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French literary theorist Roland Barthes is perhaps best known for his 1968 essay, The Death of the Author. In this essay, he argued that since it is impossible for a reader to understand an author’s intentions, there can be no single correct interpretation of the meaning of a particular text. Instead, texts are open to a multiplicity of interpretations, which inevitably incorporate the reader’s own cultural experiences, knowledge, and prejudices. In the Internet age, a new phenomenon has emerged: the reader who not only produces his or her own interpretation of a text, but who consciously rejects the right of the author to reinterpret his or her own work. There are also more extreme Internet forums where readers seem to long for the death of the author!

This Internet phenomenon is most pronounced in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. World-building is a key part of these types of fiction: readers (or viewers, in the case of TV programmes and films) appear to be attracted to fully realised worlds or universes which allow them temporary respite from the harsh realities of their own world. Over time, these individuals make the transition from viewer/reader to ‘fan’. ‘Fandom’ brings with it a sense of ownership and entitlement that creates a very different dynamic between the author and his audience. An example of this is the present state of revolt among Star Wars fans.

Star Wars director George Lucas is one of the most successful film directors of all time. He established two immensely lucrative ‘franchises’ – Star Wars and Indiana Jones – the first of which provided the template for both family-friendly action blockbusters and movie merchandising. The original trilogies in each of these franchises are both fondly remembered by those who grew up in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, with Star Wars generating a zeal equaled only by the fans of the other major SF franchise, Star Trek. And right now, the Star Wars zealots are in a state of revolt.

Why? Well, George Lucas has an unfortunate habit of tampering with his legacy. Most of the first wave of Star Wars fans was hugely disappointed by the prequel trilogy that was released in the late 90s and early 2000s. Many of these fans refuse to acknowledge the prequel trilogy, preferring instead to treat the original trilogy as a standalone series. Unfortunately for them, Lucas sees the six films as forming a continuous whole. He has therefore taken the opportunity to revisit the original trilogy and amend the films to fit his updated vision.

This process began in 1997, with the release of the special edition of the original trilogy on VHS. It continued with the DVD release in 2004, and has developed further with the recent Blu-ray release. Unlike other directors who have made the original theatrical cuts available alongside newer director’s cuts (for example, Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner), Lucas has denied fans the opportunity to buy re-mastered copies of the originals. Fans wanting to watch high definition versions have no choice but to buy versions of the films that incorporate new CGI sequences, sound, scenes, and even dialogue.

Many Star Wars fans feel that the films belong to them and that Lucas has no right to force his changes upon them. In fact, they see it as vandalism of their property. In reflection of this, fans have produced their own digital restorations of the theatrical versions and are distributing them via the Internet in order to rescue their ‘world’ from the ‘depredations of the evil Emperor Lucas.’ They argue that the energy, money and time that they have spent as fans means that Lucas has a responsibility to give them what they want, rather than to do as he pleases. The author’s legacy is not his, but theirs. He should have the decency to ‘die’ (metaphorically) and leave it to them. After all, how annoyed would we be with Shakespeare if he kept rewriting Hamlet?

Is this the antithesis – the opposite – of Roland Barthes’ argument in in The Death of the Author? Or have author’s simply neglected the fact that they do not ‘own’ a text’s multiplicity of interpretations, and that its fans have an equal right to claim ownership of it , even to the extent of contradicting the author?

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As a tutor who focuses primarily on the teaching of English Literature (or, more accurately, Literature in English) to IB Diploma and A-level students, I have become increasingly concerned about the relationship that many of my students have with the texts that they study. There often seems to be very little sense of enjoyment, with literary texts being given much the same status as text books: they are to be read, assimilated and regurgitated, rather than actively engaged with.

In many cases, Hong Kong students’ lack of enjoyment of literary texts may be due to a lack of knowledge of the wider cultural context for works of literature chosen for them in school. This is partly due to students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences. After all, is it reasonable to assume that an ethnically Chinese or Indian student studying in Hong Kong will have the familiarity with Christianity and Christian symbolism that the poetry of, for example, William Blake demands of them? A second reason for this lack of enjoyment in reading literature may also stem from students being so focused on learning in order to pass the assessments and exams within their school curriculum that there is minimal time available for personal study which could include finding out more about the cultural context of different works of literature. Such personal study could include knowledge of historical events, current affairs, wider social debates and of course, other works of literature, as all of these are invaluable to one’s reading and understanding of literary texts. The more one knows about the world when a writer was creating their text, the more refined one’s appreciation of that text will be.

