English Literature

Course summary

English Literature is ideal for students who enjoy reading; the course covers a range of texts from F Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ to Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. At Durham Johnston, we study AQA Specification A which has a historicist approach to the study of literature, working from the belief that no text exists in isolation but is the product of the time in which it was produced. An example of this is the unit on ‘Modern Times: literature from 1945 to the present day’, in which students study texts such as ‘The Color Purple’, considering how readers would respond to it at the time it was published and now; as well as how it reflects common themes and motifs of the period or genre. Furthermore, English Literature provides good scope for independent thinking in that the Non-Examination Unit is a piece that students choose themselves. With guidance, students select two texts of their choice and create their own questions. This leads to high engagement and highly engaging pieces of coursework.