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Scottish Short Stories : Anne Donovan - 'All That Glisters'

Scottish Short Stories : Anne Donovan - 'All That Glisters'
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Key Info
  • Scottish Short Stories : Anne Donovan - 'All That Glisters'
  • Duration: 05:56
  • Anne Donovan describes her inspiration for the text and describes her own feelings of childish joy when she used the glitter pens. She highlights the importance of colour in the story describing our reaction to death being silence and rejection of colour, but Clare celebrates life through colour. The author explains that she chose to write about a child in the transition years as this enabled her to explore a character who is aware of some adult experiences and yet still a child. Donovan finally talks about the differences between a novel and short story. She draws parallels with a poem through its 'resonance' and describes the ending as simply resonating without having to tie everything up.
  • Subject:

    English

       Topic:

    Fiction Post 1900: United Kingdom

  • Keywords: childhood, Scottish, short story, symbolism, death, asbestos, English, fiction
Ideas for use in class
  • Can be used for introducing the art of short story writing, particularly the techniques of symbolism and plot structure. Get the class to identify areas of symbolism as many of the ideas in the text are based around symbolism: the pens, Claire's name and light at the end. Try to get students to identify how structure is used to create suspense. After watching the clip, students could be asked to work out in groups what the main themes were which appeared in the story: growing up, belief in oneself, death, childhood. Get the class to suggest what Clare's language conveys about her character, the setting and what relationship it creates between the reader and the narrator. This is a good story for looking at narrative technique. Students could also try to identify the blending of first person narrative with dialogue. The clip could be used further to explore concepts of death and grief.
Background details
  • Clip language : English
  • Aspect ratio : 16x9
Video options
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