English Literature

3.3 Skills

• Accurate Standard English in literary essays
• Analysing language, form and structure
• Critical reading: making an informed personal response
• Identifying and distinguishing themes
• Maintaining a critical point of view
• Planning a literary essay
• Using literary terminology in analysis
• Using social, historical and cultural contexts
• Using textual references and quotations effectively
• Writing a conclusion for a literary essay
• Writing a literary essay: clear and coherent
• Writing an introduction for a literary essay

3.1.1 Shakespeare

• Beatrice and Benedick
• Brutus
• Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)
• Julius Caesar: betrayal and loyalty
• Julius Caesar: power and ambition
• Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (Shakespeare)
• Macbeth: ambition
• Macbeth: guilt and conscience
• Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare)
• Much Ado About Nothing: gender and honour
• Much Ado About Nothing: love and deception
• Prospero
• Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
• Romeo and Juliet: conflict and feud
• Romeo and Juliet: fate
• Romeo and Juliet: love
• Shylock
• The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare)
• The Merchant of Venice: justice and mercy
• The Merchant of Venice: prejudice
• The Tempest (Shakespeare)
• The Tempest: forgiveness and reconciliation
• The Tempest: power and authority

3.1.2 The 19th-century novel

• A Christmas Carol (Dickens)
• A Christmas Carol: poverty and social responsibility
• A Christmas Carol: redemption
• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• Elizabeth Bennet
• Frankenstein (Shelley, 1831)
• Frankenstein: ambition and hubris
• Frankenstein: isolation and rejection
• Great Expectations (Dickens, 1867)
• Great Expectations: ambition and self-improvement
• Great Expectations: social class
• Jane Eyre (Brontë)
• Jane Eyre (character)
• Jane Eyre: gender and independence
• Jane Eyre: love and class
• Jekyll and Hyde: duality
• Jekyll and Hyde: science vs morality
• Pip
• Pride and Prejudice (Austen)
• Pride and Prejudice: marriage and social class
• Pride and Prejudice: pride and prejudice
• Scrooge
• Sherlock Holmes
• The Sign of Four (Conan Doyle)
• The Sign of Four: friendship and detection
• The Sign of Four: justice and empire
• The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson)
• Victor Frankenstein and the Creature

3.3 Skills

• Comparing literary texts critically

3.2.1 Modern texts

• A Taste of Honey (Delaney)
• A Taste of Honey: motherhood and gender
• A Taste of Honey: race and class
• An Inspector Calls (Priestley)
• An Inspector Calls: class and capitalism
• An Inspector Calls: social responsibility
• Animal Farm (Orwell)
• Animal Farm: power and corruption
• Animal Farm: revolution and propaganda
• Anita and Me (Syal)
• Anita and Me: friendship and growing up
• Anita and Me: race and identity
• Blood Brothers (Russell, musical version)
• Blood Brothers: class and inequality
• Blood Brothers: nature vs nurture
• Christopher Boone
• DNA (Kelly)
• DNA: peer pressure and group dynamics
• DNA: responsibility and morality
• Enid (Leave Taking)
• Harri (Pigeon English)
• Hector and Irwin (The History Boys)
• Inspector Goole
• Jo (A Taste of Honey)
• Kathy (Never Let Me Go)
• Leave Taking (Pinnock)
• Leave Taking: identity and belonging
• Leave Taking: mother-daughter relationships
• Leon (My Name is Leon)
• Lord of the Flies (Golding)
• Lord of the Flies: civilization vs savagery
• Lord of the Flies: leadership and power
• Meena (Anita and Me)
• Mickey and Edward (Blood Brothers)
• My Name is Leon (de Waal)
• My Name is Leon: identity and family
• My Name is Leon: race and belonging
• Napoleon (Animal Farm)
• Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro)
• Never Let Me Go: ethics and science
• Never Let Me Go: identity and humanity
• Phil (DNA)
• Pigeon English (Kelman)
• Pigeon English: friendship and family
• Pigeon English: violence and innocence
• Princess & The Hustler (Odimba)
• Princess and the Hustler: identity in 1960s Britain
• Princess and the Hustler: race and family
• Ralph and Jack (Lord of the Flies)
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Stephens, play script)
• The Curious Incident: difference and perspective
• The Curious Incident: family and truth
• The History Boys (Bennett)
• The History Boys: education and knowledge
• The History Boys: youth and identity

3.2.2 Poetry

• Comparing poems within Love and Relationships cluster
• Comparing poems within Power and Conflict cluster
• Comparing poems within Worlds and Lives cluster

3.2.3 Unseen poetry

• Unseen poetry analysis and comparison
• Unseen poetry: analysing content
• Unseen poetry: analysing language
• Unseen poetry: analysing structure
• Unseen poetry: analysing theme
• Unseen poetry: comparing two poems