AS Course Outline

What Do You Study in English Literature?
The Study of English literature requires aptitude in a number of areas

• Reading a variety of specified literary texts;
• Essay-writing skills including the handling of complex syntax, the planning of a critical
argument and the use of references to support an argument;
• The command of critical vocabulary; and
• A grasp of how historical and cultural contexts shape the meanings of literary texts.

The AQA English Literature syllabus (Spec B) consists of one examination module (2 hours – open book) and one coursework module (two pieces each 1500 words) at AS level. The examination set texts vary considerably from Prose pre 1900 and post 1900 to Poetry 1800-1945. Two novels and two poetry texts must be studied. Some of the texts are:

• Ian McEwan Enduring Love
• F Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
• Alfred Lord Tennyson Selected Poetry
• Thomas Hardy Selected Poetry

The coursework is centered round the genre of TRAGEDY and texts include:

• Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman
• William Shakespeare Othello

In lessons the focus is on close textual reading and understanding of chosen texts, and on knowing how to meet the assessment objectives set by examiners. Homework usually involves close reading, essay planning and writing and research methodology.

Essay Writing

• The nuts and bolts of writing a clear sentence
• What is a sentence? How to diagram a sentence
• Punctuation: using full-stops, commas, colons, semi-colons and the apostrophe
• Co-ordinating conjunctions in the long sentence
• The use of appropriate and formal language

The Fiction Toolkit

• Narrator, narrative voice and point of view
• How thoughts are presented: direct speech, indirect speech, free direct speech
• Characterisation
• Tone, language and setting

The Poetry Toolkit

• Imagery: metaphor, simile, personification, sibilance etc
• Form: sonnets, stanzas, quatrains and couplet
• Repetition and litany
• Metre, rhyme, rhythm and memorability
• Enjambement and caesura
• Other devices: hyperbole, onomatopoeia, alliteration and assonance
• Tone: formal and informal language, archaisms etc
• Narrator: lyric, narrative, the ode and the dramatic monologue

The Drama Toolkit

• Defining plots: exposition, dramatic incitement, complication, crisis, and resolution in tragedy and comedy
• Style: naturalism and expressionism
• Dialogue, asides and soliloquy
• Character
• Irony
• Genre

Structure of the Course

This course will be taught for 6 lessons per week. Homework will be set weekly and deadlines must be adhered to.