English Literature

Course summary

The course is suited to students who enjoy reading and exploring literature and have a creative mind. English Literature Paper One – Aspects of Tragedy Section A: Shakespeare extract question- The exam will present you with an extract from ‘Othello’, you will be required to analyse the tragedy conventions within the extract and link this then to the play as a whole. ‘Othello’ will be studied in this unit. Section B: One essay set Shakespeare text. ‘Othello’ will be studied in the unit. Section C: One essay question linking two texts: one modern tragic text is studied (‘Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller) and one pre-1900 text (John Keats poetry). Written exam: 2 hours 30 minutes, Closed book, 75 marks, 40% of A-level English Literature Paper Two- Elements of Social and Political Protest Writing (3 hours, open book exam) Section A: One compulsory question on an unseen passage. Section B: One essay question on set text. Students study three texts within the unit, they must choose one for this question. Section C: One essay question which connects two texts. Students will use the two other texts studied to answer this question Texts studied: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood, ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini and ‘Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience’ by William Blake. Written Exam: 3 hours, Open book, 75 marks, 40% of A-level Non-exam assessment: theory and independence Study of two texts: one poetry and one prose text, informed by study of the Critical Anthology Two essays of 1250–1500 words, each responding to a different text and linking to a different aspect of the Critical anthology. One essay can be re-creative. The re-creative piece will be accompanied by a commentary.