English Literature

Course summary

General course description: Aspects of Tragedy (closed book examination): Students will study Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, a selection of poetry by Keats, and ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller. They will learn the key features of the tragic genre and apply them to these texts, analyzing the texts through the lens of tragedy. Elements of Crime (open book examination): Students will study ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Coleridge, ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ by Agatha Christie, ‘When Will There Be Good News?’ by Kate Atkinson, and a selection of poetry by George Crabbe, Robert Browning, and Oscar Wilde. They will study the key features of crime writing and apply these to the texts as well as unseen crime texts, analyzing the texts through the lens of crime. Theory and Independence (NEA unit): The students will study the following critical theories: Feminism, Marxism, Eco-criticism, Value, and the Canon and Narrative theory. The study of English Literature can take you many places. It is a facilitating subject which can help access many career pathways and courses in Higher Education.