SEQUENCE 1 – PORTRAITS OF POWER

PART 2

The other side of the coin: art as a platform to denounce

abuses of power

Durée : 3 heures 30

Objectives
Part 2 of the sequence will be devoted to practice for your oral comprehension, written comprehension
and written expression- in two hours, then study the corrections carefully to note new vocabulary, new
ideas and new cultural references.
Following this, you can practise studying a picture without any preparation, and recording your answer.
You can then again study the correction and note any new vocabulary or ideas.
This part of the sequence will enable you to reflect on the role of the artist as a social critic. The texts
dealt with will explore this slant, and will enable you to draw a parallel between Victorian times and our
present day.
Thus, you will be able to form your personal opinion about art and power and the extent to which they are
interrelated.

Section A: Practice – activities 1 – 5

Section B: Linguistic tools to be consulted if necessary

Activity 1 – Compréhension de l’oral

Vous allez écouter le document trois fois. Vous pouvez prendre des notes pendant les écoutes. Essayez de
prendre vos notes le plus possible en anglais. A l’issue de la troisième écoute, vous ferez un compte rendu en
français du document, en montrant que vous avez compris :
• la nature du document;
• le thème principal;
• les informations contenues dans le document;
• l’identité du locuteur;
• le point de vue exprimé par le locuteur;

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• les éventuels éléments implicites du document;
• la portée du document et le lien avec l’axe thématique.

Conseils :
Aérez vos notes et changez de couleur à chaque écoute. Servez-vous du titre pour vérifier que
vous avez compris la portée du document. Pensez au WH Checklist pour guider votre prise de
notes. Ne passez pas plus de trente minutes sur cette activité.

vidéo 2 - Titre : A Nobel platform

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BcJCybfdKg
de 1’13’’ à 2’48’’

Check the correction.

Activity 2 – Written comprehension

Read the two texts, then answer the comprehension questions. Spend no more than an hour on reading
the texts and answering the questions. This will leave you 30 minutes to do Activity 3: written expression.
After the written expression, study the corrections carefully in order to note new vocabulary, grammar
points, ideas and cultural references.

Text 1
The power of seeing
John Ruskin is having his moment — and not before time. For decades his reputation as
the pre-eminent Victorian critic of art and society was a matter of purely historical interest,
manifesting itself in a disproportionate number of copies of The Stones of Venice or Sesame and
Lilies in secondhand bookshops. Unlike his disciple William Morris, he didn’t even bequeath a
decent series of wallpaper designs to posterity.
But with the bicentenary of his birth, marked by this fascinating exhibition at Two Temple
Place, popular interest in Ruskin is undergoing a revival. And that’s because his world view
wasn’t merely to do with art, though he almost singlehandedly restored the reputation of Gothic
architecture, championed the Pre-Raphaelites, practically created the Arts and Crafts movement
and forced Turner’s contemporaries to recognise his genius. As for his reverence for nature, it
anticipated our own... in his cloud studies he would observe the effects of industrialisation on
the weather — prophetic, no?
His take on art was moral, part of a fully formed, combative world view which saw art as part of
a society in which the condition of the workers, and the place of beauty and the value of craft, all
had their place. (…)
He valued Venetian architecture as representing civic equality, not just for its detached beauty.
And it was because he set store by the dignity of workers and the right of ordinary folk to beauty
that he created a museum, initially set on a hill, to Sheffield — a town with which he had no
connection other than an appreciation of the skills of its metal workers. (…)

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 But really the point of the exhibition is as a reflection of the man himself. The museum pieces
were to educate as well as please working people and, as the title of the exhibition (The Art of
Seeing) suggests, much of what he was about was to encourage the close observation of things,
especially works of nature. His own watercolour sketches from nature — perhaps a withered leaf
or a thorn branch — were ways of looking attentively at things. (…)
The funniest bit of the exhibition is the Fifteen Things Heartily Loathed by John Ruskin, from
Palladio to cycling: “I not only object, but am quite prepared to spend all my best bad language
in reprobation of the bicycle... and every other contrivance or invention for superseding human
feet on God’s ground”.
You know, we’ve got nothing like him now; not even close.
Adapted from John Ruskin – The Power of Seeing : review : ‘Ruskin gets the moment he deserves.’
Reviewed by Melanie McDonagh, The Evening Standard, Tuesday 29 January 2019

