JRCS AS Literature: Looking for a good book?

Monday, 1 September 2008

Looking for a good book?

Why not visit the Southbank book market next time you're in London - it's open 7 days a week!

You could even make a day of it - as the market is just outside the IMAX movie theatre and a great range of coffee shops!

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Assessment Objectives

AO1 Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to literary texts, using appropriate terminology and concepts, and coherent, accurate written expression.

AO2 Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meanings in literary texts.

AO3 Explore connections and comparisons between different literary texts, informed by interpretations of other readers.

AO4 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

AS Unit F661: Poetry and Prose 1800-1945 (closed text examination)

Assessment for this unit is through a two-hour examination, divided into Section A (poetry) and Section B (prose).

You have to answer two essay-style questions, one from Section A and one from Section B, based on the set texts you have studied; from 15 poems by Robert Browning and Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.

Section A - you answer one question on one poem and you are expected to make appropriate reference to other poems by the same poet, other poets at the time and a little bit of contextual information. This is a closed text examination, so you do not take any books or copies of the poem into the examination room with you. The poems on which the questions are set will be printed in the examination paper.

Section B - there is a choice of two questions on each set text and you will answer one question.

You will need to:

• respond to the proposition in the question and discuss how themes and issuesare presented;

• demonstrate an understanding of literary-critical concepts and approaches, which you will have studied from the complementary literary-critical text.

AS Unit F662: Literature post-1900 (coursework)

In this unit you complete two pieces of writing based on three texts; A collection of poetry by Seamus Heaney, Oranges are not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson and History Boys, by Alan Bennett.

First piece of writing: this is a close, critical analysis of a section of smaller selection of poetry. This should be approximately 1000 words.

Second piece of writing: this will be an essay considering two texts, exploring contrasts and comparisons between them, informed by interpretations of other readers. This should be approximately 2000 words.

Wider Reading for the study of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
Dracula, Bram Stokers
The Castle Otranto, Horace Wapole (said to be the first of the genre)
The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliff
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge
Christabel, Coleridge
La Belle Dame sans Merci, Keats
The Vampyre, John W Polidori
The Fall of the House of Usher (and others of his short stories) , Edgar Allan Poe
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
Trilby, George du Maurier

Wider Reading - The History Boys

elink to 'Alan Bennett: A Critical Introduction' http://books.google.com/books?id=UM53jhiUigwC&dq=similar+to+allan+bennett&pg=PP1&ots=9h32D9syqn&source=in&sig=Xg2RcPo0BgSCGP1ugA-lZYB0uIY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=13&ct=result#PPA4,M1
elink to 'Understanding Alan Bennett' http://books.google.com/books?id=-N7EG2J2NMoC&dq=similar+to+allan+bennett&pg=PP1&ots=b5pAfX3Ws9&source=in&sig=r0rtcJlYeb2l6Q3OvfQJlkcsbiM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=12&ct=result#PPR8,M1
The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett
Beyond the Fringe, Alan Bennett
The Laying on of Hands, Alan Bennett
The Clothes They Stood Up In, Alan Bennett
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2006/oct/19/highereducation.comment

Wider Reading - Oranges are not the Only Fruit

Gender Trouble: Feminism and Subversion of Identity
Life Before Man, Margaret Atwood
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone de Beauvior
The Coming of Age, Simone de Beauvior
The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood
The Labrador Fiasco, Margaret Atwood (The story contains two within another - this poses some reading challenges as a constantly swapping pov can be sometimes hard to follow!) It's a short story and I Mr. D has copy for you to borrow.
The poetry of Margaret Atwood (Much based on myth and fairy tales)
The Scarlet Letter, Nathniel Hawthorne
The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
The Woman's Room, Marilyn French
Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters

Excellent Reads...

A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen
A Passage to India, E. M. Forster
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Have you visited the 6th Form Section in the school library?
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
Moby Dick, Herman Melville,
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
On The Road, Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
Perfume, Patrick Süskind
Poetry Anthology for OCR AS English Literature
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwod
The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
The Go-Between, L.P. Hartley
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse, Wirginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
Ulysses, James Joyce
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

Having trouble reading a difficult book?

Here's a few tips to help you out:

1. Find your reading spot--a place where you can be comfortable and read. Under what conditions are you able to concentrate, study, and read most effectively? It may be easier for you to read at a desk, at a table in a quiet library, on the grass, or by a lake. Some readers can't concentrate when there's any noise around them, while others can read anywhere.

2. Keep a dictionary with you as you read the book. Look up any words you don't understand. Also, jot down literary references that are escaping you. Are comparisons being made that are escaping your understanding? Look those references up!

3. Look at how the book is organised by reading through the table of contents and reading the introduction (which may give you some idea of what the book is about, and why it is important).

4. Don't let the book discourage you. Read the entire book, so you'll get a sense of what the book is about: who the characters are, what is happening, what some of the themes or contexts may be, etc. This technique is sometimes called "skimming," but make sure you read as much as possible. The idea is to get a sense of what the book is about and what the author is trying to accomplish with the work; so when you go back and re-read the material, it won't be as difficult.

5. If you own the book you are reading, you may want to highlight passages that seem important. Otherwise, you can take careful notes - keeping track of quotes, characters, or passages (with page numbers). Some readers find that by using flags or page markers, they can more easily find those sections that are essential to an understanding of the book. Or, you may mark sections that you don't understand, so you can come back for a closer read later.

6. Don't become bleary-eyed. In other words, if the book seems too overwhelming, stop reading for a bit. Take this time to organize your ideas about the book. Write down the questions that you have so far--about characters, the plot, the author, the setting, ideas, etc. If the concepts are still too difficult to grasp, sketch out your ideas--with images or colours. Or, try talking about it with a friend--to flush out what you are thinking (and feeling) about the work.

7. Don't stop reading for too long. It can be tempting to put off finishing the book when the book seems too difficult, but don't give in to that temptation. If you put off continuing your reading, you'll forget what you've accomplished thus far. You may forget about important elements of the plot or characterization. The gist of the book may begin to slip away as well. So, just keep on reading!

8. After you've read through the book once, re-read the book. Fill in the gaps that you missed the first time. As you read and re-read passages of the novel, try reciting the book out loud. Some readers can more easily grasp difficult language and/or concepts when they hear the words while reading. Read those difficult passages that you skipped over the first time. Start making connections between the book you're reading and other works you've read.

9. Get help! If you're still having a difficult time with the book, a teacher might be able to answer your questions. Also, consider talking with Mrs. Hulbert or Mr. Donovan about your confusion. Ask us a specific questions about the book!