Literature and extended texts
Literature and extended texts tests your study of prescribed Khoekhoegowab texts. You need plot, character, setting, theme, narrative technique and cultural context, and you must write analytical answers rather than retell the story.
Core rules
- Know the whole text: beginning, turning points, ending, and the order in which information is revealed.
- For character, use evidence of what a figure says, does, and what others say about them; then explain the change or function.
- For theme, state the idea in a sentence and link it to two or three moments, not one.
- For technique, name the device (repetition, proverb, dialogue, imagery, narrative voice) and explain its effect on meaning.
- Place the text in its cultural and historical context, but do not use context to excuse weak textual evidence.
Worked example
Question: 'How does the writer show that a character becomes responsible?' Claim: the character moves from avoiding a duty to accepting it. Evidence: early in the text the character refuses to share water; later the character organises a water rota. Effect: the contrast marks the change and supports the theme of community obligation. Reasoning: the answer names a change, gives two moments, and explains what the contrast does. A retelling would say only what happened.
Traps
Retelling the plot; quoting a long passage without analysis; ignoring the key word ('how', 'why', 'to what extent'); using one scene as if it were the whole text; judging a character by modern assumptions without noting the text's setting; leaving out the conclusion.