English Literature

Course summary

This is a linear course covering the study of a range of literary texts of different periods (including pre-1900 and post-2000 writing) grouped by genre (for example, comedy or tragedy; crime or political and social protest writing). Over the course of the two year A level course, students will study at least eight texts, two of which will be drama, two prose and two poetry. Students will have the opportunity to explore connections between texts and how texts might be interpreted in a multiplicity of ways, enriched by a reading of a range of critical theory. In the second year of the course, they will have the opportunity to choose their own texts for study in the “Theory and Independence” unit of the course. Students need to be prepared to engage in detailed textual analysis, creative and independent interpretive thinking, and regular and rigorous essay writing.