Sigma Sixth Tendring Course Guide

A LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE “Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.” Ezra Pound Anything is possible when you open the cover of a book, the narrow remits of life falling away within just a few pages. You can fall in love with characters, travel to far flung places, live in different time periods and live the life of another, fiction facilitating experiences far beyond the reality of the world in which you reside. Studying literature teaches you about the world whilst simultaneously empowering you to make changes within that world. Your understanding of people, places, cultures and situations grows exponentially through the process of reading, authors empowering us to more fully understand that which is around us. Studying English Literature at Sigma Sixth will help you develop the subject knowledge and skills to progress to studying Literature at University. It can also develop skills in essay writing, building an argument and discussion, all of which are crucial to further study and employment. CURRICULUM STATEMENT • Study of Dystopian literature texts, inclusive of ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy and ‘1984’ by George Orwell. • Analysis of ‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare’. • Comparison of ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen and poems by Christina Rossetti. • Comparison of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and the poems of Sylvia Plath. • Study of relevant social and historical context. • Application of appropriate literary theory to the texts. • Consideration of a range of critical perspectives. COURSE CONTENT Students need to have achieved a minimum of 6 grades 5-9 incl. English and maths and a minimum of a grade 6 in English Literature. ENTRY CRITERIA