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GCE English Literature Pre-A Level Study Workbook Name: ____________________ Contents This booklet will give you a taster of what you can expect from your A-Level English Literature studies. It will also help you to get a head start in understanding the core knowledge, fundamental ideas and concepts you need to be successful in your study over the next two years. Topic Page Elements of Prose - What is a narrative? 3 - Narrative openings 4 - Narrative structure 6 - Symbols and motifs 11 - Prose style 13 - Methods of characterisation 16 Elements of Drama - Setting the scene 18 - Creating character 22 Elements of Poetry - Types of poetry 25 - Form & structure 26 - Language 32 - Imagery 34 Themes and ideas in Literature through the ages: - The loss of innocence and rites of passage 38 - Being a woman 40 - Being a man 44 - Racial identity 49 - Love 54 - God, nature and country 72 Literary Contexts: - The Tragic Form 74 - Romanticism 80 - The Gothic 86 Reading Lists 90 Subject Terminology Glossary 91 Elements of Prose What is a narrative? The following sections develop your understanding of the main features of narrative and the techniques that writers of narratives use to tell their stories. We hear and tell stories all the time, in all aspects of our lives, from dreams and jokes to anecdotes and novels. Stories help us to see and interpret the world. In everyday use, the two terms ‘story’ and ‘narrative’ are usually used interchangeably, but some critics define them slightly differently. They say that: - a story is what happens and who it happens to (plot and character) - a narrative is the story plus the telling of it – all the things that go into bringing the story to life for a listener or reader. Studying narrative means studying not only what happens and to whom, but also all the ways in which the teller (in this case the writer rather than a speaker) creates the story and the reader responds to it. Activity: What makes a narrative a narrative? Here are four short texts. For each one decide: a) whether you think it is or is not part of a narrative b) what it is about the extract that helped you decide. Text A: Text B: Earl Ober was between jobs as a salesman. But And so I’m like, ‘How could you do that to him?’ Doreen his wife, had gone to work nights as a and she’s like, ‘Well he did the same to me, so waitress at a twenty-four-hour coffee shop at the he deserved everything he got,’ and I’m like, edge of town. One night, when he was drinking, ‘Well no wonder he decided to leave you.’ And Earl decided to stop by the coffee shop and have we haven’t talked to each other since. something to eat. Text C: Text D: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, I wouldn’t go today if I were you. The sales are Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, on, there’ll be masses of people and the car All the king’s horses and all the king’s men parks will be full. I’d leave it until a bit later in Couldn’t put Humpty together again. the week when it’s less crowded. I’m sure there’ll still be some good bargains. Elements of Prose Narrative openings The beginning of a novel can be a vital way of setting up aspects of what is to follow, such as what the narrative is about, who the characters are, where the story is set and who is telling the story. It is the way that writers hook their readers and draw them into the world of their novel. The writer sets up a kind of ‘contract’ with the reader about what to expect – ‘if you come on this reading journey with me you’re going to have this kind or that kind of experience’. Narratives in a genre such as thriller, romance or detective fiction, often make the reader aware particularly clearly, right from the start, what type of story or genre they are reading. Activity: Explore the five openings from novels below. They are written in very different styles and told in a range of different ways. Then fill in the chart using a star-rating system to show your first responses: 1. Fill in a copy of the chart below using a star-rating system to show your first responses to the five openings from novels on the previous page. (* = not really, ** = quite a lot, *** = very much). A B C D E The opening focuses on the setting. We get a strong sense of what the characters are like. The narrator tells you a lot about him or herself. You’re dropped right into the middle of the story. The opening makes us aware of the genre of the novel. The opening makes you want to read on. 2. The writer Blake Morrison has categorised novel openings in different ways. Here is a summary of his categories: - the plunge which launches you right into the middle - the shocker which creates a big surprise or reveals an outrageous idea - the intriguing narrator which makes the reader want to know more about the narrator - the epigram which is a neat little phrase summing up an idea that will be important in the book - the promise tells the reader what they will be getting - the omen which gives the reader a warning of bad things to come - the particulars pins down all the details as if for a news report - the self-referral where the narrator introduces themselves Now revisit the five openings on the previous page and decide which of Morrison’s categories (if any) best fits each opening. You can choose more than one category if that seems appropriate. 3. Choose the opening you like best. Write a short paragraph about the opening in which you explain how it grabs you as a reader, what it focuses on and what sort of contract you think it is setting up with the reader. _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Elements of Prose Narrative structure If you unravel the plot of a novel you can work out the sequence of what happens in chronological time – in other words, first this happens, then this, then this etc. The order in which the story unfolds for the reader is called narrative time and can differ from chronological time. Writers can use time in many different ways including flashbacks or flash forwards, starting with the ending, using repeated jumps in time, setting different parts of the story in different time periods or telling the entire story in reverse for example. Below is an example of a story in chronological and narrative time: Chronological time Narrative time • Jack had been selected for his local • The story starts with Jack in hospital, football team, for the first time. looking back bitterly on events that • The game started. At first he felt afternoon. nervous and did not play his best. • It moves to the opening of the game, his • Just before half time he scored a goal. nerves and failure to score. • During the break an opposing player • It flashes back to his selection for the muttered a threat in his ear. team and his feelings that he must do • In the second half he scored again. himself justice. • A few minutes later, the opposing • It returns to the game itself and his first player fouled him viciously. goal. • In falling, Jack tore a ligament in his • It follows chronological sequences with knee. the whispered threat during the half-term • He was taken off to hospital. break and the second half goal. • It returns to the present with him in the hospital. • It ends with the scene where the boy fouls him. Activity: Write your own five to eight sentence ‘bare bones’ sequence for a story in chronological order followed by a narrative time version. Chronological time Narrative time Activity: Read the extract below from Wise Children by Angela Carter. 1. What are your first reactions to it? 2. What effects do you think the writer is trying to achieve? Annotate the extract with the above foci in mind. She fixed Tristram with a suspicious eye, for he was no kin of hers, while the picture settled down on a flight of neon steps in a burst of canned applause as he came bounding down with his red hair slicked back, his top-of-the-milk-coloured rumpled linen Georgio Armani whistle and flute, Tristram Hazard, weak but charming, game-show presenter and television personality, last gasp of the imperial Hazard dynasty that bestrode the British theatre like a colossus for a century and a half. Tristram, youngest son of the great Melchior Hazard, ‘prince of players’; grandson of those tragic giants of the Victorian stage, Ranulph and Estella ‘A star danced’ Hazard. Lo, how the mighty have fallen. ‘Hi, there! I’m Tristram!’ The camera closes in as he sings out, ‘Hi, there, lolly lovers! I’m Tristram Hazard and I’ve come to bring you …’ Now he throws back his head, showing off his throat, he’s got a real old-fashioned, full-bodied, Ivory Novello-type throat, he throws his head back and cries out in the voice of an ecstatic: ‘LASHINGS OF LOLLY! LASHINGS OF LOLLY! The show begins. Freeze frame. Let us pause awhile in the unfolding story of Tristram and Tiffany so that I can fill you in on the background. High time! you must be saying.

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