Dear 5th Year Types,

I promised and now I have delivered. Herewith are links to not one, not two, but three documents you may find useful in your study as you hurtle headlong towards your exams. Firstly I have fashioned a link to my notes on Psycho. They are based on an essay by the film critic Robin Wood on the film from 1965. The notes are a mishmash of his ideas and mine. They should give you a broader sense of the film and its themes/ideas. You can read his original essay on Google Books just here, if you care to. It is well worth it.  He was one of the earliest critics to claim Psycho is a masterpiece, not just some ordinary film.

Secondly, you can access Mr Montgomery’s notes on Psycho here. His notes focus on analysing the key scenes involving Marion. They are the very ones we have used to structure some of our study in class.

Finally, I have created a diamond-encrusted interweb path to a version of my PowerPoint on the (say in a deep, resonant, slightly evil voice) Triangle of Analysis. It seems to have had a significant effect on the quality of your responses to analysis questions in Close Reading already. It is well worth your while continuing to attempt to complete questions using it as practice for your final exam. The more you practice the method and get used to it, the more flexible you will become in you approach to applying it, as you become confident in what the questions expect from you.

Now for those of you who have struggled with clicking on the links above, below are some obvious links to the documents in question:

Psycho Notes MK

Psycho notes MM

The Triangle of Analysis

Please let me know if it would be useful to have other documents linked to on this blog. Happy to oblige.

Your ever so ‘umble servant and curmudgeonly old git of a teacher,

Mr K.