English Literature

Course summary

Who is this course aimed at? This course is aimed at those who enjoy reading but also at those who wish to better understand their own and others, ' experiences of the world as a human being. It helps to foster ideas about what it means to be human and about the fundamental importance of stories in human experience. It teaches students how to examine their own and others’ motivations, how to examine complex ideas critically, and how to better express their own opinions persuasively and comprehensively. A large part of the course focuses on examining ideas from multiple viewpoints. You will learn to appreciate the role of gender, race, and class in the construction of texts and how these viewpoints reflect or challenge the ideas of the society that produced them. Year 12 Unit 1 Aspects of Tragedy: The development of the Aristotelian tradition of tragic drama includes close reading of King Lear by Shakespeare (c1604), Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1948), and A Collection of poems by John Keats (c1820). Year 13: Unit 3: Non-examined Unit comprises of two pieces of coursework of approximately 1,500 words each, one focused on a novel and the other on a poetry collection, both of the student’s own choice. Each approaches literary criticism from a specific viewpoint – Marxist, feminist, post-colonial, ecocritical or narrative theory.