nineteen Eighty-Four
AND
• Lang, Fritz, Metropolis

17
 HSC Prescriptions 2015–20
English Stage 6

Module B: Critical Study of Texts

This module requires students to engage with and develop an informed personal understanding
of their prescribed text. Through critical analysis and evaluation of its language, content and
construction, students will develop an appreciation of the textual integrity of their prescribed
text. They refine their own understanding and interpretations of the prescribed text and critically
consider these in the light of the perspectives of others. Students explore how context
influences their own and others’ responses to the text and how the text has been received
and valued. (Refer to the English Stage 6 Syllabus, p 48.)

Advanced, Module B: Critical Study of Texts

Students choose one text from one of the listed types of text.

Shakespearean drama
• Shakespeare, William, Hamlet

or

Prose fiction
• Brontë, Charlotte, Jane Eyre
• Jones, Gail, Sixty Lights
• Ondaatje, Michael, In the Skin of a Lion
• Winton, Tim, Cloudstreet

or

Drama (d) or film (f)

• Chekhov, Anton, The Seagull (d) (translated by Stephen Mulrine)
• Welles, Orson, Citizen Kane (f)

or

Poetry
Students choose one of the following poets for study. All listed poems for that poet constitute the
prescribed text.
• Eliot, TS
‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, ‘Preludes’, ‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night’, ‘The Hollow Men’,
‘Journey of the Magi’
• Rossetti, Christina
‘Goblin Market’, ‘After Death’, ‘Maude Clare’, ‘Light Love’, ‘L.E.L.’, ‘In an Artist’s Studio’
• Yeats, William Butler
‘When You Are Old’, ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, ‘An Irish Airman Foresees his Death’, ‘Easter 1916’,
‘The Second Coming’, ‘Leda and the Swan’, ‘Among School Children’

or

18
 HSC Prescriptions 2015–20
English Stage 6

Advanced, Module B: Critical Study of Texts

Nonfiction
• Woolf, Virginia, A Room of One’s Own AND Three Guineas
• Speeches:
Anwar Sadat – Speech to the Israeli Knesset, 1977
Paul Keating – Redfern Speech, 1992
Margaret Atwood – ‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’, 1994
Noel Pearson – ‘An Australian history for us all’, 1996
William Deane – ‘It is still winter at home’, 1999
Doris Lessing – ‘On not winning the Nobel Prize’, Nobel Lecture, 2007
Geraldine Brooks – ‘A Home in Fiction’, Boyer Lecture 4, 2011

19
 HSC Prescriptions 2015–20
English Stage 6

Module C: Representation and Text

This module requires students to explore various representations of events, personalities
or situations. They evaluate how medium of production, textual form, perspective and choice
of language influence meaning. The study develops students’ understanding of the relationships
between representation and meaning. (Refer to the English Stage 6 Syllabus, p 48.)

Advanced, Module C: Representation and Text

Elective 1: Representing People and Politics

In this elective, students explore and evaluate various representations of people and politics in their
prescribed text and other related texts of their own choosing. They consider the ways in which texts
represent individual, shared or competing political perspectives, ideas, events or situations. Students
analyse representations of people’s political motivations and actions, as well as the impact political
acts may have on individual lives or society more broadly. In their responding and composing, students
develop their understanding of how the relationship between various textual forms, media of production
and language choices influences and shapes meaning.
Students choose one of the following texts as the basis of their further exploration of the representations
of people and politics.

Shakespearean drama
• Shakespeare, William, King Henry IV, Part 1

or

Prose fiction
• Huxley, Aldous, Brave New World

or

Drama (d) or film (f)

• Miller, Arthur, The Crucible (d)
• Levinson, Barry, Wag the Dog (f)

or

Poetry
• Auden, WH
‘O what is that sound which so thrills the ear’, ‘Spain’, ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’, ‘In Memory of
W.B. Yeats’, ‘September 1, 1939’, ‘The Unknown Citizen’, ‘The Shield of Achilles’

or

Nonfiction
• Reynolds, Henry, Why Weren’t We Told?

OR

20
 HSC Prescriptions 2015–20
English Stage 6

Advanced, Module C: Representation and Text

Elective 2: Representing People and Landscapes

In this elective, students explore and evaluate various representations of people and landscapes in
their prescribed text and other related texts of their own choosing. They consider the ways in which
texts represent the relationship between the lives of individuals or groups and real, remembered or
imagined landscapes. Students analyse representations of people’s experience of particular landscapes
and their significance for the individual or society more broadly. In their responding and composing,
students develop their understanding of how the relationship between various textual forms, media
of production and language choices influences and shapes meaning.
Students choose one of the following texts as the basis of their further exploration of the representations
of people and landscapes.

Prose fiction
• Harrison, Melissa, Clay
• Tóibín, Colm, Brooklyn
• White, Patrick, The Tree of Man

or

Film
• de Heer, Rolf, Ten Canoes

or

Poetry
• Wright, Judith
‘The Hawthorn Hedge’, ‘Brothers and Sisters’, ‘South of My Days’, ‘For New England’,
‘Flame-tree in a Quarry’, ‘Train Journey’, ‘Moving South’

or

Nonfiction
• de Botton, Alain, The Art of Travel

Specific editions of the set texts are listed at the end of this document. If the specified
edition is unavailable, however, schools may use any suitable edition of the text
selected. Where a text is quoted in an examination question, it will be from the
listed edition.

21
 HSC Prescriptions 2015–20
English Stage 6

Module B: Texts and Ways of Thinking

This module requires students to explore and evaluate a selection of texts relating to
a particular historical period. It develops their understanding of the ways in which scientific,
religious, philosophical or economic paradigms have shaped and are reflected in literature
and other texts. (Refer to the English Stage 6 Syllabus, pp 82–83.)

Extension 1, Module B: Texts and Ways of Thinking

Elective 1: After the Bomb

In this elective, students explore and evaluate texts that relate to the period from the dropping of the
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki up to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dismantling
of the Berlin Wall. A climate of Cold War anxiety permeates these texts in a number of ways. The
texts may emerge from, respond to, critique, and shape our understanding of ways of thinking during
this period. Many of these texts have a common focus on the personal and political ramifications
of this era. They are often characterised by an intensified questioning of humanity and human beliefs
and values. Experimentation with ideas and form may reflect or challenge ways of thinking during
the period.
In this elective, students are required to study at least three of the prescribed texts, as well as other
related 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 appropriate texts. Texts can be
drawn from a range of times, contexts and media, and should reflect the personal and political concerns
of the post-war period.

Prose fiction
• Ishiguro, Kazuo, An Artist of the Floating World
• Le Carré, John, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Drama
• Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot

Poetry
• Plath, Sylvia
‘Morning Song’, ‘The Applicant’, ‘Lady Lazarus’, ‘Daddy’, ‘Fever 103°’, ‘The Arrival of the Bee Box’,
‘Words’

Film
• Clooney, George, Good Night, and Good Luck.

OR

31