English Literature

Course summary

The OCR course is unashamedly ambitious, covering a wide range of texts and genres: Renaissance dramas like John Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ and William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’; John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’; Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ and Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’, as well as a range of literature written post-1900, such as Tennessee William’s ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, and at least one text written post- 2000, such as Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Feminine Gospels’. The coursework component offers freedom in terms of task choice; all students write a comparative essay on a question of their choice and can then choose between a critical analysis, or a re-creative piece and commentary.