English Language and Literature

Course summary

During the two-year course, you will read and discuss some fantastic pieces of literature to help you become a more analytical reader. In year 12 the emphasis is on telling stories and how and why people tell stories. To do this we will be reading Dracula. We read this to explore the methods Bram Stoker uses to create a sense of place and character and why this novel is a product of the very late 19th century. Also in year 12, we look at how Carol Ann Duffy creates strong voices in poetry. Duffy was a poet laureate and is still writing poetry. All of her poetry is focused on the individual and their experiences and studying her poetry is like reading a short story. Both of these texts appear in an exam at the end of year 13. During year 12 we will also dip in and out of a non-fiction anthology which contains lots of prose texts about Paris. This is also on the exam at the end of year 13 and you will be given two extracts from the anthology to compare.