Quick questions on Resonances and dissonances between paired texts: HSC English Advanced Module A

Resonance is the harder of the two to write about, because superficial resonance is everywhere. Two texts about love both use the word "love"; this is not resonance, this is shared subject. Resonance worth quoting is a place where the later text holds a position the earlier text held, in a form that registers the earlier text's pressure.

Dissonance is often the more rewarding analytical territory because it is where the later text most clearly shows that it is in conversation. A text that disagrees with another text has registered the other text's argument.

The strongest analytical move in Module A is the resonance that turns into a dissonance under pressure. The two texts seem to agree, and then the agreement falls apart. This is the move that distinguishes Band 6 from Band 5, because it shows that the comparison is doing real work rather than mapping a table.

The rubric pairs the two terms because they are two halves of one observation. Where there is no resonance, there is no conversation, because the texts have nothing to disagree about. Where there is no dissonance, there is no conversation either, because the later text is merely repeating the earlier text. Conversations live in the relationship between agreement and disagreement.

It is tempting to argue resonance and dissonance at the level of theme. The risk is that theme is too abstract for the marker to test against the texts. Drop the analysis to the level of language.

Cataloguing. Listing five similarities and five differences as if the inventory were the answer. The inventory is preliminary; the analysis is what the inventory makes possible.

The same image used by both texts in a way that makes the responder hear the earlier use inside the later use. Atwood's image of a hanging body, when set against Donne's metaphysical body imagery, is image resonance.

The same shape used by both. A sonnet answered by a sonnet, a tragedy answered by a tragedy, a frame narrative answered by a frame narrative. The shared shape is the agreement.

The same position taken on a contested question. Both texts conclude that the self under pressure is more visible than the self at rest, or that authority disguises itself in ordinariness, or that grief is shareable only at a cost. The agreement is conceptual.

The same register sustained across both texts. Both texts hold a tone of restraint, or of celebration, or of irony. Tone is a feature you can quote (the whole sentence becomes the evidence), and a tonal match is a strong resonance.

The same image used in opposite ways. The earlier text uses fire as purification; the later text uses fire as obliteration. The image is shared; the meaning has been turned.

A deliberate refusal of the earlier text's shape. The earlier text resolves; the later text refuses to. The earlier text closes its frame; the later text leaves the frame open.

The later text gives voice to a figure the earlier text silenced, or silences a figure the earlier text gave voice to. Rhys gives Bertha a voice; Atwood often takes the voice away from where Shakespeare put it.

The earlier text's tone is comic; the later text's tone is grave. The same material has been re-pitched.

Listing five similarities and five differences as if the inventory were the answer. The inventory is preliminary; the analysis is what the inventory makes possible.