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A LEVEL

English Literature
EXAM BOARD: OCR
Contents

1. Gothic Unseen (Teacher A)

2. Pre 1900 Drama and Poetry (Teacher B)
3. The Bloody Chamber (Teacher A)
4. The History Boys (Teacher B)
5. Fight Club and T.S Eliot Collected Poems (Teacher A)
6. The Tempest (Teacher B)
Welcome Page

A Level English Literature is a two year linear course which is comprised of two papers and a Non-Exam
Assessment (NEA) folder. Paper 1 will assess your skills and understanding in relation to Shakespeare and pre
1900 drama and poetry and paper 2 will assess your skills and understanding of a specific genre of literature.
Your NEA folder will be comprised of a comparative contextual study and a close reading of a post 1900 drama
piece.

It is rare that a piece of literature, and the issues that arise within in, can be separated from the society that it
has emerged from, which is why contextual understanding and application is such a driving skill in English
Literature studies. With this in mind, the structure of the GCE course allows you to explore a range of English
Literature from 17th century Shakespeare through to controversial modern writers such as Palahniuk’s
postmodern ‘Fight Club’ and Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’, encouraging you to critically evaluate the
extent to which society has or has not changed in relation to the values that have underpinned society for
generations. By the end of the course, you will learn how to structure a short thesis, analyse and compare
critically, using a range of critical interpretations and theorists to support and challenge a range of ides.

English Literature is a very popular A-Level choice, which is highly respected by all universities because it gives
you the knowledge and skills necessary for higher education and which are also useful in any career. Although
there’s no one industry which takes precedence, English degree graduates are often found where strong
communication and written English skills are top priorities; for example, within the worlds of education, politics,
media and publishing.

Exams and Coursework

 Component 1: Shakespeare and Drama and Poetry pre-1900 (40%)

 Component 2: Close reading and Comparative and Contextual Study (40%)
 Component 3: NEA 3000 words coursework portfolio (20%)

When

 Summer 2020

Knowledge, Skills, Understanding

 AO1 - Articulate informed, personal and original responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and
terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression
 AO2 - Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts
 AO3 - Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts
are written and received
 AO4 - Explore connections across literary texts
 AO5 - Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations

Department overview:

CTL: Miss Hyams

A Level Co-ordinator: Mrs Welsh
Expected trips and visits: Guest lecturers; University taster days; Theatre trips
Compulsory texts: Selected poems by Christina Rossetti; A Dolls’s House by Henrik Ibsen; The Bloody Chamber
by Angela Carter; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde; Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk; Selected Poems by
T. S. Eliot; The History Boys by Alan Bennett
 Gothic Unseen
Week
  Extended writing Homework

Gothic World
Week 1 Analyse the gothic features of an Read Gothic Motifs article
What are the origins and the aims of
extract Complete written task
Gothic fiction?

Theoretical Viewpoints
Read and annotate extracts from
Week 2 How and why does Gothic require
Dracula
us to suspend our disbelief?

Dracula and the Taboo To what extent does the Gothic

How does Gothic ‘get away with’ genre allow writers to explore illicit
Week 3 Extended essay
exploring taboo or perverse and taboo subjects
subjects?

The Gothic and Psychoanalysis

Week 4 How does the Gothic tap into Read Fall of the House of Usher
trauma and terror?

The Fall of the House of Usher

Read exemplar material and
Week 5 How can apply the ideas and Re-draft previous essay
response to marking
theories I have learned?

Gothic Conventions
Week 6 How does Gothic feature within Complete Gothic collage
other cultural settings?

Gothic contexts
Complete presentations and
Week 7 How do Gothic texts reflect their
timeline
social, historical, political contexts?

Unseen Extracts
Extended writing
Week 8 What are the requirements of this Complete extract analysis
Read The Yellow Wallpaper
element of the examination?
 Week 9 Terror versus Horror How does Perkins use symbolism to
Add to Gothic timeline
What different schools of Gothic comment on the role of the 19th
Complete extract analysis
exist? century woman?

