A-Level Literature Coursework (9ET0/04)

Assessment:
Write one extended comparative essay of 2500-3000 words referring to two texts. You will be
assessed for AO1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, which means that in the essay you must:
Communicate fluently, using critical concepts and terminology (AO1)
Show knowledge and understanding of how writers use and adapt language, form and
structure (AO2)
Show knowledge understanding of the contexts in which the texts are produced and
received, and how these contexts influence meaning (AO3)
Make connections and explore the relationships between texts, links that can be made
and the attitudes and values expressed in the texts (AO4)
Show knowledge and understanding of the ways to interpret and evaluate the texts
independently and through exploring interpretations by different readers (AO5)
Your coursework must include:
Your name and candidate number
A clear and focused title/question to which you write the response
Paragraphs typed in size 10 12 font (Arial, Calibri, Centaur, or Garamond), doublespacing (between lines)
Page numbers
Word count (2500-3000 words)
A bibliography and references to your sources throughout the essay
Deadlines:
1. Titles/Qs must be agreed with Mr. Belas before the beginning of the summer
holiday.
2. Texts must be read and annotated during the summer break.
3. Part III of the reading guide must be completed electronically if possible
and submitted to Mr. Belas the week beginning September 12.
4. Part IV of the Reading Guide to be completed electronically if possible and
submitted to Mr. Belas the week beginning September 19.
5. The first draft will be submitted during the week beginning October 3.
Here are lists of texts you may wish to consider. You will also have dipped into a number of
texts during the in-class taster lessons. Speak to Mr. Belas about possible combinations.
Remember, you do not have to do the Tyler novel if you have a good and well-rationalized
idea for a different project. However, you must discuss your ideas with Mr. Belas before
the summer break.
Texts
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
War of the Worlds, H G Wells
The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde, Robert Lewis
Stephenson
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
The Woman in Black, Susan Hill
The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Attwood
The Time Machine, H G Wells
1984, George Orwell
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Random Acts of Senseless Violence, Jack Womak
The Road, Cormac McCarthy

Themes
Gothic/Monsters/SF

Dystopian/Critiques of society/Satire/SF

The Hunger Games, Susanne Collins

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
The Trial, Franz Kafka
Gullivers Travels, Jonathan Swift
The Chrysalides, John Whyndham
The Queen and I or Queen Camilla, Sue Townsend
Gutshot (short stories), Amelia Gray (note: doesnt
fit neatly into any category!)
The Snow, Adam Roberts
Small Island, Andrea Levy
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
The Colour Purple, Alice Walker
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
I know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
Passing or Quicksand, Nella Larson
Kindred, Octavia Butler
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Invisible Man, R. Ellison
Native Son, Richard Wright
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert
Tressell
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
My Beautiful Laundrette or The Buddha of
Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi
Digging to America, Anne Tyler
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitgerald
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys (link to Jane Eyre)
A Passage to India, E M Forster
Any collection of short stories by Alice Munro
Wise Children, Angela Carter
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin
Orlando, Virginia Woolf
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorn
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Tess of the D.Ubervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Writer on Her Work, ed. Janet Sternburg (nonfiction literary/autobiographical essays by women
writers on writing)
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins
Girl Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen
Sybil, Flora Rheta Schreiber
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

Cultural Identity/Race/Class

Gender

Mental Illness

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

Submarine, Joe Dunthorne
The Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger
About a Boy, Nick Hornby
Generation X, Douglas Copeland
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Cats Eye, Margaret Attwood
The Accidental, Ali Smith
Owen Noone and the Marauder, Douglas Cowie
A Slipping Down Life, Anne Tyler
Orange is Not the Only Fruit, Janette Winterson
The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
Boating for Beginners or Weight Janette Winterson
The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood
Girl Meets Boy, Ali Smith
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Where Three Roads Meet, Sally Vickers
Lions Honey, David Grossman

Coming of age/Youth/Identity

Folklore/Fairy-tale/Myth