LITERARY TEXT 

Pack of cigarettes

Viktor Tsoy

 

I am looking out of someone’s window and see someone’s sky

I can’t see a star that’s mine

I roamed the roads back and forth

Having looked back couldn’t find footprints on my path.

 

But if there’s a pack of cigarettes in my pocket

Then the day’s not all that bad

And a boarding pass to a silver-wing-plane,

That takes off leaving just a shadow behind

 

Noone wanted to be found guilty without wine,

Noone wanted to pick the coals with bare hands

And death without music is not picturesque,

So I wouldn’t want to die without it

 

But if there’s a pack of cigarettes in my pocket

Then the day’s not all that bad

And a boarding pass to a silver-wing-plane,

That takes off leaving just a shadow behind

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• Russian
• Translation
• Rhyming
• Understand and analyse the poem
• Melancholy
• Hopeless
• Poor
• Aeroplanes and flying
• Context
• Died 1990 before collapse of soviet union

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NON – LITERARY TEXT 

• Depression
• Isolation
• Look at bit at western society and issues concerning the young – i think it has one of the highest suicide rates in the world
• Social and cultural expectations and constraints

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Intertextuality two meanings

 

• Relationships between the text and the image

 

• References to places, people, things, stories ideas that link to a place or person

 

 

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• Identity – he was mixed heritage – grew up during the cold war era and soviet repression, economic situation hard – secret police – young rebellious man
• Meaning
• Who is a person in terms of their race, culture, society, language, community
• How is this reflected
• How you look talk behave
• Shared experiences
• Politics of where you are and even economics
• How a person represents themselves

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Song lyrics

• Social geographical cultural political context
• What the song is exploring – themes
• Identity – in terms of who the person is writing it including that he is young and also how those themes are shaped by his circumstances but also by the universal feelings of the young
• Boarding pass, silver wing plane – way to escape
• How do we survive?

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Images – mental health and social media campaign in the usa

• Social geographical cultural political context – very different from the russian song
• Look for some similarities in themes – that isolation and depression and hopelessness are not limited to poor and repressive societies
• That repression can come in different forms ie social media can be repressive
• Concerns of youth are universal – finding a sense of belonging – which relates to identity 
• Features – western style images
• Fear of society

PEACHY COMICS

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Pack of cigarettes :

• Surviving a difficult time
• Fighting a difficult regime 

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Analyse how each text reflects of challenges the idea of identity

Show understanding of text context and intertextuality

            Intertextuality two meanings

References to places, people, things, stories ideas that link to a place or person

 

	Lyrics	Comic	Similarities/Differences
Author Identity	Viktor Tsoy, Russian, published in 1985, grew up was a young rebellious man, he was mixed heritage	Holly Chisholm, Venice,CA, got diagnosed with depression and ADHD at the age of 23 because of a bad breakup
Context Date Place Cultural and political and social environment	the cold war era and soviet repression, economic situation was hard Before collapse of soviet union	USA, California, Venice. Wants to help people that are also suffering from depression, and/or anxiety. Comic represents someone’s everyday struggles whilst dealing with depression/anxiety
Audience	Russian youth but resonated internationally	Anyone going through depression, and/or anxiety
Purpose	To highlight to loneliness of living in a repressive regime To highlight how music provides an escape from the mental torture of his life To show disconnect from society and feeling of being invisible   How to survive the situation – wine, music etc	To raise awareness about depression and anxiety in hopes that people will get help  To explore themes of heartbreak, dealing with stress, depression	Similarities:  Themes of loneliness Feeling disconnected from society Lack of identity To show Fear – of society His solution is more about stimulants to numb the senses and escape Hers is to hide away
Stylistic Features	Told in the first person Song lyrics so have a poem like structure Refrain of chorus Repetition  Shift in tense	Visual representation was clear  Dialogue was clear and to the point which made the comic strip easy to read The colours (light for happy mood and dark for sad mood)
Intertextuality	Reference to coal and cigarettes and wine (russian and industrial?) Society in a more industrial region (less developed?)	Style of the cartoon gives the impression this is a western girl in the west Ginger hair etc Modern society

