English Literature

Course summary

The course covers a wide range of texts from across genres and historical periods including novels, plays and poetry. The coursework unit at A level also allows for independent text choices. The course builds on and develops skills used at GCSE English but you will find it more demanding. You will have to start considering how contextual information affects the way we read a text (for example how Shakespeare’s plays reflect the worries and controversies of Elizabethan London) – and relate your ideas to how other people have analysed the text in the past.