A2 English Literature

AS/A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE

AQA (1-2 years)

Our vision is all about enriching your cultural capital,helping you fulfilyour aspirations, supporting you as an independent thinker and giving you the opportunity to feel proud of your achievements.

This course promotes articulate and engaged debate and provides a breadth of ideas about a rich variety of literature, culture and criticism. It will create confidence in you as an autonomous reader and help you develop your expressive and analytical skills. You should enjoy reading and discussing your response as the text is at the heart of all our lessons. Whilst there will be research and reading assignments, assessment is mainly through essays so you should be confident of your skills in that area.

Course Content

AS Level

The focus here is on comparing the way stories are told and thereby construct different realities. You will:

• pay close attention to how narrative works in two novels and in the work of two poets
• make connections across texts through exploring their narratives
• be introduced to notions of genre through the study of drama: a Shakespeare and a modern tragedy

Texts we have studied recently include plays such as 'King Lear,' 'A Streetcar Named Desire,' and 'A Taste of Honey,' novels such as 'The Kite Runner,' 'The Great Gatsby,' 'Pride and Prejudice,' and 'Enduring Love', and poetry from writers such as Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

A2 Level

We build on AS by looking in more detail at the way texts reproduce cultural meanings; and by considering the ways in which texts can be subjected to different types of critical approach yielding different and potentially challenging interpretations.

You will:

• broaden your understanding of genre
• extend your independent reading
• extend your awareness of critical methods and readings

At A2 we will be studying Gothic Literature including such texts as 'Wuthering Heights', 'Dr Faustus,' 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'Frankenstein.' There will also be free choice of text for one half of the coursework and a comparative essay for the second part.

Methods of Teaching

Each student is taught by a team of two teachers and much of the work in class is done in discussion groups - both large and small - with topics sometimes being presented by the students themselves or through the use of a variety of media. As well as developing a wide understanding of the texts, we focus on the student's writing skills and critical technique. You will have many opportunities to participate in activites such as theatre trips (including a residential stay in Stratford-upon-Avon), background lectures and workshops. Every year we stage an Open Air Shakespeare Production in the grounds of the college. Thereare also opportunities for journalism and creative writing with our associated activities.

Methods and Patterns of Assessment

Some 60% of the final mark will be assessed through one end of year exam. In both years this concentrates on the close study of one text, followed by a comparative essay of three different texts. 40% of the final mark is made up of coursework: in AS this will be on Tragedy, both Shakespearian and contemporary; in A2 there will be afree choice and a comparative assignment.

Financial Implications

Students will have a free poetry anthology but will be expected to buy their other texts: around four in the Lower VI (around £25 overall) and at least four in the Upper VI (again around £25). The College has a Student Support Fund for those students who have difficulty meeting these costs.

Career Possibilities

A level English Literature leads on naturally to Higher Education courses in English and other Arts or Humanities subjects, including Law. The subject also provides a useful entry qualification for careers in advertising, writing, the media - including radio and television - journalism, drama, education, social and local administrative services, librarianship, office work, personnel and industrial management, and a wide range of professions.