Discovery

This Area of Study requires students to explore the ways in which the concept of discovery is represented in and
through texts. Through close language study, and by experimenting with different language choices, students will
examine how ideas about discovery vary.

Discovery can encompass the experience of discovering something for the first time or rediscovering something that
has been lost, forgotten or concealed. Discoveries can be sudden and unexpected, or they can emerge from a
process of deliberate and careful planning evoked by curiosity, necessity or wonder. Discoveries can be fresh and
intensely meaningful in ways that may be emotional, creative, intellectual, physical and spiritual. They can also be
confronting and provocative. They can lead us to new worlds and values, stimulate new ideas, and enable us to
speculate about future possibilities. Discoveries and discovering can offer new understandings and renewed
perceptions of ourselves and others.

An individuals discoveries and their process of discovering can vary according to personal, cultural, historical and
social contexts and values. The impact of these discoveries can be far-reaching and transformative for the individual
and for broader society. Discoveries may be questioned or challenged when viewed from different perspectives and
their worth may be reassessed over time. The ramifications of particular discoveries may differ for individuals and
their worlds.

By exploring the concept of discovery, students can understand how texts have the potential to affirm or challenge
individuals or more widely-held assumptions and beliefs about aspects of human experience and the world.
Through composing and responding to a wide range of texts, students may make discoveries about people,
relationships, societies, places and events and generate new ideas. By synthesising perspectives, students may
deepen their understanding of the concept of discovery. Students consider the ways composers may invite them to
experience discovery through their texts and explore how the process of discovering is represented using a variety
of language modes, forms and features.

In their responses and compositions, students examine, question, and reflect and speculate on:

their own experiences of discovery

the experience of discovery in and through their engagement with texts
assumptions underlying various representations of the concept of discovery

* * *

The process of discovery involves uncovering what is hidden and culminates to a confronting reassessment
of existing perceptions, thus stimulating an expanded awareness of humanity. Such is delineated in Robert Grays
free verse, post-pastoral poems Journey: the North Coast (1974) and Flames and Dangling Wire (1977), [through
uncovering mankinds hubris in exploiting nature to foster urbanisation, the persona and responders alike speculate
over their own actions to accompany an extended appreciation of nature] revealing discoveries of mankinds
dynamic relationship with nature to reshape ones identity and thereby augment human agency. Additionally, Steve
Cutts animated short Man (2012), by exposing mans relationship with the natural world, highlights the value of
provocative discoveries in altering an individuals perception of the world. As such, these texts elicit the dichotomy
of discovery in its ramifications that are inextricably linked to human purpose.

Confronting discoveries can evoke an altruistic purpose in augmenting ones agency to challenge societal
constructs stimulating a re-examination of perspectives. This is illuminated in Flames and Dangling Wire which is a
denunciation of the transient and over materialistic nature of contemporary society, presenting evocative insights
into the foreshadowed demise of mankind. Gray employs an assertive tone in the city, driven like stakes into the
earth alongside the simile which symbolises our merciless and violent imposition on nature. The narrator allows
readers to vicariously make a physical discovery through the metaphor landscape of tin cans, of cars like skulls
represents the dumping ground of our in built obsolescence. Combined with the strong olfactory imagery in the
smell is huge, blasting the mouth dry, the metaphorical suffocation of the environment in plastic sheets of heat
elucidates the personas physical discovery of our role in transforming the landscape into the depicted dystopian
wasteland. Yet, this confronting discovery also awakens a humanistic purpose as he self-reflexively asserts that the
always burning rubbish dump represents our future, revealing a newfound sense of agency in acknowledging
mankinds immoral corruption of nature. Indeed, Gray penultimately warns of societys current demise through the
intertextual allusion to Gericaults The Raft of the Medusa. This dramatically insinuates the collapse of civilisation
due to human short-sightedness, implying the human race will metaphorically drown in the sea of our own rubbish.
In positioning readers to discover the confronting truths of societys impact on the environment, Gray compels us to
exercise agency against mankinds moral incongruity, therein capturing discoveries as potentially transformative
processes to stimulate a reassessment of ones perspectives.

Analogously, Cutts exposes societys sanitisation of the destruction portrayed in Flames and Dangling Wire
articulating that discoveries of humanitys detachment from nature can instigate a reassessment of existing
perspectives to stimulate new ideas. This notion is substantiated in Man which illustrates blunt depictions of human
activity throughout time and their implications embodied by the protagonist. In Cutts portrayal of man, he
juxtaposes the establishing shot which reveals the tranquil, undisturbed state of nature with the sudden appearance
of man positioned in the centre of the shot capturing mankinds intrusion on the natural landscape. Cutts enables
audiences to vicariously rediscover our inherent perversion of nature through vignettes demonstrating mankinds
brutal slaughter of animals for recreation and food. Transitioning to the age of modern man, the protagonist
ironically wields a magical wand which is reflective of societys sense of instant gratification without consideration
of its underlying impacts on nature. Indeed, the arc shot of Mans triumphant stance atop a mountain of obsolete
machines combined with the background covered by black smoke and lightning, frames an apocalyptic image of
future society in a monochromatic hue. This parallels Grays dystopic depiction of future society serving as a caveat
to mankinds projected demise. In foregrounding the confronting truth of our devastating impact on the
environment, Cutts similarly compels audiences to exercise human agency against societys sanitisation of
confronting issues, therein demonstrating the propensity of discoveries to facilitate a shift in perspectives.

Gray demonstrates the discovery of the natural landscape as influential, evincing its psychologically
transformative ability to enrich ones personal identity in facilitating the individual desire for an authentic
reassessment of our personal mindset. This is explored in Journey: the North Coast, depicting a personas release
from the afflictions of metropolitan areas in journeying to the countryside. In Grays portrayal of the train that
booms and cracks, the use of harsh onomatopoeia stylistically emulates the devastation of mankinds natural state
of being by the mechanised world as it metaphorically tears the wind apart. This focus on the auditory and tactile
imagery associated with mans machinations starkly contrasts the connotation of fertility in the banks of fern and a
red bank full of roots. Such dynamic juxtaposition captures the evolving dialectic between ones interior identity
and exterior environment encapsulating discovery of natural landscapes as a conduit to catalyse the maturation of
personal identity. Indeed, the pathetic fallacy as the train bursts open on the sea conveys the feelings of freedom
and vitality to represent the liberation of the personas inner psyche, suggesting a process of discovery to enable
ones desire to break free from societal moulds. The personas ruffled hair symbolises his acceptance of this new
found discovery symbolically represented as he conclusively press[ed] down the latches. With a motive for
personal enrichment, the personas definitive tone in I rise into the mirror rested reveals the culmination of
discovering the natural landscape in its ability to enrich the human psyche by returning man to a more cathartic
state of being. Thus, this ultimately expresses that discoveries of the natural landscape can transform ones identity
catalysing individual growth.

Therefore, we recognise that the process of discovery involves uncovering what is hidden and culminates to
a confronting reassessment of existing perceptions, thus stimulating an expanded awareness of humanity. The
aforementioned texts by Gray and Cutt exemplify literature as a platform for readers to vicariously undergo their
own self-discovery, enlightening them of their position within the world.