A2 LL - QUESTION AND NOTES ON FAT IS UGLY

Question FAT IS UGLY by Angela Carter

Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs Eleanor Mills (Ed.)

Read the source material which follows and answer both questions:

The extract is from a book review. The review is entitled FAT IS UGLY by Angela Carter. The book she is reviewing is by Maria Palazzoli.

The review was first published in Cosmopolitan in 1980.

Read from ‘My parents at this stage thought I was batty…’ on page 293 to the end of the review on page 294.

Imagine that you are writing a biography on the life of Angela Carter. And you are writing a section on her early twenties and the affect that anorexia nervosa has had on her development.

Using the source material, write the text of the article.

You should adapt the source material, using your own words as far as possible. Your article should be approximately 300 – 400 words in length.

 In your adaptation you should:

• use language appropriately to address purpose and audience

• write accurately and coherently, applying relevant ideas and concepts.

 (25 marks)

 AND

 Question 3

 Write a commentary which explains the choices you made when writing your article

commenting on the following:

• how language and form have been used to suit audience and purpose

• how vocabulary and other stylistic features have been used to shape meaning and

achieve particular effects.

 

You should aim to write about 150 – 250 words in this commentary.

(15 marks)

Menarche: “The first menstrual period, usually occurring during puberty.”

NOTES ON FAT IS UGLY – FOR QUESTION

 ·         A very troubled period in her life

 ·         Considered disturbed by her parents
 ·         Became friends with other odd people
 ·         Had a job as a journalist on  a local newspaper – found some peace
·         Carter did not eat bread for 10 years
·         Did not eat sugar or other sweet food for 17 years
·         Began to heal body returning to normal
·         Changed from being passive to being difficult at home
·         Parents left her alone – a degree of autonomy

• o   Mental illness common among women on her mother’s side

·         She felt her adolescent body was a powerful enemy against her
·         She felt her body was a stranger to herself
·         But – thankfully – she was left alone – no medication
·         Carter believes like Palazzoli that psychotherapy is the appropriate treatment for this condition
·         Anorexics believe that emaciation is equal to emancipation – Carter believed this
·         It was only afterward witnessing an inquest of a anorexic she realised she had anorexia
·         Although suicide is common with anorexia patients Carter never experienced this feeling