Individual and Collective Human Experiences:
The Common Module requires you to analyse how your text represents the “individual and collective human experience”.
The “human experience”, for the purposes of the module, encompasses a few different things. All of it revolves around one main question: what it means to be human?
This usually involves an analysis of the nature of our behaviour. Why do we act the way we do? What causes us to act the way we do?
According to the rubric, you need to consider these questions on both the individual and the collective level. The individual human experience is best explored through looking inwards: think about how the feelings inside us affect our actions and beliefs. The collective human experience is observed through looking at the world around us: think about how our environment plays into the way we think and live.
Some things you could write about in relation to the individual human experience are:
- What are some emotions or qualities that all people can relate to? For example, you could explore the universal nature of greed, hatred, love or grief.
- How do these emotions or qualities influence how we act?
- What feelings or beliefs motivate us to do what we do? Are we more motivated by selfishness or by our beliefs?
- For your prescribed text, ask these questions for each of its main characters.
Some things you could write about in relation to the collective human experience are:
- What kind of values and beliefs are commonly held in a person’s society? How do these values and beliefs affect the person’s behaviour?
- For example, you might consider how a very religious Christian society may promote the values of mercy and faith, and then think about how these values are reflected amongst the people in that society.
- Another example could be how a patriarchal society may degrade and objectify women. You might analyse how this affects the status and behaviour of women and men in that society.
- For your prescribed text, you could consider whether the characters go with or against the grain of their society. Or maybe they aren’t affected by society at all!
- What are some labels or assumptions that a society places upon its people? Are these labels and assumptions always appropriate and justified?
- For example, a prejudiced society may associate a certain race with evil or inferiority.
- You should explore how the characters in your text challenge and interact with the labels and preconceptions placed upon them.
A good Common Module essay should include a deep analysis of how a text reflects and explores the individual and collective human experiences, as well as how the two interact. This last bit is crucial. The individual and collective experience are not independent ideas—each affects the other in very important ways. Your argument here would depend on the text you are studying. In the Merchant of Venice, for example:
- You could argue that the individual characters resist the values and assumptions of their society.
- Shylock, a Jewish man, is depicted as evil and greedy by the Christian characters—he challenges this through humanising himself as a victim of prejudice.
- Portia, a female character, challenges traditional gender roles by being well-spoken and opinionated.
Anomalies, paradoxes and contradictions
If you think all this is complicated, don’t worry—that’s the point! The rubric requires that you explore how your text “may give insight into the anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies in human behaviour and motivations”. This is a complicated way of saying: “The world is complicated. People are complicated. It is hard to define them because they are complicated”.
In your analysis of how the human experience is reflected in your text, you will realise it is impossible to find one all-inclusive rule that explains the behaviour of each and every character. They always contradict themselves in one way or another. This is no cause for concern. In fact, you should incorporate this into your analysis as an example of the “anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies” of the human experience.
There you go—if you ever get lost in the complexity of the Common Module, just remember that it’s only as complex as we are!
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