Introductory activities
The Floating World is set around a group of characters who are from the Australia of the 1970s. In order to develop students’ critical reading responses, a meaningful understanding of the political, economic social and cultural context of the time is necessary. Some discussion, research and pre-reading activities are important so as to acquaint students with those contexts.
Activity 1. (Pre-reading activity)
In their writing journals, students should be given one minute to think of everything they can about the 1970s in Australia or elsewhere, and asked to make a list. This list may include names of songs, people, family, brands, events, politicians, etc. The image set You know you’re a child of the 70s if… could be a useful prompt for this. Similarly the Australian Government web page, The Changing face of modern Australia – 1950s to 1970s provides helpful context for the questions below. Students should also watch the 1970s’ Australian advertisement called “Have A Go”.
From their research they will then be asked to make some inferences of life in the 1970s based on their viewing of the images, using the following questions to help them:
- How would you describe life in 1970s’ Australia?
- What kind of values do you think were the norm at the time?
- What kind of individuals and social groups would have been excluded from this world view?
- How is the modern Australian society that you are living in different and/or similar to life represented in the texts and other resources you have viewed?
(ACELR038) (ACELRO39) (ACELRO40)
Activity 2. (Vocabulary)
Students are to compile a vocabulary list in their journals as their experience of the play’s terminology develops over the course of the drama. To begin this activity, they should write the following words in the journals. They should then define each word and try to think about how each word is relevant to the play and their society. They could use different tables for different types of jargon, for example, dramatic terms/themes/language.
Word | Definition | Relevance to play | Relevance to you |
Larrikinism | |||
Australian | |||
Working class | |||
Tragedy | |||
Comedy |
Activity 3. (The opening scene)
Once students have read the opening scene, they should consider the following questions:
- How do the opening stage directions set the tone for the play? What symbols and characters are featured? What impressions do we get of them?
- What does the narrator, Harry, reveal in his monologue? Why has the playwright chosen to represent the information in this way?
- How is Les presented in Act 1, Scene 1? What can we expect from this character?
Responses are to be recorded and kept. When they finish reading the play, they are to revisit their ideas and add to their answers.
(ACELR047)
Personal response on reading the text
Over the course of the play, students should read and think about the following questions as they conduct their critical analyses, which will also incorporate their personal responses to their reading.
An activity to encourage this would be through a weekly book club, during which students can discuss with each other the evolving ideas of the play. They should also be encouraged to note their own and their classmates’ ideas in a journal. The following are some guiding questions which will help them formulate and develop their responses to the play.
Questions and comments while reading the text
- Why has the playwright chosen to present the information in this way? In what other ways could he have represented this information? How would that have changed the tone or style of the play?
- What happened immediately before or after this action?
- How is dramatic tension created?
- What questions are you left wondering about the characters/text?
- In developing your understanding of the themes as the play progresses, how have your understandings changed?
Personal connections with own experience
- Can you think of anyone in your family or society who is similar to the characters presented?
- Is Australian society different or similar to Romeril’s representation?
- What is your favourite quote from the play?
Identification with characters and situations
- How is this character’s dialogue and language different to the other characters’ and what does that reveal about class?
- Which character do you like or relate to most and why?
- What is the purpose of the minor characters in the play?
Reflection on completion of the play
- Is there any part of the play you would change, and if so, why?
- What do the unresolved problems reveal about the bigger issues of the play?
- What themes that surface in the play are still reflected in Australian society today?
- What is the point of creating literature such as this?
(ACELR038) (ACELR040) (ACELR045) (ACELRO47) (ACELR052)
Outline of key elements of the text
Plot
Timeline plot
Students should keep a chronological record of Les and Irene’s holiday on the cruise ship. It would be helpful to include the flashbacks that Les has from his past, since these are integral to one of the play’s biggest thematic concerns, and it is in these moments that Les’s deeper psychological issues are revealed and explored.
Activity
Students are to draw a representation of this journey by mapping the chronology of events onto an actual physical map of the route from Melbourne to Japan that the cruise ship would have taken.
Narrative plot
The plot of the play is about the struggle of the internal world that exists within the casing of the external world. Students should draw an outline of a soldier, and as the narrative of the plot develops, they can choose to track the developments through visual diagrams inside this outline.
Characters
Character chart
Students are to keep a Characterisation table for each of the characters in the play. This will help them track and develop their understandings of the characters. They should find and incorporate a range of synonyms for the adjectives they use for the characters.
Examples of character language/clothing/dialogue/behaviour | Examples from the play (direct evidence is encouraged) | Analysis |
Character relationships
In order to develop an understanding of the relationships between the characters, students are to construct a linked or webbed diagram of the characters’ relationships with each other. They should also list the relevant page numbers to support their observations.
(ACELR044) (ACELR045) (ACELRO46) (ACELRO47)
Synthesising task/activity
Students will rewrite the ending in Romeril’s style to re-imagine a different outcome for Les. They will discuss the impact of the different endings and how each makes its meaning clear.
(ACELR045) (ACELRO47) (ACELR048) (ACELR050)