The nature of examinations is also a factor when considering many students’ somewhat reluctant approach to literature. Examinations related to the GCE A-levels, IB Diploma and HKDSE test students’ understanding of literature in three ways: firstly, by answering questions on prepared texts under exam conditions; secondly, by producing coursework essays on prepared texts; and, thirdly, by writing essays on unseen texts. Examinations on prepared texts tend to encourage students to learn the ‘facts’ about texts, which they have ‘learnt’ from their teachers and tutors, while examinations on unseen poems force students to adopt an approach that could be said to be the antithesis of how literature should be approached and appreciated.
Literary texts need care and attention. They need to be considered from many different perspectives, and research needs to be carried out to gain understanding of unfamiliar language, allusions and references to other texts, people or events with which a student is unfamiliar. But most of all, literary texts need time. The words, ideas and images within a text need to ‘percolate’ (move gradually) through a reader’s consciousness, slowly giving rise to ideas and associations that did not come to them at the first reading. Our first reading of a work of literature is rarely, if ever, complete. True appreciation of literature comes slowly, and this is why coursework on texts that students have chosen for themselves tends to produce the best and most interesting results, with time and enthusiasm leading to more perceptive readings.

My view of how students should approach works of literature has, perhaps, best been expressed by American poet Billy Collin’s (1941- ) in his ‘Introduction to Poetry’ (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/001.html), a poem I encountered in a GCSE past paper. I wonder if the examiner was aware of the irony of asking students to analyse a poem in 45 minutes that extols the virtues of the slow and careful approach to textual analysis?

Matt Wisbey is a Director at ITS Global Education Limited. ITS Global Education’s mission is to help students from Hong Kong, China and Singapore to fulfill their potential by taking advantage of the best educational opportunities that the world has to offer. We advise parents on how their children can access the best schools, colleges, universities, vacation courses and summer camps available globally. Contact us now for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Profile:           http://mattwisbey.brandyourself.com/

Telephone     +852 2116 3916
Email:           global@tuition.edu.hk
Website:       http://www.tuition.com.hk
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Danny Harrington, a founder and Director of ITS and Oxford alum (Christ Church, Geography, 1988), will be running an interview workshop on November 12th at 2-4pm at ITS Tutorial School in Central. The Oxford academic team of Dr Peter McFadden and Dr Katherine Grevling were in Hong Kong last week. Danny was in attendance and will now run the workshop again as a last call for anyone who missed out. This is for candidates who have applied to Oxford for entry in October 2012 and who are expecting interviews this December. Please call 21163916 or email mandy.l@tuition.com.hk to register. There is no charge.

Seminars will be run for younger candidates and hopefuls at later dates, so watch this space. But please only register for this event if you have already applied.

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A recent article in The Guardian, a UK newspaper, drew my attention to the phenomenon of the use of Hong Kong-based ‘ghost writers’ by Mainland Chinese students. The term ‘ghost writer’ normally refers to an individual who writes a document on behalf of another, and such writers are perhaps most commonly associated with celebrity autobiographies. Celebrities, having neither the time nor in most cases the skill to write their own memoir, employ a writer to put down their memories in a coherent form. In China, however, the term ‘ghost writer’ is used to refer to an individual who takes an exam on behalf of another.

These ghost writers take English language proficiency tests such as IELTS and TOEFL, which are needed in order to be eligible for immigration visas and university courses. The consequences of failing to pass a test are so severe that individuals are willing pay lots of money in order to ensure a passing grade. This means that the ghost writing industry can be extremely lucrative. A July 2011 article by Kane Wi published on ChinaDaily.com.cn reveals that ghost writers charge Mainland Chinese students ¥10,000 for each IELTS scoring point that they need to achieve. As IELTS is assessed on a scale from 0 to 9, a student looking to get into a good UK university can expect to pay in excess of ¥60,000 to their ghost writer.

If a student is caught cheating at an IELTS centre in Mainland China, they will receive no test score and will be banned from sitting IELTS tests in the Mainland for life. Moreover, ghostwriters can face serious consequences for their actions. In July 2011, Zhao Chunlin, an 18 year old Mainlander, was jailed for six months for taking a test on behalf of another individual. However, there is currently no communication between the IELTS administrators in different countries. This means that a Mainland Chinese student caught cheating outside of Mainland China can still take the test again in a Mainland Centre.

