Year 12 English Advanced 2020 - Module B - Critical Study of Literature - Kazuo Ishiguro An Artist of the Floating World

Aug 30, 2026

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Year 12 English Advanced 2020 Module B focuses on a critical study of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel An Artist of the Floating World. Over an eight-week program, students examine how context shapes perspectives in response and composition, exploring narrative voice, structure, setting, theme, and language features. Learners connect personal and cultural experiences, conduct independent research on post-WWII Japan and Ishiguro’s context, and use collaborative inquiry to interpret how upheaval can reshape physical, emotional, and moral worlds, including themes of guilt and identity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

FormatDOCX

Pages24

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Module B: Critical Study of Literature

Unit rationale and focus questions

Outcomes assessed and assessment outline

English textual concepts framing the unit

The Eight Ways of Learning framework

Teaching and learning program (Phase 1-8)

Year 12 English Advanced 2020 Module B mEsh Unit: Critical Study of Literature Kazuo Ishiguro (pf) An Artist of the Floating World Duration: 8 weeks Unit rationale: A critical study of this novel will help students to develop an informed, personal response to the ways in which perspectives are shaped in a text and how those perspectives are contextually driven. Students will explore and appreciate the distinctive qualities of Ishiguro’s novel, including the distinctive narrative style and aesthetic beauty of his language. Students will explore the way Ishiguro creates a complex narrative structure and narrative voice, interweaving recollections and evocative imagery, yet still retaining textual integrity. Ishiguro merges the past with post-World War II Japanese experience and its changing values, and thereby positions the responder to develop awareness of how social and political upheaval can alter our physical, emotional and moral world. Guilt, family, personal and national identity are at the core of this text and students will come to appreciate the complex ways our personal and collective experiences can be explored through narrative. Students will be expected to engage in independent research on the events and shifting values of post WWII Japan as well as Ishiguro’s personal context. Using this research they will participate in collaborative activities where they question the assumptions and perspectives they discovered through the research. Students will respond through a variety of analytical and creative tasks which view the characters and issues from varying perspectives. In particular, they will consider how the setting, narrative voice, values and language forms and features have been used as a lens through which the cultural shifts of this historical period have been represented. Student responses will show an understanding of the way in which composers use the codes and conventions of the novel form to craft a particular perspective and position the reader to align their view with that perspective. Students will consider how composition is subject to context, purpose and audience, and will use such elements for consideration in their creative and analytical pieces as they move from responder to composer. Through the consideration of critical responses to the novel and composer, and reflective practice on the nature of multiple perspectives, students come to value how a text can be laden with subtle and explicit intent that must be critically analysed in order to gain their own informed personal understanding. Focus questions: How does context affect the perspectives we bring to our composition of and response to texts? How is it possible to read the meaning and/or value texts in different ways? What factors can contribute to the enduring value of particular texts? How do critical perspectives on Ishiguro’s text allow for an appreciation of how the novel has been received by different responders? Outcomes assessed in this unit: EA12-3 - critically analyses and uses language forms, features and structures of texts justifying appropriateness for specific purposes, audiences and contexts and evaluates their effects on meaning EA12-5 - thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively, critically and discerningly to respond to, evaluate and compose texts that synthesise complex information, ideas and arguments EA12-7 - evaluates the diverse ways texts can represent personal and public worlds and recognises how they are valued Assessment: Table SEQ Table \* ARABIC 1 – Assessment outline English textual concepts – content linked to Stage 6 Syllabus Table 2 – Stage 6 English textual concepts framing this unit: authority Table 3 – Stage 6 English textual concepts framing this unit: context Table 4 – Stage 6 English textual concepts framing this unit: literary value The Eight Ways of Learning Framework of Aboriginal Pedagogy Icons/symbols from this framework have been added to various activities which are aimed at h

FAQs

What is the purpose of Module B’s critical study of the novel?

It builds students’ informed, personal responses to how perspectives are shaped by narrative and context-driven meanings. Students also develop awareness of how social and political change can transform individual and collective worlds.

How do students engage with the text during the eight phases?

They begin by engaging with the text, then study Ishiguro’s background and context, followed by staged critical analysis of narrative voice/structure, setting/theme, and language features. The unit concludes with studying the text’s distinctive qualities, completing assessment options, and evaluating learning outcomes.

What assessment skills and outcomes are targeted in this unit?

Students critically analyse language forms, features, and structures and justify their suitability for purposes, audiences, and contexts. They also compose and evaluate texts by synthesising complex information, and they evaluate how texts represent personal and public worlds and how these are valued.

Aug 30, 2026

Upload by Paura