Download welcome to a2 literature

WELCOME TO A2 LITERATURE
Shakespeare study
&
Love through the Ages
Congratulations! You have successfully completed AS English Literature.
This overview of the A2 Literature course is to help you prepare for next
year.
The course consists of two units:
Unit 4: Coursework
Below is a list of titles from which you will choose three for your 3,000
word comparative essay. We will study these texts in class before you
decide on your coursework title.

Shakespeare ‘Othello’

Prose fiction
‘Rebecca’ by Daphne Du Maurier

Drama
‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams
Planning ahead.
We will begin our study of the core texts immediately in order for you to
make sound choices before negotiating your coursework focus. These
titles can all be used as examples of wider reading for the exam in Unit 3,
(see below), but your essay does not have to be about love. By the end of
September you will have decided on your texts and title and can get on
with your essay independently. We will, of course, give you a selection of
titles from which to choose and support you with regular consultations.
This term you will be reading ‘Othello’ and ‘Rebecca’ in lessons and
preparing to write an essay in the holidays. The skills you will acquire in
going through this process should prepare you for the much more
demanding challenge of writing your A2 coursework essay next year.
Unit 3: Love through the Ages
This part of the course will be assessed by an exam in June. It is similar
in some ways to your AS wider reading exam, but this time the focus will
be on love in literature and cover a wide range of texts from a variety of
genres across time. You will be allowed to use any of the texts you
studied at AS as examples of wider reading. You should use your summer
holidays to read as much as possible and record your responses in your
reading log.
The emphasis of the exam will be on comparing literary extracts, drawing
attention to writers’ use of language, form and structure, and making
reference to wider reading. There are no set texts as such, but we will
give you a reading list, an anthology of poetry and focus on analysing short
extracts in class. There are two questions which will always be worded in
the same way, but the unseen material and aspect of love identified will
be different every series. There is also a text book to support this part
of the course which you will be issued with next year.
It is essential that you keep a reading log for this part of the course.
The template offered overleaf will help you to consider the key aspects
of each text you read. Get into the habit of recording your responses
from now on. Look back over the texts you studied for the AS course and
use them to begin a new, improved A2 reading log.
Personal Reading Log
Title:
‘Othello’
Author:
Shakespeare
Genre:
Drama (Tragedy)
Date of composition: 1603
Brief summary:
Significant characters:
Key themes/aspects of love:
Use of language, form and structure.
Personal response:
Aspects of Love
Unlike the AS course, where we were assigned four specific topic areas
related to wider reading in war literature, it is not possible to identify
every aspect of love that might be chosen for the A2 exam.
Examples are:
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Romantic love- between boys and girls, men and women, men and
men, women and women
Married love
Love between parents and children
Love between siblings
Falling in love
Love at first sight
True love
Unrequited love
Secret love
Obsession
Jealousy
Patriotism
Love of nature
During the Induction period you will have some time to explore this theme
and add to the list above.
Unit 4 – LITA4
Extended Essay & Shakespeare Study
The extended essay will provide opportunities for you to write at length (about
3000 words) and to develop your research skills, drafting and re-drafting your
work as appropriate.
The texts will be chosen by both you and your teacher to reflect a shared
theme.
You will be studying both ‘Othello’ and ‘Rebecca’ during your lessons and
expected to use them in your coursework. You will eventually choose a third
text to compare to ‘Othello’ and ‘Rebecca’. You will be expected to make clear
links between your texts so it is vital that you choose appropriate texts that
enable you to discuss plot, characters and themes as well as provide
opportunities to explore and comment on:
 the writer’s styles and techniques
 choices of genre
 narrative techniques
 individual choices of language and their effects
 the different ways writers structure ideas and develop similar themes
The tasks must reflect the relevant Assessment Objectives and will focus on:
• comparison
• appreciation of writers’ choices of form, structure and language
• exploration of their own and other readers’ interpretations
• some understanding of the significance of context.
