This course provides students with the opportunity to read set texts, and others that they have selected for themselves, widely and independently, engaging critically and creatively with a substantial body of texts and ways of responding to them. Students develop and effectively apply their knowledge of literary analysis and evaluation, exploring the contexts of the texts they are reading and others’ interpretations of them. Students undertake independent and sustained studies to deepen their appreciation and understanding of English Literature, including its changing traditions. The purpose of Literature is, in Dryden’s happy formulation, ‘instruction and delight’. Nearly three hundred years later, no better definition exists. Students completing the A Level in English Literature have gone on to study many related subjects such as English Literature, Law, and Drama at University. The qualification is a broad-based platform that can lead to many careers such as Teaching, Law, and Journalism.