Magdalen College English Essay Competition: Questions
The aim of these questions is to encourage you to develop your own views on the texts you have
read, and to explore some of the broader questions raised in English studies. The organisers have
no particular assessment objectives, but there are general things they are looking for: close and
detailed reading, original approaches, clear and logical arguments. We would encourage you to
draw on the reading you have done outside the syllabus, but there is nothing wrong with writing
about the texts you have studied in school.
Some of the questions have an attached quotation; this is only there to spark your thinking, and
your essay does not need to be based on either the quotation or the works of that writer. You
should, however, be careful to ensure that you relate your work to the underlying topic or theme.
Many of the questions ask you to refer in detail to one or two texts. This is to give your essay a
concrete grounding, but feel free to make occasional references to other texts. We encourage the
use of secondary material (literary criticism, reviews etc) but ‘quality over quantity’ is a good
guideline here: it’s better to engage in detail with one critic than to refer superficially to lots.
Essays should be 2,000-2,500 words. You might be surprised how short a scope the word limit
gives you, even if it seems like a lot of words. Keep your essays focused by not trying to tackle too
much. Essays should be typed and double-spaced. Please send your entries with a completed
cover sheet to the given address.
1. ‘Stories are multiple: there is always more than one story’ (Bennett). Explore multiple
narratives in one or two texts.
2. ‘The great English novelists are Jane Austen, George Eliot, Henry James and Joseph
Conrad’ (F.R. Leavis). How useful are statements about the ‘greatness’ of literature?
3. Write an essay on the relationship of literature and either art or film.
4. ‘Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not
achieving what he did not attempt’ (John Updike). Can we ever identify an author’s
intention? Discuss with reference to one or two texts.
5. Discuss, with reference to two texts, how cities are portrayed in literature.
6. Are all readings of a text equally valid? Discuss with close reference to examples.
7. Explore the way a poem’s ‘form’ (rhythm, rhyme, structure etc) affects its meaning
OR the way ‘staging’ (costume, setting, blocking etc) affects the meaning of a play.
8. Should we have a Poet Laureate?
9. ‘Politics and economics… the Future of Mankind, and so on, leave me supremely
indifferent’ (Nabokov). Should literature consider itself above politics? Refer in detail
to examples.
10. Is there such a thing as ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ writing? Refer in detail to at least
two texts.
11. What is the value of studying English?