Modern Gothic
Week 10
How does a 20th/ 21st Century Read a range of extracts
setting impact Gothic texts?

Week 11 Collate notes

Assessment Gothic Unseen Assessment
Read The Bloody Chamber

List of suggested wider reading:

Fiction Tennyson, A. The Lady of Shallot

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre Waters, Sarah. Affinity
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights
Dickinson, Emily. Poetry Non- Fiction
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca Botting, Fred. Gothic
Grimm’s Fairy tales- any collection Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter/ Gender Trouble
Mitchell, David. Slade House Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex
Poe Edgar Allen. Tell-Tale Heart Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein Freud, Sigmund. On Dreams
Stoker, Bram. Dracula Foucault, Michel. A History of Sexuality
 Exam Unit
Pre 1900 Drama and Poetry
    Assessments Homework

Week 1 Themes and course overview

Essay: Explore Ibsen’s presentation

Unit 1: Pre 1900 Drama and Poetry of Nora and Torvald’s relationship
at the start of the play
Week 2 Understanding contextual factors
that influenced the works of Henrik
Ibsen
1000 words

Nora and Gender What expectations are established

in the opening stage directions?

Week 3 Applying feminist theory to the

female characters and their
relationships in the play Act Two questions

Dramatic Theory
Essay: Apply a feminist reading to
Week 4
Applying dramatic theory to the the character of Nora (AO3,5,1)
play to develop structural analysis

Marxism and Marriage Essay planning – apply a socialist

reading to evaluate the
presentation of Nora and Helmer’s
Understanding key principles of a
relationship
Week 5 Marxist reading and using these
ideas to evaluate Nora and Helmer’

Folder redrafts

Read all Rossetti poems in

anthology and make preliminary
annotations in pencil

Week 6 Essay Skills Focus and Assessment Mini Assessment

Complete theory booklet applying

to Ibsen (leave space to come back
and add Rossetti)

Rossetti and Context

Week 7
Group research presentations on
Understanding gender expectations an aspect of Rossetti’s life
(01)
and the life and works of Rossetti

Week 8 Torvald and Twice Research a stage review of a

 performance of ADH
Comparing the character of Torvald
to Rossetti poems
(02)
Essay: Love is a prison; love is a
paradise. Explore how these ideas
are presented in ‘Twice’ and ADH

Compare how fallen women are

Fallen Women
Week 9 presented in two or more of
Rossetti’s poems
Analysing Maude Clare, Shut Out
(03)
and Soeur Louise

Research Victorian attitudes

towards death

Goblin Market
Read ‘The Consumable Female
Week 10 Body in Christina Rossetti’s The
To explore a multitude of
Goblin Market’
interpretations surrounding
(04)
Rossetti’s longest poem in the
collection

Krogstad and Rossetti

Week 11 Essay plan – ‘The moral pariahs of

Evaluating the function of Krogstad
literature are those we are led to
in the play using critical ideas and
(05) sympathise with most’
making comparisons with Rossetti’s
poems

Secrets Essay: Woman should forever be

punished for original sin. Explore
Week 12
Rossetti’s presentation of religion
Drawing comparative links between
and sin in light of this statement.
(06) Rossetti’s poems driven by context
and critical theory

Discuss ways in which Rossetti

explores grief in her poems ‘Song’
and ‘Remember’

Remember and Dr Rank

Week 13

Exploring the theme of death across Read poems by Elizabeth Barrett

(07)
texts Browning

Folder redrafts
 Religion and Assessment Read Dr Avery’s essay ‘CR:Religious
Preparation Poetry’ and add to your
notes/annotations on ‘A Birthday’
Week 14
Analysing ‘A Birthday’ and
Assessment
understanding what a Band 5 essay
(08)
looks like
Complete critical theory booklet for
Rossetti

