A Level English Literature September 2012 A Guide

Unit 1: Aspects of Narrative (60% of AS, 30% of A level) Aim: to introduce students to the importance of narrative in the ways in which literary texts work. The focus is upon how narratives are constructed by authors, and the different ways in which they can be responded to by readers. Two prose texts (one is post 1990) Two poetry texts (1800 – 1945) Exam: 2 hours

Unit 1: Prose Set Texts List Two novels are studied from this list: – Arundhati RoyThe God of Small Things – Cormac McCarthyThe Road – Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture – Khaled HosseiniThe Kite Runner – Andrea LevySmall Island – Ian McEwanEnduring Love – Jane AustenPride and Prejudice – Charles DickensGreat Expectations – D H LawrenceShort Stories – F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Great Gatsby

Unit 1: Poetry Set Texts List Selections from two poets are studied: – Alfred Tennyson – Robert Browning – Samuel Taylor Coleridge – W H Auden – Robert Frost – Christina Rossetti

Unit 1: Mode of Assessment The examination is open book There are two sections to the paper: – Section A: a choice of questions about all of the set texts, one question on one text will be answered. You will have to comment in detail on the narrative method of an extract and then relate this to the wider concerns of the text as a whole. – Section B: a choice of two questions, one is answered. You will be asked to explore aspects of narrative across three texts you have studied.

Unit 2: Dramatic Genres 40% of AS, 20% of A level Aim: to introduce students to key aspects of genre Two written coursework assignments, each of words: – A study of an aspect of comedy with regard to a Shakespeare play. – A study of an aspect of comedy with regard to at least one other play. – One of the pieces can be in the form of a re-creative exercise accompanied by a commentary.

Unit 3: Texts and Genres (30% of A level) Aim: to develop ideas on the significance of genre which have been established during the AS course. You will study either: Elements of the Gothic or Elements of the Pastoral. Individual texts are explored and evaluated against some of the commonly accepted principles of the genre. At least three texts are studied and one of those must be from the period Exam: 2 hours

Unit 3: Gothic Set Text List – William ShakespeareMacbeth – Christopher MarloweDr Faustus – John WebsterThe White Devil – Thomas MiddletonThe Changeling – Geoffrey ChaucerThe Pardoner’s Tale Post 1800 – Mary ShelleyFrankenstein – Emily BrontëWuthering Heights – Jane AustenNorthanger Abbey – Angela CarterThe Bloody Chamber

Unit 3: Pastoral Set Text List – VariousSelection of poetry from Andrew Marvell, John Milton, Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith and William Wordsworth – William ShakespeareAs you Like It – Oliver GoldsmithShe Stoops to Conquer – William BlakeSongs of Innocence and of Experience Post 1800 – Tom StoppardArcadia – Thomas HardyTess of the D’Urbervilles – Evelyn WaughBrideshead Revisited – Graham SwiftWaterland – VariousSelection of poetry from Dylan Thomas, Philip Larkin, Elizabeth Jennings, U.A.Fanthorpe, Norman MacCaig, R.S.Thomas and Tony Harrison

Unit 3: Mode of Assessment The examination is closed book There are two sections to the paper: – Section A: a choice of questions about all of the set texts, one question on one text will be answered. – Section B: a choice of three questions, one is answered. You will be asked to compare aspects of your topic across three texts you have studied.

Unit 4: Further and Independent Reading (20% of A level) Aim: to introduce students to the study of a wide range of texts, some of which will be of your choosing. Two written coursework assignments: – A comparative study of an aspect of two texts of your choice ( words). – The application of critical ideas taken from the pre-released anthology or texts of your own choice ( words).

Unit 4: Further and Independent Reading Example Tasks Focusing on Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day and Pinter’s The Servant as starting points, but ranging more widely if you wish, compare some of the ways authors use servants in their stories. Based on your reading of the critical material, write an argument for the inclusion (or exclusion) of an author of your choice into the A Level Literature canon of texts.