English Literature

OCR

Samuel Coleridge defined poetry as ‘the best words in the best order’ and the English Literature course gives you the enduring pleasure of reading the very best of words in a wide range of literary texts (poems, novels, plays) from the sixteenth century to the present day. You get to read and write about a variety of challenging and rewarding writers, while learning the skills of close textual analysis, how to use evidence to support and develop arguments, and how to express ideas clearly and accurately.

AS English Literature

At AS your work focuses principally on writing from the twentieth century. An examined unit explores a novel and a poet: we’ll consider Joseph Conrad’s gripping and eerily prophetic The Secret Agent, a story of anarchists, detectives and suicide bombers in late nineteenth century London which features two of the most inventive deaths in English Literature, alongside the poetry of either Edward Thomas or W.B. Yeats.

For coursework, you study two texts linked by themes, aspects of form or shared context. We will look at two celebrated and controversial contemporary plays like Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, David Hare’s The Secret Rapture, Patrick Marber’s Closer and Sarah Kane’s Blasted. You also undertake a close critical response to a poem or prose extract which you can choose for yourself.

Assessment

One written examination and a coursework folder.

Entry requirements

A minimum of BBCCC at GCSE including English/English Language and Mathematics or a science.

A2 English Literature

The A2 exam takes you back further in time. The focus here is on writing before 1800; you will study a Shakespeare play, important poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer or Andrew Marvell or William Blake, and drama by amazing playwrights like Ben Jonson or John Webster or John Ford. The coursework unit gives you a fantastic opportunity to write an extended essay on three texts, at least one of which you choose for yourself. We might explore the weird and wonderful worlds of Gothic writing, look at literary responses to the 1960s, or see how writers have represented the pleasures and agonies of romantic love.

Assessment

One examination and an extended coursework essay.