The writer of The Guardian article, Glenn Fulcher, Reader in Education at the University of Leicester in the UK, highlights how financially lucrative being a ghost writer is. With test takers under immense pressure to pass English language proficiency tests, the market for ghost writer remains large. After all, “If your future depends upon travel, study or work opportunities and you cannot meet the bar, the value you place upon the test score may outweigh the cost and fear of being caught cheating.” Fulcher goes on to argues that test scores are valuable commodities because of the benefit that they give to the consumer, and that as ‘Humans trade in commodities’, unfortunately ‘when they cannot trade, they sometimes steal.’

One of the ironies of this phenomenon is that students who cheat their way through the IELTS requirements for universities are actually cheating themselves. They may have paid a significant amount for access to a course that they can’t actually understand. Moreover, will they actually be able to pass their university assessments if their language proficiency was too low to gain entry in the first place?

Matt Wisbey is a Director at ITS Global Education Limited. ITS Global Education’s mission is to help students from Hong Kong, China and Singapore to fulfill their potential by taking advantage of the best educational opportunities that the world has to offer. We advise parents on how their children can access the best schools, colleges, universities, vacation courses and summer camps available globally. Contact us now for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Profile:           http://mattwisbey.brandyourself.com/

Telephone     +852 2116 3916
Email:           global@tuition.edu.hk
Website:       http://www.tuition.com.hk
Twitter:          @ITSEducation

Return to: ITS Tutorial School Home Page

Return to: ITS Tutorial School Home Page

Although travellers looking around at fellow passengers on the MTR could be forgiven for thinking that the only use for an Apple iPad is to play games, it is in fact fast becoming an important educational tool. City University’s School of Law, for example, is currently piloting the use of iPads. Their students will be able to download course materials via Wi-Fi or 3G, ensuring that they have everything that they need for their lectures and tutorials.

The most obvious advantage of a tablet computer such as an iPad, is the huge amount of information that can be crammed into a very small piece of space. There have been numerous studies that have identified the harm children can suffer from carrying heavy bags to school. Effects can include poor posture in later life and, in extreme cases, spinal damage. At around 0.6kg, an iPad is much lighter than a typical school textbook, which is likely to weigh between 1.3kg and 2.4kg – and it can ‘contain’ potentially thousands of textbooks within that 0.6kg. In cities such as Hong Kong where space is at a premium, schools could conceivably convert their school libraries into classrooms and make their library texts available to students’ PCs via a wireless connection.

There are many other arguments in favour of tablet PCs. Electronic textbooks can easily be updated after their initial publication. Once a paper textbook is published, it cannot be added to or amended, and so students are forced to buy potentially expensive new editions of textbooks which may have only a handful changes in them. Electronic textbooks can be easily updated to ensure that students are up to speed with the very latest developments in a particular subject: all students need is access to an Internet connection to download the update.

Although iPads may seem a costly investment at around US$600, so are textbooks. A recent report by the Associated Press suggests that many US schools consider iPads more cost-effective than textbooks. New entrants to the tablet PC market such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire, will result in such hardware becoming more available to a much wider market. Tablet PCs not only give teachers and students access to cost-effective textbooks, they also enable them to download a wealth of public domain e-books from websites such as Project Gutenberg. In addition, students with access to streaming video services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, can access documentaries, drama productions and movies that are relevant to their studies.

Tablet PCs also enable teachers and students to make use of educational applications that enhance the learning experience, with examples including apps that allow teachers to provide more effective demonstrations of the process of solving a maths problem or that enable students to take quizzes. With the advent of iOS 5, iPad users will, in an Apple TV-enabled classroom, be able to display materials directly onto a TV or projector screen – so no more messing around with memory sticks or projectors!

Matt Wisbey is a Director at ITS Global Education Limited. ITS Global Education’s mission is to help students from Hong Kong, China and Singapore to fulfill their potential by taking advantage of the best educational opportunities that the world has to offer. We advise parents on how their children can access the best schools, colleges, universities, vacation courses and summer camps available globally. Contact us now for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Profile:           http://mattwisbey.brandyourself.com/

Telephone     +852 2116 3916
Email:           global@tuition.edu.hk
Website:       http://www.tuition.com.hk
Twitter:          @ITSEducation

Return to: ITS Tutorial School Home Page