Students will understand how representations can prioritise a dominant narrative, and how minority subjects are often misrepresented through absence, abjection, and parody. This includes recognising how texts uphold or subvert dominant viewpoints.
This lesson intends to develop:
- Identify dominant narratives in a text.
- Recognise how groups can be made absent, abject, or parodic.
- Analyse how these techniques reinforce or challenge power.
A ‘narrative’ can be two things; the physical story in our hands, and also the ideological values inside. Narratives (stories) will often speak back to the ideological narrative around them, sometimes the authors will agree with politicians, legislation and structures of power but often they will disagree with it. One of the ways we can read the author’s stance on the ideology around them is how individuals, groups, events or ideas are represented within the story. The representations can be negative through being absent (missing), abject (monstrous) or parody (made fun of). When we see the story world through these terms, we can decide if the author challenges the ideological world around them or if they are supporting it.
- Dominant narrative – the main ideological position of society
- Oppression – dominant ideologies often sustain their power by silencing the voices of non-dominant subjects, think of prejudices
- Absent representation – narratives can leave identities our from a story, unfairly depicting them as a non-participant
- Abject representation – narratives can misrepresent identities in monstrous ways, turning society against them unfairly
- Parodic representation – narratives can make identities a subject of mockery,
- Containment – some authors uphold, sustain or maintain the dominant narrative; they are said to contain the dominant narrative.
- Subversion – some authors challenge, criticise or poke fun at the dominant narrative; they are said to subvert the dominant narrative.
- “This representation prioritises the dominant narrative by…”
- “The subject becomes a parody figure because…”
- “The text constructs the subject as abject through…”
- “Parody is used to diminish the significance of…”
✅ Acceptable phrasing:
- “Abjection is a representational construction — not a simple truth”
🚫 Do not accept:
- “This character is evil so they’re the villain.”
Take a war propaganda poster; it works by misrepresenting the enemy in abject ways. By making the enemy seem monstrous and evil, it is easier for a soldier to undertake their duty. If we represent the enemy accurately; as farmers, teachers, fathers and husbands, it is hard for a soldier to undertake their duty. This is ideologically motivated, the opposing force are an enemy to be destroyed – our way of life must be protected. This is the dominant narrative.
A pacifist who opposes the war and sees war as the failure of leaders to negotiate and connect together is a subversive voice, someone who challenges the dominant ideology. Those subversive voices are often oppressed because they undermine the dominant ideology.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is set in 1692, during the real events of the Salem witch trial. Nineteen men and women were executed and hundreds convicted, based on a series of misrepresentations, stereotypes and the oppressive culture. Miller’s text is a narrative about misrepresentation and dominant narrative, but it is also ideologically subversive of real dominant narratives and how they attempt to oppress people through misrepresentation.
This is suitable for the learning objectives because:
- Puritanical religious views are the dominant narrative,
- The girls dancing at night expresses an individual freedom that is oppressed by the dominant narrative
- The girls are made into abject subjects, a monstrous group aligned with the devil. But so is John Proctor who does not attend mass.
- When the subversive narrative (that the girls are just being hysterical through fear of being executed), challenges the dominant narrative (that people must be puritan in faith), the rulers enact a huge oppressive action in which many people are executed.
- The story narrative is one about subversion and oppression, but it is also ideologically subversive because The Crucible acts against the American Government and the way it has oppressed people in the past.
Question: How has Danforth been represented in this scene?
Why if fails
Why it succeeds:
Task 1:
Match together the subjects and representations that you think have been common in past literature:
Subjects:
- White male
- Women
- People of colour
- Dominant narratives
- Subversive narratives
Representations:
- Absent
- Required for social order
- Dangerous to social order
- Desirable
- Abject
- Subversive narratives – dangerous to social order:
- White male – desirable as the person in positions of power
- Women – abject as harmful to male power
- People of colour – absent as a non performer in civilisation
- Dominant narratives – required for social order
Student Task:
- Create a list of individuals, groups, ideas and events.
- Decide which terms apply to each
- Explain why you feel each subject is represented the way it has been – is this because of a bias, a misrepresentation, is the text a container for ideology or is the text subversive to ideology?
Finish the sentence:
Authors control the way that subjects appear in their text, and they can represent them as…
indicative content:
- Subjects might be absent entirely, which is a misrepresentation of real society
- Subjects might be abject, which turns them into something to hate
- Subjects might be in parody; making them a comic form
- Subjects might be containers for the dominant narrative; they simply reflect how they are being ideologically made out to be by the most powerful class
- Subjects might be subversive and represented in ways that undermine the dominant narratives
a) Pre-reading of the next lesson – read through the knowledge so you can be ready to discuss in class.
b) Apply the learning of today’s lesson to your own private reading text. Write a paragraph explaining how today’s learning changes how you might conceive your text. Be sure to use the key vocabulary and sentence stems.
c) Write a paragraph about the discipline of Literature, explain how key words from today’s lesson impact the field overall.
d) Add today’s vocabulary and sentence stems to your own glossary. Highlight any that you are unsure about, but you must also research the meanings yourself and develop your glossary to include this differentiated support.
How did you do? Remember, this is the disciplinary knowledge for Literature – it needs combining with the text you are studying now. Can you use this knowledge to write differently about the text you are studying? When you are ready, access the next lesson in this series.