English Literature

Course summary

Each term your tutors will lead you through a study of set texts for the examination, while in the second year of the full A Level course there is a modest non-exam assessment component (20% of your overall grade). In Lower Sixth, we currently focus on the genre of Tragedy and the compulsory study of a Shakespeare play, in this case ‘Othello’, is taught alongside Hardy’s ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ and Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’. Meanwhile, as we progress through to Upper Sixth, our focus shifts to the crime genre. Here you will study a number of set texts including Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ and the postmodern novel ‘When Will There Be Good News.’