Jhansi and Echo

Week 15 Character profiles – create profiles
making links between characters
Comparing the representation of
(01) and poems
female voice

Thematic and Contextual Links

Week 16 Create venn diagram visually
depicting the comparative links
Revising links that can be made
(02) that can be made between texts
between texts

Applying Critical Theory

Week 17
Drawing links between texts Folder redrafts
(03) through the application of critics
and theoretical approaches

Final Assessment

Compare how Ibsen and Rossetti

Assessment Preparation present a theme in light of a critical Read Bennett’s The History Boys
(04) statement

AO1/AO3/AO4/AO5

List of suggested wider reading sources/videos and websites:

Wider Reading:
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Poems by Emily Dickinson
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Videos:
A Doll’s House (Dir. Patrick Garland, 1973) – available on Youtube
Suffragette (Dir. Sarah Gavron, 2015)

Websites:
Victorian Web
Victorian Britain – The British Library
Tate Britain – Pre-Raphaelites
 Exam Unit
Gothic Comparison - The Bloody Chamber
Week
  Extended writing Homework

Feminism and the Female Gothic Read the title story of the
Week 1
How do we apply feminist collection
approaches?

The Bloody Chamber How is the narrator presented

Week 2 How and why does Carter subvert within the text? Extended writing
Bluebeard?

Theoretical Readings
How does Carter provoke with her Read- Kingdom of the Un-
Week 3
texts and how does this link to a imaginable
Gothic agenda?

‘In Carter’s world, all men are

Erl-King monsters: predatory patriarchs
Complete critical readings theory
Week 4 How can we apply a range of who seek out the vulnerable.’ booklet
theories to the Erl King?

Context
Read and annotate extracts from
How does Carter’s biography impact
Week 5 Edmund Gordon- ‘The Invention of
our understanding of her and her
Angela Carter’
writing?

The Werewolf
Week 6 How does witchcraft act as a Read Wolf- Alice
metaphor within the text?

Wolf Alice
How does Carter engage with Extended essay- read Lady of the
Week 7 What impact does society have of
traditional notions of the mother? House of Love
psycho-social development?
 Lady of the House of Love Read The Tiger’s Bride and
Week 8 What is inherently monstrous about Courtship of Mr Lyon
the female figure? Research the Belle et le Bete

The Tiger’s Bride and Courtship of

Monsters allows cultures to identify
Week 9 Mr Lyon
‘norms and deviants’ and creates
Why does the Beauty and the Beast Extended Essay
fear of difference- how far do you
narrative remain so popular and
think this is case in the collection?
relevant?

The Company of Wolves

Week 10 To what extent is Red Riding Hood Plan essay using critical
an autonomous subject in ‘The perspectives sheet
Company of Wolves’?

Puss in Boots
Week 11 Complete Critical quotations
How does this story operate within
booklet
the collection?

Whole Text Revision

How and why does Carter use
Week 12
recurring themes and symbols in her Assessment
collection?

List of suggested wider reading:

Fiction Tennyson, A. The Lady of Shallot

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre Waters, Sarah. Affinity
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights
Dickinson, Emily. Poetry Non- Fiction
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca Botting, Fred. Gothic
Grimm’s Fairy tales- any collection Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter/ Gender Trouble
Mitchell, David. Slade House Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex
Poe Edgar Allen. Tell-Tale Heart Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein Freud, Sigmund. On Dreams
Stoker, Bram. Dracula Foucault, Michel. A History of Sexuality
 Coursework Unit – The History Boys

Focus Assessments Homework

Focus Assessments Homework
Write a review of the film
Film Adaptations considering how it differs from the
Print, read and understand dramatic
play text and which you find more
terms glossary
Introduction to NEA and reading the effective and why
Week 81
Week Watching a visual adaptation of the
play
play to help understand how the
(05)
(06) fourth wall is broken and to develop
understanding of audience Consolidation of notes with
Ibsen and Rossetti essay
annotations
reception

Archetypal Characters
Understanding how Propp and
Week 2 Hector – The Tragic Hero? How are Bennett’s attitudes
Week 8 Jungian archetypes can be applied to towards the
Research education
Aristotle’s system
poetics with a
the characters of the play to develop captured in the
(06) To what extent is Hector a tragic focus on the opening
chaptersofonthe play?
tragedy
(01) our analysis
hero?