Text 2
A political conundrum1.
There are also ladies and gentlemen of another fashion, not so new, but very elegant, who
have agreed to put a smooth glaze on the world, and to keep down all its realities. For whom
everything must be languid and pretty. Who have found out the perpetual stoppage. Who are
to rejoice at nothing, and be sorry for nothing. Who are not to be disturbed by ideas. On whom
even the fine arts, attending in powder and walking backward like the Lord Chamberlain, must
array themselves in the milliners’ and tailors’ patterns of past generations, and be particularly
careful not to be in earnest, or to receive any impress from the moving age.
Then there is my Lord Boodle, of considerable reputation with his party, who has known what
office is, and who tells Sir Leicester Dedlock with much gravity, after dinner, that he really does
not see to what the present age is tending. A debate is not what a debate used to be; the House
is not what the House used to be; even a Cabinet is not what it formerly was. He perceives with
astonishment, that supposing the present Government to be overthrown, the limited choice of
the Crown, in the formation of a new Ministry, would lie between Lord Coodle and Sir Thomas
Doodle - supposing it to be impossible for the Duke of Foodle to act with Goodle, which may
be the case in consequence of the breach arising out of that affair with Hoodle. Then, giving
the Home Department and the leadership of the House of Commons to Joodle, the Exchequer
to Hoodle, the Colonies to Loodle, and the Foreign Office to Moodle, what are you to do with
Noodle? You can’t offer him the Presidency of the Council; that is reserved for Poodle. You can’t
put him in the Woods and Forests; that is hardly good enough for Quoodle. What follows? That
the country is shipwrecked, lost and gone to pieces (as is made manifest to the patriotism of Sir
Leicester Dedlock) because you can’t provide for Noodle!
Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1853.

1 conundrum = a problem that is difficult to solve

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Questions
Answer the following questions in English:

Text 1
a. Identify the nature of the document and specify the identity of the author and the main topic. Answer
briefly.
b. What is the speaker’s opinion about the topic she is dealing with in this text? Justify with a quote from
the text.
c. Explain the following quote: ‘In his cloud studies, he would observe the effects of industrialization on
the weather - prophetic, no?’

Text 2
d. Pick out 4 words or expressions which refer to politics.
e. W
 hat can you say about the names of the characters in the text? What effect is the writer aiming to
create by the choice of these names? Answer briefly.
f. W
 hat seems to be the author’s opinion of ‘ladies and gentlemen of another fashion.’ Answer in your
own words and justify with one quote from the text.

Texts 1 and 2
g. Compare and contrast the vision of art as described in Text 1 with the description of the ‘Fine Arts’ in
Text 2.

Question on the corpus of documents

h. What do the three documents show us about the role writers and artists can play in society as regards
powerful institutions?

Activity 3 – Written expression

Answer the question in English in 120 – 150 words. Spend no more than 30 minutes doing the activity,
then spend some time studying the correction in order to note useful vocabulary, grammar structures and
ideas.

Look at this quote, then answer the question:

‘You have to be responsible to some extent….to try and inspire young people’, Kazuro Ishiguro, Nobel
literature laureate in 2017.

Are you inspired by the arts (painting, drawing, sculpture, music, theatre, literature...)? To what extent
do you think artists should be role models? Illustrate your arguments with examples of artists from the
Anglo-Saxon world.

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 Méthode: expression écrite - Traiter un sujet de réflexion

1) Faites une introduction où vous analysez le sujet et vous annoncez votre problématique :
We can wonder whether.../ the question raised is…

2) Développez vos arguments en deux parties ; mais essayez d’éviter le plan ‘avantages et inconvénients’.
Donnez des exemples concrets pour étayer vos arguments. Vous pouvez utiliser les exemples du cours.
Essayez de rester dans le monde anglo-saxon.

3) La conclusion doit montrer que vous avez répondu à la question, mais votre réponse peut être
nuancée.

NB Don’t forget link words : however; moreover; in conclusion etc.

Check the correction.

Activity 4 – Describing a picture

Use the method provided in Part 1 to describe this photo of Betty Davies playing the role of Elizabeth I in
the film ‘Virgin Queen’, 1955.

Bette Davis as Elizabeth I in

“The Virgin Queen” 1955
Heritage-Images / Art Media /
akg-images AKG4909368

 Check the correction.

