English Literature

Course summary

Are you passionate about reading? Do you love to look closely at texts, analyzing exactly what ideas are being explored and how the language works? Studying English Literature at A Level will allow you to study some of the most interesting fiction, poetry, and drama of both past and more recent times. You will be able to discuss and consider the ideas expressed in several texts as well as the literary techniques that writers have used to create their messages. You will study at least 8 texts including prose, poetry, and drama across the course as a whole. In addition, you will be prepared for an examination on an unseen text in the genre of poetry. Coursework will be part of your final grade too (20%) and you will complete a 3000-word comparison of two novels. The first year of the course will focus on: 1. Poetry – Modern post-2000 poetry 2. Drama – Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello 3. Prose – A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini In the second year, the course will extend and develop your knowledge and understanding of the three key forms of literature: 1. Prose – Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 2. Drama – A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams 3. Poetry – Selected poems of John Keats Coursework will be prepared in the first year and completed in the second.