Jimmy Bigelow is an ordinary man living in the extraordinary world of the prisoner of war camp on the Thai-Burma Railway. Richard Flanagan uses the character to explore many of his themes, particularly memory and trauma. This resource is part of a unit of work on The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Students must decide if the 30 statements about the novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North are true or false.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Activities for Book 4 Chapters 8-13.

Explanation of the concept of intertextuality and an explanation of the explicit references to Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007, the Apsara from Hindu religion and mythology, the implied references to Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword and the inferred connections to the range of recent texts dealing with the issue of a child refugees journey to safety and a new life, including the picture book Oskar and the Eight Blessings, feature film First They Killed My Father and novel When Michael Met Mina. Students research the nature of these related texts and look for the common themes.

Worksheet for the Special Broadcasting Service Australia/Journeyman TV documentary, A place in the sand: Life inside the world’s largest refugee camp. The video is available on Youtube and examines life in a refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border, including why people have moved there, services (or lack of them) in the camp and factors that keep the refugees in the camp.

3-minute Associated Press film from the Khmer Rouge era (1975-9) of a border crossing, refugee camp and medical treatment for refugees. The resource is an excellent tie-in to Allan Baillie’s novel, Little Brother as it shows refugees fleeing Cambodia, conditions in the refugee camps and medical staff at work. There is no commentary. The worksheet examines scenes from the film and looks at where they are described in the novel.

Worksheet to accompany the 6-minute mini-documentary, Former Khmer Rouge soldier faces up to the past. The video is an interview with Chin Meth, a former-Khmer Rouge soldier who explains why she joined the Khmer Rouge, her experiences as a soldier then as a prisoner, her testifying against Khmer Rouge officials placed on trial for war crimes and her coming to terms with her life in the Khmer Rouge. This video is suitable for late primary/early secondary students. This video is available on Youtube.

3 cloze activities based on Allan Baillie’s novel, Little Brother: The author: Allan Baillie The Khmer Rouge Setting and inspiration

in Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North the character of Ella Lansbury serves a number of purposes. She is a mirror through which the reader sees the protagonist’s many faults, she is demonstrative of a non-erotic love that ultimately blossoms more than the erotic love Dorrigo shares with Amy Mulvaney, she journeys with Dorrigo on the road of time and changes brought about by time. Ella, the unloved underdog of the novel, ultimately becomes the hero through loyalty and love - and how Australian is that!

Activities for Section 3 - Pages 96-147 of Peter Temple’s novel, The Broken Shore.

Ramona Koval interview with Richard Flanagan, author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Flanagan discusses the influence of his POW father, Keith Flanagan, the central character of Dorrigo Evans who is based on his father, research he carried out in Thailand and in Japan with former prison guards, the theme of fraternal and erotic love and the difficulties he had in writing the novel. This resource includes the YouTube video and worksheet to accompany the video. It is designed to be part of the unit of work on Stage 6 English, Close study of a novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Lecture by Anna Funder at the University of Reykjavik, 22 September, 2012, Daily life under communism. Funder gives an insight into her work, Stasiland, including the dissidents and Stasi men that she interviewed and what they revealed about life in East Germany, 1945-1989. This resource includes the YouTube video and worksheet to accompany the video.

Activities for Section 2 Pages 48-95 of Peter Temple’s novel, The Broken Shore.

Hohenschonhausen Prison in East Berlin was a secret prison where dissidents were held, interrogated and tortured by the Stasi. This ezine article contains external photographs of the prison, photographs of the surveillance, interrogation and holding facilities. I have included extracts from Anna Funder’s Stasiland in which the author is taken on a tour of these rooms. The activities focus on the role of the facility in enforcing Stasi control over the German Democratic Republic. The resource can be used as part of a unit of work on the non-fiction text, Stasiland, as part of a unit on the Cold War, or as part of a unit on human rights.

Miriam Weber is the author’s inspiration for the investigative journalism behind Stasiland. This resource provides the character’s history, character, living with trauma and significance of her character to the text. The first activity requires students to look through Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 28 to discover Miriam’s personality and relationships. The second activity asks students to write an extended response to the question: To what extent has Miriam’s life been affected by the Stasi? In your response refer to: • Surveillance • Restricting personal freedoms • Denial of human rights • Torture • Concealing the truth. Students must use quotes from the text to support their response.

Activities for Chapters 7-13 of Romulus, My Father.

Sequencing activity for key events in the non-fiction text, Romulus, My Father.

This set of activities examine closely the passage in Chapter 13 where Anna Funder interviews Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler. Student activities relate to the subtle use of words and phrases to mean very different things by the interviewee and the interviewer, the way in which Funder interprets body language and tone of voice, the language used to indicate the interviewee genuinely believed in the values of the East German state and Funder’s views as explicitly expressed and suggested in the language used.

Assessment task on Raimond Gaita’s biography, Romulus My Father. The topic is: ‘Romulus’s life is marked by tragedy and chaos. Nevertheless, he never loses his passion for living.’ Discuss. The resource includes guidance for students including structure and language features of a discussion and a marking guide (rubric) to the question. The resource is designed for Australian Stage 6 students studying the VCE/HSC

Torture and its impact on people is a recurrent theme in Stasiland. This resource provides background information on what constitutes torture, reasons for torture, the legal status of torture, its impact on individuals and on whole societies. The resource provides photographs from the Hohenschönhausen Prison Museum and extracts from the text as a means to examine the impact of physical and psychological torture on characters in the text.