Appendix: Written work for application to the Foundation Year in Arts and Humanities (2017)

Please write an essay of between 1,000 and 1,500 words, following the instructions given below. The work should be emailed to [email protected] no later than Friday 10th March. Please be sure to state your name on the essay.

If you have any questions about how to approach this essay, please e-mail Richard Pettigrew at [email protected].

The essay should address the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ and should compare and contrast two of the works from the list below.

Choose two of the five options:

• • a poem called ‘Two lorries’ by Seamus Heaney;

• • a painting called ‘Five’ by Lubaina Himid;

• • an extract from Representation by Stuart Hall;

• • an extract from What does it all mean? by Thomas Nagel;

• • a film of your choice, or a particular scene from a film.

Please note that no wider/further research or reading is expected or required in completing this essay. We are looking for responses that engage with two of these works as they are presented here. You should respond to the question and to two of the works in your own words and in your own way.

If you are unsure how to start or how to structure your essay, you may wish to think about some or all of the following questions:

• • How do the works you have chosen address the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ Do they address this question directly or indirectly? What conclusions are reached about what it means to be human (or to be a ‘person’)? What is seen as important to, essential in, or of value for a human life in this work?

• • How is each work structured? How does it start and end? What does it include or exclude? What kind of language is used (if relevant)?

• • Is there anything you are particularly interested by in each work, which relates to its presentation of what human life is like or has been like in the past? Why does this particular aspect of the work interest you?

• • Did you learn anything new from either or both of the works about what it means to be human?