Newington English Extension 2 Students Celebrated for Outstanding Literary Works
In a newspaper interview Paul Lynch gave after winning the 2023 Booker Prize Award for his novel, Prophet Song in which he imagines Ireland’s descent into authoritarian rule, the writer explained his raison d’etre.
‘Dostoevsky wanted to know how much human being is in a human being. I consider that my project.’
Taking a page out of Lynch’s book to interrogate the intricacies of the human condition, three Newington Year 12 English Extension 2 students recently had their outstanding HSC major works recognised and nominated for NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Young Writers Showcase anthology.
‘We are delighted with the level of sophistication, nuance and craft these Newington writers Stylianos V, Harry B and Henry R brought to the complexities of their Major Works,’ says Director of Teaching and Learning, Dr Michael Marokakis.
‘These works are of the highest standard in the most challenging HSC English course, and we are immensely proud of our students’ achievements.’
Stylianos V wrote an incisive critical response entitled Defamiliarising Putin, which examined how Mikhail Shishkin’s novel Maidenhair ushers in a new contemporary and subversive form of Russian literature. Published in 2005, Mikhail Shishkin is considered one of Russia’s most exciting contemporary writers described on occasion by some as a mix between Leo Tolstoy and James Joyce. His work explores the cruelty and beauty of our world, and humans’ place in it.
Stylianos explains, ‘My intention was to explore the capacity for literature to intercede and dismantle political narratives in a world of increasingly divisive and dangerous political populism.
‘The urgency of Russian literature, such as Mikhail Shishkin’s Maidenhair in its post-structuralist deconstruction of the revivalist Soviet metanarratives evident in Putin’s Russia drew my attention toward the narratological power of literature to expose and dismantle culturally encoded ideologies that have come to be accepted, monolithic truths.’
Fellow student Harry B took a closer to home, provocative short fiction approach. Entitled An Artist Statement, Harry’s writing follows biographer Sandra as she is commissioned to write an article for The Australian newspaper about the opening exhibition of Brett Whiteley’s artistic autobiography, Alchemy, which was originally shown at the AGNSW in 1972-1973. Harry’s story explores the life of the brilliant, complex Whiteley and our capacity to ever know someone through their art.
Says Harry, ‘my purpose in this short fiction is to contend life-writing’s claim to authenticity as a traditionally realist, non-fictional form and postmodernism’s rejection of a singular, discernible identity of the subject; a contention reified by the paradoxes of Whiteley’s surrealist and postmodern autobiographical artwork, Alchemy, which forms both the frame structure and historical setting of my story.’
Henry R also wrote an evocative short fiction piece which examined another famous creator and his inspirations and challenges. Entitled A New Kind of Walk, Henry’s writing follows the life of famous jazz musician, Ray Charles as he rises above his circumstances to discover his passion and talent for music.
‘My intention was to uncover the power of music as a medium for emotional expression, interrogating how music socially mobilises my protagonist, Ray – a blind, African American orphan traversing a deeply discriminative socio-political 1940s North American context,’ Henry explains.
‘My piece presents the inevitable resistance to residual colonial oppression through musical expression, subverting the cultural malice towards Afro-American identity in America’s Southern States in the 1940s.’
The Young Writers Showcase presents a selection of outstanding major works by HSC English Extension 2 students in NSW across a range of literary genres including creative fiction, poetry, essay, podcast and more.
Each year nominations are awarded to a few from a cohort of approximately 1500 students studying English Extension 2. A final shortlist of approximately 20 students is then taken from nominations. These students’ works will be celebrated at the Young Writers Showcase at the Sydney Writers Festival in May 2025.
This year more than 30 Newington students received nominations in NESA’s HSC Showcase selections. These include nominations in ENCORE for outstanding major works by HSC Music students in performance and musicology; OnSTAGE for outstanding major works by HSC Drama students in individual and group performance, and individual projects; SHAPE for outstanding major projects by HSC Design and Technology, Industrial Technology and Textiles and Design student, and the Young Writers Showcase. Nominations for ARTEXPRESS for outstanding major works in visual arts will be announced mid-November and exhibited across galleries in NSW from February 2025.