You need to remember that you are writing a literary essay, and will show
through the comparative task that you:
o understand the content of all three texts
o analyse the different ways the writers present their subject
matter and ideas
o hold informed independent views about the texts, and can
consider and use other readers’ views to develop your own
o are aware of the usefulness of relevant contextual information to
your interpretations
Read a variety of texts during the holidays and choose ONE text that you
could use for your coursework. The following list has been put together to
guide your reading:
Texts
Thematic Links
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Female independence
Identity
Conflicts of love, desire and society
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
Conflict
Isolation
Enduring love
Obsessive love
Rationality v Spirituality
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Female independence
Class conflict
Overcoming obstacles in love
Charlotte Grey by Sebastian Faulks
Independence of women
Obstacles in love
Power of love
Female independence
Conflicts of love, desire and society
Love
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Rational versus the Spiritual
Obsessive love
Obstacles in love
Passion
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey
Niffenegger
Love in Adversity
The Book of Loss by Julith Jedamus
Hierarchy
Society
Jealousy/love/loss and sacrifice
The God of Small Things
Class/race/caste prejudice
Illicit love
Power and passion
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by
Jeanette Winterson
Forbidden/taboo love
Identity
Female experience
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Misconceptions of love
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid
Hosseini
Female experience
Society v the individual
Obstacles in love
Tess of the D ‘Urbervilles by Thomas
Hardy
Female experience
Society v the individual
Obstacles in love
Obsessive love
The Collector by John Fowles
It is very important that you choose an appropriate title that will allow you to
meet the criteria for the assessment objectives.
The usual wording for tasks is as follow:
Compare and contrast the writer’s presentation of………………….. (theme)
in ……………………………………………………………………(titles of
text/authors)
Here are some examples of questions that have been used
successfully in the past:
Thomas Hobbes contends that mankind is inherently evil. To what extent do
the men in ………………………………………. support his philosophy?
“Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion.” (Paul
Carvel). Explore this statement with reference to
………………………………………………
Compare and contrast the writer’s use of setting in
………………………………….
The central protagonists of ……………………………………….. are presented
as outsiders. To what extent does this affect their relationships with other
characters?
Author Mary Wollstonecraft said, “I do not wish [women] to have power over
men, but over themselves”. In light of this statement consider presentation of
women in
……………………………………………………………………………………
Explore the presentation of women in
………………………………………………..
‘There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some
reason in madness’ (Nietzsche) Compare and contrast
…………………………………………. in light of this statement.
“Perfect love cannot be without equality.”
How does (in)equality between genders alter the power of love in
………………………………………………………………………….?
Unit 3 – LITA3
Reading for Meaning
In order to ensure that you have sufficient material for your wider
reading try to read some titles from a range of genres and periods. We
will study a selection of poetry together in class next year to ensure we
have considered a variety of traditions and forms (ballads, odes, sonnets,
lyrics etc.)
Drama
‘’Tis Pity she’s a Whore’ by Ford
‘The White Devil’ by Webster
‘She Stoops to Conquer’ by Goldsmith
‘A Doll’s House’ by Ibsen
‘A Woman of no Importance’ by Wilde
‘Betrayal’ by Pinter
‘Translations’ by Brian Friel
‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ by Edward Albee
‘A View from the Bridge’ by Arthur Miller
‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller
‘A Voyage Round my Father’ by John Mortimer
‘The Playboy of the Western World’ by J.M. Synge
Relevant Shakespeare plays: ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, Much Ado about
Nothing’, ‘As You Like It’, Measure for Measure’, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’.
Poetry
‘The New Faber Book of Love Poetry’ James Fenton (ed.)
‘101 Sonnets’ Don Paterson (ed.)
‘The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry’ Jon Stallworthy (ed.)
‘Rapture’ by Carol Anne Duffy
‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Chaucer
‘Birthday Letters’ by Ted Hughes
Novels
‘Moll Flanders’ by Daniel Defoe
Jane Austen novels: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ ‘Sense and Sensibility’ etc.
‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte
‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte
‘Middlemarch’ by George Eliot
‘North and South’ by Mrs Gaskell
Thomas Hardy novels: ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ etc.
‘Madame Bovary’ by Gustave Flaubert
‘A Room with a View’ by E. M. Forster
‘Maurice’ by E.M. Forster
‘Sons and Lovers’ by D.H. Lawrence
‘Tender is the Night’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald
‘1984’ by George Orwell
‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley
‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison
‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ by John Fowles
‘The Remains of the Day’ by Kazuo Ishiguro
‘Never Let me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood
‘Birdsong’ by Sebastian Faulkes
‘Enduring Love’ by Ian Mc Ewan
‘Oranges are not the Only Fruit’ by Jeannette Winterson
Short stories:
‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ by D.H. Lawrence
‘Brokeback Mountain’ and other stories by Annie Proulx
Collections by Raymond Carver, Katherine Mansfield, Ali Smith, Alice
Munro
Clearly this list is not exhaustive. Read reviews, ask your friends and
family for recommended favourites and use the library. ENJOY!
