A Level English Literature
– teaching from 2015
Please Note…
You cannot take both English
Literature and the combined
English Literature + Language
course together.
Key Points
Full A Level comprises 80% exam and 20%
coursework
AS is 100% exam
AS will be taught alongside A level course
Paper 1 - Genres
Comedy
Paper comprises 3 questions over 2.5 hour paper
Minimum of three texts to be studied
One Shakespeare from first pairing
One other play
At least one text outside Shakespeare option to be pre-1900
Closed book
Set Texts for Comedy
First Group – Taming of the Shrew/Twelfth Night
Second Group Drama – She Stoops to
Conquer/Importance of Being Earnest
Second Group Prose – Emma/Small Island
Second Group Poetry – Nun’s Priest’s Tale/Anthology
A Level Paper 2
‘Modern’ genre paper.
Crime Writing
Three questions
Three hour paper
One post -2000 prose text, one poetry text and one other
At least one pre-1900
Open book
Paper 2 Set Texts: Crime
First Group Prose: Atonement/When Will There Be
Good News – Atkinson
Second Group Poetry: Rime/Selection: Crabbe – Peter
Grimes; Wilde – Reading Gaol; 3 Brownings.
Third Group Drama and Prose: Hamlet/Oliver
Twist/Brighton Rock/The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
(Christie)
NEA – Coursework Element
Two pieces of work each on a different text
One poetry, one prose
Each must be linked to an area of Critical Anthology (but
not the same one) e.g. Feminism, Marxism, PostColonialism…
1200-1500 for each
One has to be conventional while other can be creative with
commentary
Free choice of text but not from A Level lists and can’t be in
translation
AS Literature
Two exams reflecting A Level exams
Both examine the Comedy genre selected for A level
course
1 hour 30 mins x 2
Paper 1
Closed book
One passage-based question on Shakespeare (25 marks)
One essay question on another drama text (25 marks)
Paper 2
Two texts, one prose and one poetry
Students must show understanding of ‘aspects’
Open book