English Literature

Course summary

YEAR 12 COURSE CONTENT Aspects of Narrative To begin the year students will explore what the building blocks of narrative are through the study of a ‘classic’ work of literature from the literary canon. Using this text students will think about how stories are written and constructed. Students will also look at different ‘critical lenses’ that can be applied to writers and their texts, opening up interesting interpretations and readings. These include Marxism,Feminism,Post-colonialism,Ecocriticism,Narrative and Literary value Aspects of Comedy “Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.” In year 12, you will cover the texts and critical material for Paper 1b of the A Level course. You will study two comic dramas: Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ and Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. You will also study the AQA comic poetry collection, which includes: ‘The Flea’, ‘Tam o’ Shanter’, ‘A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General’, ‘Sunny Prestatyn’, ‘Mrs Sisyphus’, ‘Not My Best Side’, ‘My Rival’s House’. You will also look in-depth at the genre of comedy, at what makes us laugh and how comedies are structured and why. NEA Students will begin independent explorations into a prose and poetic text of their choice. Using the critical lenses students will construct a question to explore in their chosen text, producing two 1500 word essays worth 20% of the overall mark. YEAR 13 COURSE CONTENT In year 13, you will cover the course for Paper 2, as well as completing your essays for the ‘Non-Exam Assessment’ and revisiting ‘Aspects of Comedy’. Aspects of Political and Social Protest Writing “Writing was a political act and poetry was a cultural weapon.” In year 13, you will cover the texts and critical material for paper 2b. Like ‘Aspects of Comedy’, this section of the course asks you to gain a good understanding of the whole genre of political and social protest writing. You will cover various extracts from political writing to track the development of the genre. The focus will be on the seminal 19th Century play ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen - exploring the repressive nature of 19th century society in relation to both women and men. There is also an exploration of more modern literature through the hugely successful and highly emotional Khaled Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’ exploring the political inequality of Afghanistan in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Finally, there is an is an exploration of poetry from the turbulent 1980s by North-Eastern poet Tony Harrison - looking at some very relatable issues from our recent regional past.