1 WELCOME TO A-LEVEL LITERATURE – YOU HAVE CHOSEN AN AMAZING A- LEVEL! Why choose English A-Level? English Literature is considered a facilitating subject by universities because it teaches you critical thinking skills as well as giving you the opportunity to be creative. It trains you how to write analytically and in an evaluative manner. It links brilliantly with many other subjects such as history, drama, classics and art. It is also really enjoyable as it gives you the chance to read a diverse array of literature including prose, poetry and drama from a range of eras and in a plethora of genres. How is A-Level different to GCSE? Studying Literature at A-Level requires you to look much more deeply at texts. You will not just be exploring texts in terms of how characters or themes are presented, but also considering them in more complex ways: from critical points of view; through different kinds of contexts and how these inform your understanding of texts; in terms of their genre and how authors present their ideas. Likewise, whilst the focus at GCSE may have been on language, A-Level enables you to examine more complex authorial methods including structural features, elements of genre and dramatic techniques. A-Level will also require you to work more independently. The more you read around your texts and research the texts you study, the more confident you will become as a literature student. However, most excitingly, you will have the opportunity to study a range of engaging, diverse and exciting texts and even choose one of your own to write about for coursework! What will I be studying? AQA SPECIFICATION B: MODULE ONE: TRAGEDY: 2 hour 30 min exam: 40% You will study one of the following Shakespeare plays: ‘Othello’ OR ‘King Lear’ You will study two of the following: ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F Scott Fitzgerald ‘Tess of the ‘D’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller ‘Richard II’ by William Shakespeare An anthology of poetry A selection of poems by Keats 2 MODULE TWO: POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PROTEST WRITING: 3 hour exam: 40 % You will study one of the following: ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ by William Blake A selection of poems by Tony Harrison You will study two of the following: ‘Harvest’ by Jim Crace ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood ‘Henry IV Part I’ by William Shakespeare ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen ‘Hard Times’ by Charles Dickens ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini MODULE THREE: TWO PIECES OF COURSEWORK EACH 1500 WORDS: 20% 1. Study of a selection of poetry e.g. Derek Walcott or Philip Larkin 2. Study of a novel of your choice You will write about the poems and novel from a critical point of view e.g. feminist or Marxist This booklet is intended to give you a taste of what studying literature at A-Level will be like, as well as help you to prepare for your studies in September and hopefully get you enthused about some of the exciting topics you will be covering. Try to work through as many of the tasks as you can. (You will need to be logged onto your Queens’ School account to access many of the weblinks). 3 “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” Mel Brooks “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light” Plato “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy” F. Scott Fitzgerald TASK ONE: Make a list of the key differences between tragedy and comedy 4 DEFINING TRAGEDY: The first great literary criticism was written by Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) in his ‘Poetics’. He defined tragedy as ‘the imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude.’ He stated that it should excite the emotions of ‘pity and fear’ in the audience and be about a character who is ‘renowned and of superior attainments’, who suffers a ‘reversal of fortunes’. The tragic hero is neither completely good nor evil, but someone with whom the audience can identify. His disastrous end results from a mistaken action, which in turn arises from a tragic flaw such as hubris or error of judgement. Often the tragic hero’s suffering is greater than his error, which creates pity from the audience because the audience recognise we could make the same mistake. He believed the most important aspect of tragedy was the plot followed by character and that the purpose of a tragedy was to enlighten the audience or deliver a didactic message and leave them with a sense of catharsis so they felt purged of emotion and cleansed, having achieved a greater understanding of the ways of gods and men. Now watch the following video that explains a little more about Aristotle’s theories on tragedy: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1edvw0KY3bq3xMpVeVsti_557Ta9noEwA 5 KEY TERMS: KEY TERM DEFINITION ANAGNORISIS Before his death, the protagonist will have a moment of recognition where he realises that he has done wrong and gain in self-knowledge and in understanding of the world around him particularly in relation to the gods and morality. However, this occurs too late to save him, which often exacerbates the tragic nature of his death. The moment of recognition may result in a movement from ignorance to knowledge or produce love or hate. ANTAGONIST OR The thing or individual that brings about the downfall of the VILLAIN tragic protagonist. Sometimes this can be the tragic hero themselves CATHARSIS The effect on the audience is a purging of emotion drawing out feelings of pity and fear that bring a new sense of clarity. CHORUS The individual/s who comment on the action and often directs the audience’s response to events FATAL ERROR OR The tragic mistake made by the tragic protagonist that often HAMARTIA leads to their downfall FORESHADOWING Where the author hints towards something happening in the future giving the audience an insight that the characters may not have HUBRIS Excessive pride, which is often seen as the reason for this error of judgement (hamartia) MEGALOPSYCHIA Greatness of soul MYOPIA Blindness to the truth PATHOS A feeling of pity or sadness for the characters involved in the tragedy PERIPETEIA The tragedy should focus on the tragic protagonist’s downfall from high status to loss creating a reversal of fortunes (peripeteia) PROTAGONIST OR The central character or hero on whose downfall the play focuses TRAGIC HERO TRAGIC FLAW A deep-seated weakness in an individual’s character such as pride or ambition that often leads to their hamartia TRAGIC There is frequently a sense that the tragic events are inevitable INEVITABILITY and that once the protagonist has set in motion a course of events, they cannot be changed. There are also often hints or examples of foreshadowing that forewarn the audience, often through choral figures, of the events to come. As a result, they appear to be FATED and thus that the tragic heroes demise is beyond his control. 6 Now watch the following video that explains a little more about how tragedies work: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kJutNReEVu3VKzvZeSj9f9JRfEXSshU5/view?usp=sharing TASK TWO: Now write your own definition of what makes a tragedy using at least four of the key terms from the above table. THE ORIGINS OF TRAGEDY The tragic form originated in Ancient Greece. The main tragedies were performed once a year at the festival of Dionysus, (the God of wine, fertility and festivity). They were performed as part of a competition over a three day period. Three different playwrights would perform three separate tragedies, followed by a Satyr (a kind of comedy) all in one day then on the next day the second and on the third the last. There was then a democratic vote as to which tragic playwright was the best. Many of these plays have since been lost, but some still survive and have continued to form the basis of our understanding of tragedy and influence modern tragedies. The most notable tragic playwrights were Euripides, Aescyhlus and Sophocles. However, these tragedies were very different to the ones you might see today: they were performed by three actors and one chorus made up of between 12 to 15 individuals; they wore elaborate costumes and masks; they often included divine intervention from the gods; the main characters were often kings, heroes or even divine beings; violent events such as murders occurred off stage and were then reported; stage props and effects were limited. Later playwrights, such as Shakespeare, were incredibly influenced by these classical tragedies and Shakespeare would have studied Latin and ancient Greek as part of his schooling. In fact, many of his plays draw on ancient myths and history such as ‘Antony and Cleopatra’, ‘Titus Andronicus’ and ‘Coriolanus’. However, Shakespeare did not completely conform to these ancient tragic models: he used many more characters on stage; his characters are often psychologically more complex; the events he portrays frequently occur over a long period of time; he did not generally use a chorus; the gods do not physically intervene or appear on stage as a rule; violent scenes literally occur before the eyes of the audience; he used complex plots and even sub-plots; he used more stage effects and multiple settings. Shakespeare’s tragedies were not only immensely popular during his lifetime with many performed hundreds of times, but continue to be enduringly popular and influential on modern theatre.