English Literature

Course summary

English Literature A Level offers students the opportunity to develop their literary analysis skills by engaging creatively and critically with a diverse range of novels, plays and poems from both the past and the present. You get to experience everything from Larkin’s frustration at fast moving consumerism, to Hamlet’s heart-breaking meditations on the limits of this world; from Duffy’s joyful observation regarding the beauty of how candle light has its own language, to admiring Jane Eyre’s resilience in the face of incredible suffering. In an increasingly polarised society, it is a course that will encourage students to empathise sensitively with others; in an age where communication is increasingly rushed through mobile phones, our course will unashamedly promote articulate, sophisticated views; finally, in an age where screens are seemingly inescapable, it will hopefully inspire you to no longer walk past that wonderful old second hand bookshop in your village and instead become one who reads for a lifetime. English Literature is not just about old dusty books; it’s an opportunity to come together and explore life’s great themes: love, death, identity, power, and the remarkable pain and privilege of being young.