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CIE 0992 (9-1)

Studying English Literature will encourage you to develop a love of reading. You will have the chance to read and respond to many kinds of literary texts and to express your own critical responses to them in discussion, as well as in your written work.

Course content

You will study a selection of literary texts from each of the genres of drama, poetry and prose, for example Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, a selection of poems from the Songs of Ourselves Cambridge University Press poetry anthology or a selection of poems by a single poet such as Carol Ann Duffy, and a novel such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. You will also study approaches to unseen literary passages through reading a variety of texts during the course.

Assessment

Assessment takes place through three examinations. In the first, you will write one essay on each of two literary texts that you have studied in class (poetry and prose). In the second examination, you will write one essay on a drama text which you have studied. In the third, you will write one essay on an unseen literary text, either a modern poem or extract from a novel. The first two examinations (on the set texts) are worth 75% of the mark. The examination on the unseen material is worth 25%. There is no coursework component.

 

“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” 

The Crucible