“‘Juxtapose a shocking image with a shocking headline and then you get a reaction” MIchelle Katz, speaking to The Guardian about shock tactics in advertising Mainstream media doesn’t just tell stories; it shapes what society considers acceptable and what remains hidden. Cultural taboos, those topics we rarely discuss […]
Taboos are among the most powerful forces shaping human behaviour, yet they often operate silently, woven into the fabric of culture. The word itself comes from the Polynesian term tapu, meaning ‘sacred’ or ‘forbidden,’ reflecting its early roots in spirituality. From these beginnings, taboos spread across societies as mechanisms to protect what was considered holy, pure, or essential for survival…
anguage plays a fascinating role in negotiating taboo. Throughout history, certain words have carried immense power, capable of shocking, offending, or even endangering the speaker. Yet taboos are not fixed; they shift as societies evolve. Words once considered scandalous, like zounds or bloody, now sound quaint, while new linguistic flashpoints emerge around politics, identity, and morality. In this section, we’ll explore historical swear words, modern euphemisms, and campaigns that challenge comfort zones – all the while asking if language is supposed to protect us or reveal the truth?
Explore the topic of migration through the lens of language, the words and images people use to frame the migration debate in ways that further certain ideological positions. Encounter language that dehumanises and objectifies, language that categorises, assumes, derides, divides, and villainises – and also language that rehumanises, cutting through the media noise to tell stories of living people with hopes, dreams and dignity.
Despite what people say, advertisers know that language and images work at both the conscious and the unconscious level, and a person unaware of advertising’s claim on him or her is the person least well equipped to resist its insidious attack, no matter how forthright they may sound. An essential underpinning to the language and literature course is the aim for you to become media-literate and an important purpose of a classroom study of advertising is to raise the level of awareness about the persuasive techniques used in ads. Ads can be studied to detect ‘hooks,’ they can be used to gauge values of consumers, and they can be analysed for symbols, colour, and imagery. And don’t neglect the simplest and most direct way of studying ads – the words themselves.
Unseen Text: The Elephant Sanctuary Spring Appeal Text Type: Charity Appeal – Advert Guiding Question: How and to what effect do text and image work together in this appeal? As a subcategory of advertising, charity appeals employ a similar range of methods to persuade the reader to donate […]
Play It As It Lays is Joan Didion’s second novel and one of her most famous. Named in TIME’s 100 Best Books (1923 – 2005) it was adapted into a film by Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The book itself is brisk, 200 pages long but divided into 80 short chapters, some of which are only a few sentences each. Her energetic style, and focus on using dialogue to tell the story, creates an episodic, fast-paced narrative that is the perfect framing for the quintessential Hollywood novel.
Unseen Text: Prospero’s Cell by Lawrence Durrell Literary Genre: Prose Non-Fiction / Travel Writing Guiding Question: How does the author use descriptive language to create atmosphere? This title of this passage, Prospero’s Cell by Lawrence Durrell, alludes to the antagonist of Shakespeare’s The Tempest: Prospero, a sorcerer whose pursuit of knowledge […]
Unseen Text: Thunderstorms: a preparedness guide Text Type: Infographic Guiding Question: Explain the methods used to present different types of information in this text. Infographics are an oft-encountered text type in Paper 1. They tend to produce a ‘love-hate’ response with my students. Some like the simple features […]
Unseen Text: If you want to follow your dreams, you have to say no to all the alternatives Text Type: Blog Post Guiding Question: How do authorial choices help to create a persuasive message? Blogs are a really great text type to practice with. Most blogs are multimodal, […]
IB Language and Literature 2.0 