Doppelganger

TEACHING UNIT ON

DOPPELGANGER

By Amanda Kaye with Michael Parker

© Amanda Kaye

EXPLANATION FOR TEACHERS: WHY STUDY IT?

Why study Michael Parker’s Doppelganger? There are as many different reasons as there are classes to teach. • Maybe because it is a thrilling page-turner that will engage everyone from reluctant readers to the very able. • Maybe because you are looking for something new that deals in a complex way with the issues of good and evil, moral responsibility, identity and personal choices. • Maybe because you are looking for an accessible, yet rich, text for a comparative study with a year 10 class. Doppelganger could be used as a ‘transformation’ text with Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, or in a more thematic comparative study with Golding’s Lord of the Flies or perhaps even Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. • Maybe because this unit has done all of the preparation work for you (even outcomes). The qualities of Doppelganger are perhaps best summed up in the opening paragraph of the ‘Cover Book Review’ that Magpies magazine (Vol 21) gave the novel. It stated: ‘Parker’s dysfunctional society, where anything soft is treated with contempt, is characterized by the same energy and vitality of The Lord of the Flies or The Chocolate War. His shadow world that co-exists with present day Sydney is so convincingly rendered that reading this novel is a compelling and chilling adventure. What makes it an even more fascinating experience is that it also explores the concept of guilt by association.’

Different types of classes.

This unit has been developed to help classroom teachers to get the most out of teaching Michael Parker’s Doppelganger in a variety of contexts and to classes of differing abilities. a) If you are using this with a mixed ability class, you might find the following activities to be central: • Doppelganger and you: Personal Response • The Jerry Springer Show • The Website. b) If you are teaching a high ability class or are looking...