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Activity 5 – Oral recap: art and power
Practice giving your personal opinion to the question raised:
To what extent are art and power interrelated?
Support your argument with cultural elements studied in the sequence, or others of your own choice.

Check the correction.

Section B: Linguistic tools

Activity 6 – How to translate ‘on’

When analysing a document, such as a picture or a text, it is isn’t always easy to avoid repeating ‘the
painter shows us’, or ‘the writer describes’. In French it is, of course, handy to be able to use the
expression ‘on’ – ‘on nous montre’, ‘on crée une impression’…In English ‘on’ doesn’t exist, the pronoun
‘one’ is no longer used, even by the Queen! So English, as is often the case, makes use of the passive
form:
We are shown..
A sense of …is created..
We are given the impression that
The beauty of …..is described/depicted/portrayed...

Check the explanation of this grammar point in ‘Petite grammaire anglaise,’ by Sylvie Persec, in
Chapter 38 entitled ‘La voix passive’, the paragraph ‘Traduction de « on »’ ; then do the following
exercise.

Exercise:

Rephrase the following segments with a passive construction based on the examples given: ‘We are
shown...’ etc:
1. The picture reminds us of…
2. The author reveals the excesses of the system…
3. The author informs us that…
4. The journalist tells the readers that…
5. The author makes us think about…

Check the correction

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Activity 7 – Written expression: different shades of meaning
As you know, for your written expression, it is important to structure your work, clarify your arguments
and opinions, and to use precise and varied vocabulary. As we have seen in part one, the relevant use of
adverbs can enable you to be convincing and concise. If you have plenty to say, it’s not easily to structure
and develop it in just approximately 150 words. Although going over the number of words won’t take off
points, the time factor (just thirty minutes, unless you do the comprehension part more quickly) means
that it’s probably advisable not to be too ambitious.
As for the structure, you are familiar with the basic link words, but we have provided a check list just in
case.
For your arguments, certain adverbs and set expressions can express shades of meaning more clearly
than more complex structures. See the ‘Help box’ below.
As regards vocabulary, it is important to avoid repetition and to be subtle, so we have provided some
alternatives to the words you need most, such as ‘a lot of’, ‘interesting’ and ‘important’.

1. See the ‘Help box’ below.

Help box: a few link words Help box: shades of meaning

Adding an idea: moreover;
furthermore; in addition;
besides..
Contradicting: however;
nonetheless; conversely; on the
other hand; nevertheless; in spite
of; despite..
Avoiding ‘black and white’ statements, adding ‘nuance’:
To a certain extent / to a certain degree: dans une
certaine mesure ; we have to take into account: il faut
tenir compte de…
having said that / that being said: ceci étant dit;
admittedly / we have to admit; it is true that: il faut
reconnaître…
arguably/undoubtedly: sans doute…

Help box: frequently used words – some synonyms

A lot of= a great deal of; a large number of; a considerable amount of…
Interesting= it is worth noting; it is relevant to point out; ….is worthy of interest; it is a valid point…
Important= significant; of considerable concern; critical; noteworthy…

2. After studying the ‘Help boxes’, do the ‘rephrasing exercise’ as practice.

Rephrase these sentences using vocabulary from the ‘Help boxes:
a) A lot of people think that the issue of the monarchy is not important.
b) And they don’t really have a lot of power nowadays.
c) But the symbol of the monarchy is still important.
d) I think it’s interesting to study the important influence they have on the tourist industry; it is sure that a
lot of people come to London just to see Buckingham Palace.
e) But they cost the country a lot of money; but they also in a way make money too.
f) I think it is certain that many artists don’t show the good side of the monarchy; but artists are mainly
independent, I think, but some are official painters and photographers.
Check the correction.

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Activity 8 – Pronunciation of ‘ea’
Put these words in the correct column, according to the way ‘ea’ is pronounced:
great; theatre; head; wearing; hear; pear; beheaded; fear

Near /ɪə/ Hair /eə/ Play /eɪ/ Bed /e/

Check the correction

Now that you have practised oral and written comprehension, you are ready to tackle the assessments.
When you have completed these assessments, you can add the ideas dealt with in the documents to your
culture and ideas files in order to enrich your oral expression. Think, in particular, about the way that art
and power are related, and how each may serve the other…or be critical of one another!

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