If you enjoy reading and discussing literature but also have an interest in linguistic approaches to language, you will enjoy this course. English Language and Literature is a two year linear course that allows you to engage with all three literary genres (poetry, prose and drama) but also allows you to be creative and investigative.
The first year of the course will provide a varied introduction to English Language and Literature studies, focusing on how and why we tell stories about people, societies and places – in different genre, from various points of view and in a variety of modes (speech, writing and ones that blend both such as blogs and internet forums). You will study the AQA Paris Anthology, a selection of Robert Browning’s poetry and a “fantasy” dystopian novel Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
The second year will provide you with the opportunity to explore the topic of conflict through the study of drama and in recreative writing tasks. You’ll study Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner to learn how the writer presents conflict in and across different cultures and between peoples. You will be able to write creatively, expressing new points of view based on your understanding of the novel, in addition to analysing your creative process. You will also examine how playwrights present conflict dramatically through your study of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire.
Finally, you will produce an independent comparative investigation of a theme (for example, war) or linguistic concept (for example, metaphor). You will choose a literary text and some non-literary material (for example, transcripts of speech, articles and blogs) to analyse your specific focus.