Literary Glossary
Allegory – extended metaphor that veils a moral or political underlying
meaning
Alliteration – repetition of the initial letter or sound in adjacent words to create
an atmospheric or onomatopoeic effect
Allusion – passing reference to another literary work.
Anachronism – chronological misplacing of person, event or object
Analogy – perception of similarity between two things
Ambiguity – capacity of works to have two simultaneous meanings, in the
context as a device for enriching meaning.
Antithesis – contrasting of ideas by balancing words or phrases of opposite
meaning.
Assonance – repetition of a vowel sound in words in close proximity
Ballad – narrative poem in short, rhymed verses, usually telling of love, the
supernatural and travel
Bathos – sudden change of register from the sublime to the ridiculous
Bildungsroman – a literary work that features the physical and spiritual
journey of a youthful character
Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter, the staple form of Shakespeare
plays
Burlesque – an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of a literary or
dramatic work; a parody.
Caesura – deliberate break or pause in a line of poetry, signified by
punctuation
Canon – approved traditional literary works to be found on academic
syllabuses.
Colloquial – informal language of conversational speech
Conceit – an extended simile
Connotations – associations evoked by a word
Context – historical, social and cultural background of a text
Couplet – two consecutive lines of poetry that are paired in rhyme
Courtly Love – a literary convention going back to the Middle Ages; a knight
serves his lady according to a well-defined ritual and code of conduct
Dramatic irony – when the audience knows something the character speaking
does not, which creates humour or tension.
Elegy – lament for the death or permanent loss of someone or something
Euphemism – tactful word or phrase to refer to something unpleasant or
offensive
Free-verse – poetry without a regular metrical pattern or rhyme
Hyperbole – deliberate exaggeration for effect
Intertextuality – relationship between one text and another
Irony – language intended to mean the opposite of the words expressed; or
amusing or cruel reversal of an outcome expected, intended or deserved.
Magic realism – 20th Century description of a work that interweaves realistic
details with supernatural and dream-like mythical elements in an everyday
setting.
Metaphor – suppressed comparison, implied not stated ‘the bishop was a
pillar of the church’ ( a comparison that says something is something else)
Ode – lengthy lyrical and reflective poem addressed to the subject
Onomatopoeia – word that imitate the sound being described eg bang, smash
Oxymoron – two contradictory terms united in a single phrase eg bitter sweet
Parody – imitation and exaggeration of style for the purpose of humour and
ridicule
Pathetic fallacy – attributing emotions to inanimate objects, usually elements
of nature, to represent the persona’s feelings, eg. Describing the weather as
stormy when a character is distressed.
Personification – attributing human qualities to inanimate objects
Picaresque – narrative dealing with criminal and/or low-life characters on a
journey of some kind
Protagonist – principal characters in a drama or literary work
Quatrain – four- lined stanza or group of four lines distinguished by a rhyme
scheme
Rhyme – repetition of a vowel sound in words at the end of lines
Rhythm – pace and sound pattern of writing, created by metre, vowel length,
syntax and punctuation
Satire – exposing of vice of foolishness of a person or institution to ridicule
Simile – comparison introduced by ‘as’ or ‘like’
Sonnet – lyrical poem of 14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter, either an octet
and sestet (Petrarchan) or three quatrains and a couplet (Shakespearean) or
14 lines ending with a couplet (Miltonic)
Stream of consciousness – a method used by some modern novelists to
relate the innermost thoughts and feelings of characters without logical
sequence, syntax or sometimes punctuation
Thesis - a short, debatable claim around which you write an essay. A thesis is
a pithy statement of your main argument. It's what you're going to prove.
Verisimilitude - refers to the resemblance a work bears to reality. If a work of
literature has verisimilitude, it has a certain likeness to actual life.
Vignette – a short literary piece/scene/drawing that conveys atmosphere or
character