Extract Analysis
Epistemological Approaches
Week 9
Week 3 Decide
Write upon analysis
a close coursework essay
of your
ToCompleting group extract
discuss philosophies analyses
of education, focus and question
(02) chosen theme/character in an
making links to The History Boys
(01) extract

Brechtian Theatre
Week 10 Photocopy and annotate chosen
Hector vs Irwin extracts
Compare theinteaching
detail instyles
light of
of
Week Understanding how to develop
(03) 4 question
Hector and Irwin, with reference to
structural analysis of the play
Comparing Irwin and Hector’s teaching the key themes in the play they
(02)
styles establish

Coursework planning
Week 9
Locked Complete first draft
Week How toDoors and Drummer
successfully plan for Hodge
a close
(04) 5
reading essay How does Bennett present Hector’s
Analysing symbols and literary illusions downfall at the end of Act 1?
(03)
used within the play

Consolidation of notes and

preparation of notes and
Posner and The Holocaust
Week 6 annotations

How does Bennett present the theme

(04)
of history in the play?
Folder redrafts

Assessment and The Final Scene Close analysis of an extract – Research intertextual references
Week 7
open book made throughout the play with
Exploring the significance of the final clear explanations of how they are
(05)
scene relevant to the text
List of suggested wider reading sources/videos and websites:

Wider Reading:

Rock’n’Roll by Tom Stoppard

The Conservative Party Manifesto (focus on education)
The Labour Party Manifesto (focus on education)
‘Drummer Hodge’ by Thomas Hardy
Selected Poems by Philip Larkin

Videos:

The History Boys (2006, Dir. Nicholas Hynter)

Brief Encounter (1945, Dir. David Lean)

Coursework Unit
The Collected Poems of TS Eliot and Fight Club
Week
  Extended writing Homework
(SOW ref)

Modernism

Week 1 What is Modernism?

Read ‘Approaching Modernism’ by
Suman Gupta
To understand the cultural, social,
literary and historical background of
the movement.

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock What feelings are evoked for the
reader by the poem?
Who is J Alfred Prufrock?
Week 2 Research Dante’s Inferno

To explore this poem thematically

and linguistically

Plato and Existentialism

Read extracts from Platos
Symposium / Re-annotate copy of
Week 3
the poem, exclusively for features
How can we apply philosophical of modernism.
ideas to the text?

How does Eliot reflect modernism

The Hollow Men
and what impact does this
movement have on the writer's
Week 4 exploration of the self as a site of Read The Wasteland
anxiety.
How does the Hollow Men reflect
modernist concerns/ sensibilities?
 The Wasteland

Plan presentations on allocated

Week 5
sections of the poem.
How is The Wasteland a response to
or reflection of post war attitudes?

The Wasteland
Read Poetry of Drouth
How does Eliot create a sense of
Week 6
despair within the poem?
Extended essay.
How do critical readings impact our
understanding of The Wasteland?

The Wasteland

What themes are evident within Annotate poem and research wider
Week 7
each section of the poem? references.

To explore each section in depth.

T S Eliot as Critic

How does Eliot break with tradition?

Read Tradition and the Individual
Week 8
What is tradition? Talent

How do authors break with

tradition?

    Extended writing Homework

Fight Club
Week 9

Read and annotate chapter 1 and 2

(01)
of Fight Club
How do the early themes of the text
show progression or development?

