English Literature

Assessment

Shakespeare (typically, ‘The Tempest’) Drama and Poetry pre-1900 (typically, Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ and Chaucer’s ‘The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale’) A genre-based unit, which could be one of the following depending on the teacher: • American Fiction (Main texts: Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ and Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’) • Dystopian Fiction (Main texts: Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’) • Gothic Fiction (Main texts: Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ and Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’) A coursework unit on texts from post-1900, comprising two separate essays: • A 1000 word close reading response to a chosen poem from an anthology of work by a particular poet (typically either Seamus Heaney or Sylvia Plath) • A 2000 word comparative response to a novel (typically Levy’s ‘Small Island’) and a play (typically Williams’ ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’)