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Literary and non-literary texts both convey the message of identity as well as representation. The literary text that I have chosen is a “Pack of cigarettes” by Viktor Tsoi. Viktor Tsoi is a russian singer-songwriter. Pack of cigarettes was published in 1985, and this song was a representation of Tsoi’s life and of his childhood. He grew up as a young rebellious man and wanted to escape from reality as he was unhappy and wanted to be isolated from society. 1985 was the Cold War era, the soviet repression and the economic situation was difficult during that period in time. Viktor wrote this mainly addressing the russian youth that were going through similar types of emotions, but nevertheless resonated internationally. The purpose of this song was to highlight the loneliness of living in a repressive regime and how music provided an escape from the mental torture of his life. He needed to disconnect from society in order to regain himself and get a better understanding of who he was as a person. Tsoi was tired of feeling invisible and could no longer deal with the trauma and instead decided to ‘escape’ by listening to music and drinking wine. He found that getting away from society and its expectations would benefit his mental health.

The artist used stylistic features in the song to emphasise on his situation which would further help the audience get a grasp of what he was going through in that period of time. Firstly, the song was written in first person, this is an effective style of writing as it allows for the readers to experience the world from the artists’ eyes and further understand what the author was going through. There was a lot of repetition throughout the poem, with the idea of escaping being repeated. This makes an emphasis on how much he wanted to leave what he had, his family and friends, for some time alone to reflect upon himself. Lastly, he did not include a chorus in his song. There are many reasons as to why artists do not include choruses. It could be because of the purpose of the song. They might not want to make the song catchy but instead just get the message across to the audience. Sometimes making a song sucsynced can be a more effective way to get the message across. 

The non literary text that I chose was a comic strip by Holly Chisholm, who is from Venice, CA. Holly got diagnosed with depression and ADHD at the age of 23 because of a bad breakup. After dealing with depression and ADHD, she wanted to help people that were going through the same thing, by illustrating and writing comic strips. Her comic strips are known as “Peachy Comics” and they represent people’s everyday struggles whilst dealing with depression and/or anxiety. Her audience is anyone suffering from the same or similar causes and anyone who is in need of help. Her main purpose was to raise awareness about depression and anxiety in hopes that people will get help sooner rather than later. She also explores themes of heartbreak, dealing with stress, depression as they are topics that she has dealt with and can give advice to people who need it. 

Peachy comics’ stylistic features include images as well as phrases. The images are very clear and easy to understand and so is the dialogue. This makes it easier for the readers to read which makes it more eye catching. The texts are short and images are very eye catching because of the colours that are used furthermore engaging the audience. 

Intertextuality is the relationship between texts or images. In the literary text, “A Pack of cigarettes” by Viktor Tsoi, he writes more about society in general and how it would feel to escape. This challenges the idea of identity as he wants to leave behind his old ‘identity’ and create a new one when he is alone. Whereas, Holly Chisholm, “Peachy comics” artist refers to the idea of identity by addressing it to the public. By doing so, she challenges people’s thinking. She is now more accepting of her ‘new identity’ than she was in the past as she has recently got the help that she needed. Both texts however do have some things in common. They both talk about emotions and wanting to escape away from society and their judgements, and the only way to do so is to be isolated. They both mention loneliness, and feeling disconnected from society, hence having a lack of identity. Their lack of identity has been built up over the past several years as they are afraid of the society and their judgements. Although, the main difference is how his solution is more about stimulants to numb the senses and escape (reference the airplanes) and hers is to hide away (locking herself in her room, away from everyone). 

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Identity and representation

Literary Text (Song)

• Context (about author, text)
• PEA (point, evidence and analysis)
  • Point : russian artist, going through depression and trying to find happiness
  • Evidence : *use lyrics from the song and explain*
  • Analysis :
• Intertextuality (comparison between two texts similarities and differences lit and non-lit text)

The literary text that I have chosen is “A Pack of Cigarettes” by Viktor Tsoy, a Russian author/artist. Tsoy published his song in 1985. This was during the time of

 

Non-literary Text (Peachy comics)

• Context (about author, text)
• PEA (point, evidence and analysis)
  • Point : russian artist, going through depression and trying to find happiness
  • Evidence : *use lyrics from the song and explain*
  • Analysis :
• Intertextuality (comparison between two texts similarities and differences lit and non-lit text)

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Focus on purpose, audience and reception using these slides