A Level English Literature

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A Level English Literature

• Essential skills

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Essential Skill 1

• Reading

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Essential Skill 2

• To know something about the history of English
  Literature
• And
• Literary movements

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History of English Literature

• You do need to have a rough idea of when texts
  were written, what movement they belong to and
  what was happening in history at the time.
• See a brief overview of English Literature
• Research projects

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Some Key Literary Movements

• Romanticism
• The Metaphysical Poets
• Victorian Literature
• The Gothic
• Modernism
• World War One Poets
• Post-Modernism

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Quiz how much do you know?

• Who wrote The Merchants Tale?
• Who wrote Romeo and Juliet?
• Who wrote Wuthering Heights?
• Who wrote The Great Gatsby?
• Who wrote Oliver Twist?
• Who wrote Frankenstein?
• Who wrote To the Lighthouse?
• Who wrote the poem Dulce et Decorum Est?
• Who wrote Treasure Island?
• Who wrote Sons and Lovers?

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When and What are they?

• When was Charles Dickens writing?
• When was the epic poem Beowulf written?
• What literary movement did the poet Lord Byron
  belong to?
• When was the poet Wilfred Owen writing?
• What literary movement did the novel Frankenstein
  belong to?
• What literary movement did James Joyce belong to?
• Who was the King when Shakespeares Macbeth was
  first performed?

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Essential skill 3

• To know the difference between
• Fiction/non-fiction
• And
• To know the difference between Prose/Drama/Poetry

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Essential skill 4

• To know the conventions of
• Prose
• Drama
• Poetry

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Prose

• When analysing a prose text you must focus on the
  following
• Character
• Theme
• Plot
• Language
• Narrative
• Syntax and structure
• Context and the writer literary movement
• Rhythm
• Meaning and themes

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Poetry

• When analysing poetry you must focus on the
  following
• Narrative
• Structure
• Rhyme/rhythm
• Language
• Meanings and themes
• Poet, Literary movement and context

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Drama

• When studying drama you should focus on
• Character
• Plot
• Stage directions and dialogue
• Structure
• Dramatic irony
• Tragedy, Comedy, History the form
• The playwright, the context, the literary
  movement
• The meaning and the themes

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Non-fiction

• You need to know the purpose of the text, its
  bias, the audience for the text, the theme and
  the message of the text.
• Non-fiction texts can also use specific language
  techniques and structures to effectively convey
  their messages

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Essential Skill 5

• You need to know and use the correct terminology.
  
• See the list of Key terms

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Essential skill 6

• You will need to know some of the key types of
  criticism which can be applied to a literary
  text.
• See criticisms and feminism information and
  activity on Class/Feminism and a polysemic text

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Essential Skills 7

• You will need to know
• The Rules
• See feminism for the rules

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Essential Skill 8

• Analysing Prose, Poetry, Drama
• See feminism and class for prose analysis
  practice
• See criticisms for poetry analysis

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Additional support materials

• How to write comparatively
• Literary movements
• Research projects
• Practice Prose Analysis
• Brief overview of American Literature