Fight Club Do you think Palahniuk believes his

narrator to be sick, or simply acting
Week 10
as a ‘‘defence’ mechanism’ against a
Extended writing
‘sick’ society?
(02)
How is the modern condition
critiqued within the text?

Week 11 Fight Club Create Oedipal complex poster

(03)
 How does Fight Club reflect tensions
within the family unit?

Fight Club and Hyper-masculinity

Week 12
Compare Eliot and Palahniuk’s
Read On Men by Anthony Clare
representation of masculinity.
(04)
How does Palahniuk explore the
damaging effects of masculinity?

Freud and Jung

Week 13
Read an In Depth Psychology of
Carl Jung
(05)
Which psychoanalytic approach is
most applicable to Fight Club?

Fight Club
Week 14
How do the contexts of Eliot and
Read ‘Is Tyler Durden a Marxist?’
Palahniuk compare?
(06)
What contextual and critical
contexts most affect this text?

All Texts

Paired presentations under themed

headings to be agreed with
How can we compare our core
Week 15 teacher.
texts?

(07) Complete plan

. Coursework Questions

Week 16
Essay writing skills 1st Draft 1st Draft
(08)

Stein, Gertrude- The Autobiography of Alice B

Toklas
Fiction
Amis, Martin- Times Arrow
Bradbury, Ray- Fahrenheit 451 Steinbeck, John- Of Mice and Men
Conrad, Joseph- Heart of Darkness Sparks, Muriel- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Dante Alighieri- The Divine Comedy Woolf, Virginia- A Room of One’s Own/ Mrs
Delilo, Don- White Noise Dalloway
Dostevsky, Fyodor- Crime and Punishment
Fitzgerald, F Scott- The Great Gatsby Non- Fiction
Marvell, Andrew- To His Coy Mistress Childs, Peter- Modernism
McCarthy, Cormac- Outer Dark Bradbury and McFarlane- Modernism- 1890-1930
Shakespeare, William- Hamlet, Twelfth Night Derrida, Jaques- Spectres of Marx
Smith, Ali- There but for the Foucault, Michel- Discipline and Punish
Jameson, Frederik- The Cultural Logic of late
Capitalism
Marx, Karl- Das Capital

Exam Unit
The Tempest
Week
(SOW ref)   Extended writing Homework

Create a Tempest timeline for the

Week 1 Drama and The Plot sequence of events in the play
(05) Using drama to understand the key
events of the text Revise for internal exams –
complete practice essay
 Week 2 Complete Act/Scene plot
Reading the Play Close reading first draft due
(01) summaries

Ibsen and Rossetti Revision

Week 3
Responding to essay feedback and Internal Exam Revision
(02)
acting upon targets accordingly

Gothic Revision
Week 4
Responding to essay feedback and Internal Examinations Internal Exam Revision
(03)
acting upon targets accordingly

Week 5 Answer plot questions on Google

Reading the Play Internal Examinations
(04) Classroom

Exploring Performances
Week 6 Building on understanding of ‘form’ Research and bring performance
Second draft due
(05) through the analysis of reviews to lesson (AO5)
performances of the text

Week 7 Internal exam feedback and

Redrafts
(06) exploring performances

Returning to the NEA

Week 8 Ironing out wrinkles and
Complete coursework final draft
(07) understanding how to write in a
Band 6 critical style

List of suggested wider reading sources/videos and websites:

Wider Reading:
Literature https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare
Margaret Atwood, Hagseed *
Othello by William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night by William ShakespeareMeasure for
Measure by William Shakespeare

Critical Theory
‘Of Mimicry and Man’, Homi K Bhaba
‘On Cannibals’, Michel de Montaigne
Edward Said, Orientalism
IAG links:

University Rankings for 2018

1) Durham 7) Nottingham

2) St Andrews 8) Birmingham

3) UCL 9) Warwick

4) Cambridge 10) York

5) Oxford

6) Exeter

https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?s=English
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