English Literature

Course summary

A Level English Literature, from the exam board AQA, aims to build on skills gained at Key Stage 4. Specifically, it aims to encourage students to: • read widely and independently, both set texts and others that they have selected for themselves; • engage critically and creatively with a substantial body of texts and ways of responding to them; • develop, and effectively apply, their knowledge of literary analysis and evaluation; • explore the contexts of the texts they are reading and others’ interpretation of them. During the course, students will complete three units of study: • Literary Genres: Tragedy - A Shakespeare play, a second drama text and one further text pre-1900; • Texts and Genres: Elements of Crime Writing - a post-2000 novel, one collection of poetry and one further text pre-1900; • Non-Exam Assessment: two essays of 1,250-1,500 each, on a different text - one poetry and one prose.